Introduction to Jaina Sadhna

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 25

Chapter III The Main Objective of Jainism
The main objective of Jainism is to emancipate man from sufferings. It tries to track down sufferings to their very root. The famous Jaina text Uttarādhyayana-sūtra says :
Kāmānugiddhippabhavaṁ khu dukkhas savvassa logassa sadevagassa. Jam kāiyam mānasiyam ca kisci tassa antagaṁ gacchai viyarāgo. (32. 19)
That the root of all physical as well as mental sufferings of everybody including the gods is the desire for enjoyment. Only a dispassionate attitude can put an end to them. It is true that materialism seeks to eliminate sufferings, through the fulfilment of human desires, but it cannot eradicate the primal cause from which the stream of suffering wells up. Materialism does not have at its disposal an effective means for quenching the thirst of man permanently. Not only this, its attempts at the temporary appeasement of a yearning, have the opposite effect of flaring it up like the fire fed by an oblation of butter. It is clearly noted in the Uttarādhyayana-sūtra :
Suvanna-rūpassa u pawayābhave siyā hu kelāsasama asamkhayā. Narassa luddhassa na tehim kinci iccha u āgāsasamā aṇantiyā. (9.48 )
That, even if an infinite number of gold and silver mountains, each as large as the Kailāśa , are conjured up, they would not lead to the final extinction of human desires, because desires are infinite like space. Not only Jainism but all spiritual