Jain Digest 2001 01 Vol 17 No 01

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 11

THE STRENGTH OF JAINISM
Father Valles, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Many pilgrims and tourists visit the beautiful Jain temples on other half. Meanwhile, Bhagwan Mahavir had gone his way, the Mount Abu, but not all know that, after completing the work for loosely hanging cloth had caught in a thorny bush, and he had which they had been paid, the masons and sculptors voluntarily walked on while the cloth hanged on to the thorns. Somadatta erected another temple as a free-will offering, out of their own found it there and returned happy with it. Bhagwan Mahavir made personal devotion. This is a sign, in fact a standing monument to a living parable out of that incident, and preached total detachthe faith and commitment of devout Jains in their own profession ment with the example of his own experience more eloquently and their practical ways. The Mount Abu temples are not only a than with any words. marvel of beauty and harmony of old days, but a living expression The complete ascetic has to conquer all emotions, even the of the best that humans can feel and express through their art and emotion of shame; he must become unselfconscious. One cannot their dedication even today.
obtain moksha as long as one remembers one is naked. In the A characteristic of the Jain community is precisely this par- biblical Paradise, when Adam and Eve became conscious that they ticipation in religious practice by lay people in all professions. were naked, they were expelled from it. Complete detachment is Bhagwan Mahavir had a vision which he clearly expressed and the ideal to keep before our eyes. passed on to his disciples, and which is special and essential to his "This ideal is then brought to daily life in the behaviour of the original contribution to the religious history of humankind. In shravaka and shravika who make simplicity in life, the words of Margaret Sinclair Stevenson in her classic work, "THE nonpossessiveness, detachment a deep attitude and a sincere pracHEART OF JAINISM": "Bhagwan Mahavir certainly possessed a tice. One of my first impressions when I arrived in Gujarat and greater power of organisation than the Buddha, and to this faculty began to learn the language was that of a Jain college student who we owe the existence of Jainism in India today. Mahavir's genius very innocently and simply gave me his first rule in life. He told for organisation stood Jainism in good stead, for he had made the me: "If I can do without it, I do without it." And he lived up to Laity an integral part of the community, whereas in Buddhism they that simple rule in his college life. had no part nor lot in the order. Buddhism, under the fierce as-
This is the opposite of the consumerism that has taken hold
This is sault on its monastic settlements made by the Moslems of the twelthof
of society today. "If my neighbour has it, I must have it: if it is and thirteenth centuries, proved incompetent to maintain itself advertised. I must have it: if it is the latest model. I must have it." and simply disappeared from the land. The survival of the Jains
e Jains
This
This example shows how the same ideal can be practiced at differwas due in large measure to their having opened the doors of insti-
instient levels, thus weaving all society together and bringing to practi
ent levels, thus weaving a tutional religion to lay representation." (pp.17,42)
cal fullness the teaching of the wise. In the words of the This institution of the Chaturwidh Sangh of the four tirthas, Uttaradhyayan, "Happy are we, happy live we who call nothing sadhus, sadhvis, shravakas, shravikas, is the source of the vitality our own; when Mithila is on fire, nothing is burnt that belongs to and inner connection of Jainism throughout history and unto this me." This does not mean lack of concern with the sufferings of day. Lay men and women are not inferior to Jain monks and nuns, others, but balance of mind in the ideal of nonpossessiveness. but exercise the same ideals at different levels, complementing one As I have given the example of a virtue, detachment, I give another and enhancing all together the basic truths by living them also the example of a vice. I take the sin of mayamrisa, which is the in all their different aspects.
last in the list of seventeen deadly sins that can mar our lives. It is Detachment, for instance, is a fundamental attitude in the Jain untruthfulness, deception, hypocrisy. The above-quoted book deway of life, and is carried out in its fullness by monks and nuns scribes it thus: "The lain love of the country side and their shrewd while lay men and women also adapt in due proportion the ideal country wit is shown in the fact that the typical example they of detachment to the practical life they live in their homes and quote of the hypocrite is the stork. This bird, they declare, stands offices.
on the river bank on only one leg (to pretend he has the lest posBhagwan Mahavir kept only his initiation robe after he had sible connection with the things of the earth) and seems to be lost distributed all his goods and went his way with only that garment in meditation, but, if a fish appears, he swoops down and kills it, on his body. The brahmin Somadatta arrived late at the ceremony thus committing the sin of himsa, the most heinous of all crimes, and thus was left without any gift, so he hurried after Bhagwan whilst professing to be engaged in devotion." (p.118) Mahavir and pleaded for a gift.At that, Bhagwan Mahavir divided This vice of hypocrisy can well be found in devoted ascetics, his robe into half and gave half to Somadatta while he kept only as also in ordinary people, and we all are exhorted to keep the first half on himself. Somadatta went back happy and showed the cloth to a weaver who appreciated its value and urged him to get the
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