Jain Journal 1967 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 21

OCTOBER, 1967
in Lord Mahavira and his faithful followers must flame up again in the soul of the Jaina who has the good of his society or humanity at heart. The will to freedom--freedom from the meshes of karma, freedom from ignorance and suffering, freedom from the perpetual goad of desires and the endless wheeling from life to life—this will to freedom must first be roused and quickened if the night of bondage has to pass
In this high adventure of self-discovery, the cardinal teachings of Jainism will stand him in good stead. I shall confine myself here to two of them, the greatest two, which, to my mind, have a very fruitful relevance to modern conditions.
The first is Triratna, the triune path of Jñāna (knowledge), Darsana (faith), and Caritra (character and conduct), which almost corresponds to the triple way of Jñāna, Bhakti, and Karma of Hinduism. It is a great teaching of Jainism, however, that none of the three by itself can lead to liberation. The three must go together, in simultaneous interaction and perfection, to produce the desired result. Knowledge without its corresponding expression in life and character, or faith and action, unillumined by the light of knowledge, can never lead to mokşa. This gospel of Triratna demands an integration in the being of man, which is one of the creative ideals of the modern age. The whole man, and not only his head or heart, or the active parts of his life, has to turn to the object of his aspiration. It is poor knowledge that fails to translate itself into the terms of life. It is shoddy Cáritra that is not lit up with the light of the soul. An integrative tapasyā (energising of the tapas or fire-force of the soul) can alone lead to liberation.
The second teaching is a wonderful truth, which humanity has never needed so acutely as today-it is Anekānta. I do not mean Anekāntavāda, which is, of course a brilliantly comprehensive dialectic. I mean Anekānta dristi, the spiritual vision, which commands, from above the manifold world of changing relativities, a total view of the truth or truths of existence. It embraces all aspects of objects and happenings in a single glance, even as a man who has climbed to the summit of a mountain embraces in his view the whole landscape spread below him. It has not to piece the aspects together in order to arrive at a synthesis. It reconciles anomalies and contraries in the serene light of spiritual experience. It does not add or aggregate, it spontaneously harmonises, because it sees, it knows the unity of existence.
It is small wonder then that Anekāntavāda, the dialectic, has failed to prevent opposition to heretical views and heal the discords with