Jain Journal 1969 01

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

Page 12

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JAIN JOURNAL
Jainism has two ways of looking at things—one called dravyārthikanaya and the other the paryāyārthikanaya. I shall illustrate the same. The production of a law is the production of something not previously existing, if we think of it from the latter point of view, i.e., as a paryāya or modification ; while it is not the production of something not previously existing, if we look at it from the former point of view, i.e., as a dravya or substance. According to the dravyārthikanaya view the universe is without beginning and without end, but according to the paryāyārthikanaya view we have creation and destruction at every moment.
The Jaina canon may be divided into two parts: first, śruta dharma i.e., philosophy, and second, cāritra dharma, i.e., ethics.
The śruta dharma inquires into the nature of nine principles, six kinds of living beings and four states of existence. Of the nine principles, the first is soul. According to the Jaina view soul is that element which knows, thinks and feels. It is in fact the divine element in the living being. The Jaina thinks that the phenomena of knowledge, feeling, thinking and willing are conditioned on something, and that that something must be as real as anything can be. This soul is in a certain sense different from knowledge and in another sense identical with it. So far as one's knowledge is concerned, the soul is identical with it ; but so far as some one else's knowledge is concerned it is different from it. The true nature of the soul is right knowledge, right faith and right conduct. The soul, so long as it is subject to transmigration, is undergoing evolution and involution.
The second principle is non-soul. It is not simply what we understand by matter, but is more than that. Matter is a term contrary to soul. But non-soul is its contradictory. Whatever is not soul is non-soul.
The rest of the nine principles are but the different states produced by the combination and separation of soul and non-soul. The third principle is merit : that on account of which a being is happy. The fourth principle is demerit : that on account of which a being suffers from misery. The fifth is the state which brings in merit and demerit. The sixth is samyara : that which stops the inflow of foreign energies. The seventh is destruction of actions. The eighth is bondage of soul, with actions. The ninth is total and permanent freedom of soul from all actions.