Jain Journal 1969 10

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

Page 63

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JAIN JOURNAL
cause of future retardation ; nirjarā cleanses the filth already accumulated within. Through samvara the soul stops moving in the wrong direction, while through nirjarā it naturally starts pacing rightly. Thus to reach the goal it is not only necessary to move rightly but also to avoid moving wrongly. Hence the integration of the avoidance of the wrong with the adoption of the right. Both the factors are automatic as well as voluntary. All the Vedantins including Sri Aurobindo name it as the divine grace revealed from without unto the soul. The Jaina conceives it to be the automatic because there is the unfolding of the soul's own divinity from within, and voluntary because the somnambulistic movements conditioned by the chain of anādi karmas are checked voluntarily by the soul on its attainment of right faith. Moreover, nirjarā though automatic, becomes voluntary when it is integrated with samvara and speeded up by ascetic discipline and penance (tapa). In this way through penance, internal and external, the soul is made to develop higher and higher, unfolding the potential divinity lying within.
To be continud