Jain Journal 1972 07

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

Page 38

JULY, 1972
Jainas had a two-fold approach, one of toleration to alternative viewpoints, and the other of establishment of what they considered to be truth, syādvada and kriyāvāda respectively.
Action in kriyāvāda is strictly spiritual action leading to the soul's liberation, and not the dull, drab, drudgeries of the mundane life. Action, again, is strictly relevant to human existence alone,--out of 24 species (dandakas) of living beings, the rest 23 being marked only to undergo the effect of karma and not liberate themselves,-and to such of them as are born in certain regions called action-regions (karmabhūmi); and not even to all human beings in action-regions,---since liberation is neither a windfall nor a grace, concession or favour to them,—but only to such of them as themselves exert and strive for it. Action is the very basis of the Jaina tenet called 'nine fundamentals' (nava-tattva) which may be presented as follows :
(1) soul (jiva)
(2) non-soul (ajīva)
(3) incoming karma
(āsrava)
I Common to all
(4) bondage (bandha)
(5) wholesome
(punya)
(6) unwholesome
(pāpa)
Il Road to liberation
(7) checking fresh
influx (samvara)
(8) throwing out
accumulated karma (nirjarā)
III Goal
(9) liberation (mokşa)
Exertion to action presupposes three conditions, two of which have already been stated. The first essential condition is the acquisition of the human frame, which is the foremost, since this frame is the launching pad for the soul's assent to the highest region of the sphere, its very crest, which is the abode of the liberated souls (siddhašilā). And the Jainas are not alone in recognising this importance of the human frame. Compare, for instance, Krsna, the Supreme Lord of the Gitā saying :