Jain Journal 1974 07

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

Page 24

JULY, 1974
thing else and different from all that is generally regarded as belonging to the ego, and the condemnation of mere sensorial pleasure does assume a pessimistic tone. The spirit, however, that breathes in the works of men like Kunda Kunda is that of pity at man with his higher destiny grovelling in sensorial pleasures and forgetting the supreme bliss that is within his reach. It is not so much a question of discarding worldly pleasures because they are evil as of spontaneously dropping them in view of the higher joy open to man.
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The Jaina doctrine starts with a spiritual experience which, among other things, brings with it dispassionate and selfless love. In the upward progress of the soul however all feeling of love and hate and all passions and emotions good, bad and indifferent, disappear. The final stage is a state of pure consciousness with its innate sense of joy and power. This stage is regarded by some as approaching callousness, pure and simple. It may, however, be compared to that of a good-hearted man looking. benignly at children playing together and breaking a toy during the play. The children begin to cry at what to them is a real disaster but the man merely smiles at them feeling somewhat amused. He thinks that the children experience a genuine sorrow but they would grow out of that state. Ordinary mortals are to a real saint like those children and he knows that they will grow out of this habit of breaking their hearts at normal happenings in the world.