Jain Journal 1976 01

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

Page 24

112
JAIN JOURNAL
and should be accepted as it is. The Tirthankara traces the cause of such self-contradiction as perversion of the whole being. Perversion is the real state of life, in which the life estranged from its centre rotates round the circumference of the existence. The existence is conscious of the exterior of life, i.e., the stimuli and responses operating mechanically. What is below of this S-O-R mechanism is lost sight of the conscious being. The centre is missing. The governing and regulating pivot is unfelt. The life is living the continuous chain of adjustment of S’s and R's, the origination and decay of modifications, and nothing else. In this state of affairs every moment is impregnated with decay and decay
-actual or possible. Hence the agony of decay, the psychology of suffering.
The psychology of suffering is not only a phenomenal becoming but it involves a deep-rooted being. It is not only exterior and gross but also interior and subtle. Its construction is not only on fantastic level but on reality level. The perversion delineates a system. The Jaina calls it as karma. Our present being is the embodiment of karma. It is transgressing from one mode to another having no control from within. It is totally controlled and manipulated by the factors from without. It is wholly mechanical. Karma is, at this juncture, a total being in becoming. It is jiva, and the jīva is suffering.
Now, the crux of the problem is : Can one get rid of suffering ? The Tirthankara assures, yes, one can. How is it? It is through right belief and vision, right knowledge of the reals and the right conduct. Right belief in the very assurance of the Tirthankara that the suffering may end. Right belief in the utterances of the Tirthankaras that impress upon one that there is an unfelt centre of life. Consequently right belief in the possibility that one can vision one's perfect being as the Tirthankaras do. Next comes the right knowledge. Right knowledge means right understanding evolving a right system of logic meeting both the ends in one, reconciling extremes of life in one base. And there is right conduct. Right conduct points to one's efforts to divert the mass of life-energy from the direction of circumference to the centre, from exterior to interior, transforming the process of decay into the field of sustained being of life. For this life needs discipline on all levels. The Tirthankara, nevertheless, prescribes a course of discipline in the name of Dhamma.
Thus the Dhamma well tuned with the right trio, as mentioned above, leads to the abode of infinite potentialities of life, liberating it from all impediments and shackles and transforming the whole being