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OCTOBER, 1981
looks to the mental make up which prompts that action; here a good work done with an evil motive is not fair in the eye of religion. Thus, Jainism looks towards the mental preparedness of the mokşa-seeker. The great five rules are great steps towards the attainment of the necessary make up. And it is to be remembered that the activities which follow the change in mental make up last long in a man and form a permanent part of his character which ultimately outline his way of life.
Lastly, the rules of behaviour for the ordinary man and the ascetic are arranged in such a way that these together form the ascending steps of a steep staircase. Ordinary man is to observe the rules of behaviour with some flexibility, aṇuvratas which form the lower steps of the staircase; gradually his mental make up and activities are refined and he performs or observes the mahāvratas which are the higher ascending steps of the staircase. And such refined practices, with refined outlook, will lead the follower of the great five rules of behaviour to mokşa which is at the top of the staircase. Such is also the state of affairs with a young trainee who enters into a Jaina Sangha to seek the betterment of his life and accepts a yati as his preceptor. He also, at first performs the directions of the rules with some flexibility and then adopts the rigourous course. Hence, "the pañca aṇuvratas are but the probation for the pañca mahāvratas."49 Now, it can be easily followed that a man has to climb upon the different steps of the staircase to attain mokşa, he can not attain it from an intermediate step of the staircase. Hence, in Jainism, an ordinary man living in the samsara cannot attain mokṣa, he must pass through the life of an ascetic before he can attain it.
79
The Liberation an Alternative Approach
We have so long considered the possibility of attaining mokşa (liberation) in this world. We shall now look at this point from an alternative point of view emanating from a re-consideration of the Jaina cosmology which we have outlined above.
The cycle of time indicates that "we are now living in the flth age of the avasarpini (descending half-circle) of the current cycle (kalpa) of time, which commenced a few years after Mahavira's nirvāṇa (527 B.C.) and is of 21000 years of duration."50 According to this calculation, we have crossed only 2507 years (527 years+1980 years) of this phase and we are yet to cross 18,493 years (21000-2507) to arrive at the sixth phase of
49 Chakraborty, Nayanar A., Op. Cit., p. 432. 50 Jain, J. P., Op. Cit., p. 9.
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