Jain Journal 1982 07

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

Page 20

JULY, 1982
15
but its identity with the latter is at the same time emphasized, so that the jiva and its several jñānas in this sense constitute a unity in difference.14
(2) The fact that these moments of "vision of knowledge” are associated with death experiences enables one to look at the Jain practice of sallekhanā or "voluntary self-starvation"15 in a new light. Could it not be suggested that the Jain practice is an effort to achieve this "vision of knowledge" on a lasting basis through a controlled and regulated dying instead of the haphazard manner in which one usually takes leave of this world. It should be noted that sallekhanā is not suicide in the usual sense of the word. Rules for carrying it out are laid down and it is "allowed only to those ascetics who have acquired the highest degree of perfection". 16
(3) According to the view usually met with, the liberated beings in Jainism are said to reside on a slab at the top of the universe. The evidence adduced by Dr. Moody suggests that this may be too gross a view of the matter. One is reminded here of the remark of one of his interviewees :".... this is a place where the place is knowledge". 17 If this is so, then the word siddhašila18 the abode of the perfect ones must be understood figuratively and not literally.
There are, to be sure, some differences between the "vision of knowledge" as experienced by Dr. Moody's subjects and the Jain concept of kevalajñāna. For one "Only liberated souls have such knowledge”. 19 For another such knowledge can be attained by the spiritually advanced Arhats even while alive.20 However, these considerations seem to bear
14 M. Hiriyanna, op. cit., pp. 158-159. 15 R. C. Zaehner, ed., op. cit., p. 261 18 Upendra Thakur, A History of Suicide in India : An Introduction (Delhi: Munshi
ram Manoharlal, 1963) pp. 104-106. 17 Dr. Raymond A. Moody, Jr., Reflections On Life After Life, p. 14. 18 See Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson, The Heart of Jainism (New Delhi : Munshiram
Manoharlal, 1970 (first published 1971) p. 217. 10 S. Chatterjee and D. Datta, op. cit., p. 77. 20 M. Hiriyanna, op. cit, pp. 168-169; R. C. Zaehner, ed., op. cit., p. 264 :
To achieve salvation the soul must become free from matter of all kinds, when it will rise to the top of the universe through its natural lightness, to dwell there for ever in bliss. The souls of great sages such as Mahavira achieve virtual salvation while still in the body; they enjoy the bliss and omniscience of the fully emancipated soul, but enough residual karma still clings to them to hold them to the earth; when this is exhausted by penance and fasting they die, and their naked souls rise immediately to the realm of ineffable peace above the highest of the heavens of the gods.