Jain Journal 1991 01

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

Page 16

114
JAIN JOURNAL
helpless persons such as children and invalids due to their ignorance and incapacity. This quality has been highly praised by Jaina Ācāryas because it gives ātmaśakti. (Tat Sutra, Ch. VI, 24).
vi) sthitikaraṇa or firmness in faith- there is no wavering in the
believer since he is endowed with steadfastness.
vii) vātsalya or attitude of love and devotion - these attitudes
sustain the person in the right path to mokşa.
viii) prabhāvanā or proclaiming the truth - this emphasises the
social aspect of religious faith. A person who is equipped with knowledge of reality should place the benefit of his achievement of self-realization at the disposal of society.
There are other qualities of a right believer among which the most important one is that he is not attracted towards sense-objects.18 A person is always placed in the midst of an environment abounding in sense-stimuli of various kinds. When he is attentive, the corresponding psychic reaction, pleasantness or unpleasantness, takes place in him, It is directed by his own interest and attitude,
Thus the deluded or the unenlightened person is the one who does not have the thoughts of the omniscient but says that he lives because of himself; he makes others live, again because of himself. In the same way he is happy and makes others happy due to his own self. Similarly he is miserable and makes others miserable, all because of him. But the truth is that life, happiness, misery, death etc. are due to their respective karmas,14 and not due to the person himself. To identify oneself with these is a false notion, an erroneous belief and an illusion.
(v) The Person with Discriminative Knowledge :
The essential attributes of the self, namely knowledge and perception are technically known as upayoga. These are based upon the real nature of the self whereas all other attributes or impure emotional
13 Samayasara, 370, 373-382 14 Ibid., 250-261