Jain Journal 1991 04

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

Page 13

APRIL, 1991
157
and nuns, known as Yatis in Sikh scriptures ; in other accounts by the Sikhs. Yatis refer to the lay Jains), It is these monks that Baba Nanak seems to have met and conversed with,
It would be useful to give here a short description of Jainism, its religious ideals and values. To do this, we have chosen to provide a description of Jainism, Dr. Surinder Sing Kohli, a Sikh scholar of repute and a writer of many books on Sikhism, states in his Philosophy of Gura Nānak (Chandigarh : Punjab University, 1980, pp, 97-100) :
Mahāvira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, is considered as the founder of Jainism. He was a contemporary of Buddha, i.e., he was born about two thousand years before the advent of Guru Nānak. The Jains of the early sixteenth century attracted the notice of the great Guru. He found them divided into two main sects, i.e. Svetâmbaras and Digambaras, The former wore white clothes and the latter remained naked. The latter were very rigid in their practices. They used to rake up their night soil, breathe continuously, keep off from water, pluck their hair, drink impure water, and eat impure food obtained by begging. They always remained dirty and remorseful and did not attend congregations. They moved in a queue with cups hanging by their waist and dusters in their hands. They did all this because of jiva-mania. In order to save the minutest jīvas they passed very unhygienic lives. The Curu told them: "God kills jivas and gives them life. None else can save them." Therefore he advised the Jain monks to desist from unhealthy practices. The Digambaras maintaincd that women should not obtain liberation, but the Guru ridiculed this idea by saying that every human being attains unity with the Lord by following the path.
Jainism believes in the doctrines of anekāntavāda and syādvāda. The first is the doctrine of the manyness of reality and the second the doctrine of the relativity of knowledge. The doctrine of anekāntavāda manifests Jain metaphysics, according to which the two distinct realities of matter (pudgula) and spirit (jiva) are split into innumerable atoms and souls respectively. The doctrine of syā dvãda manifests Jain epistemology, according to which human knowledge and human judgments are all relative and limited. Syādvā da is also sometimes interpreted as the theory of probability.
Jainism believes in two categories i e., jiva and ajiva. Ajiva includes matter (pudgala), space (ākāsa), motion (dharma), rest (adharma) and time (kāla).