Jain Journal 1993 04

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

Page 48

APRIL, 1993
207
as to the way of life which they were expected to carry on. Then they all went to Rşabha for help. He is said to have consoled them by showing how to cultivate land, how to weave. And through his people, he established a sort of social organization by dividing his society into agriculturists, traders and soldiers. After ruling over his kingdom for a long period, he abdicated his throne in favour of his son, Bharata, and went into the forest to perform tapas. After the practice of tapas for several years he attained kevala-jñāna ('omniscience'). Then he went on preaching his ahińsädharma to the people of the land, so that they might have also spiritual relief. The idea of ahiṁsā might not have developed at that time, as it was at the time of Mabavira, or that idea of ahiṁsā was, perhaps, on a par with the Vedic idea of ahirsā, but the doctrine of ahiṁsā as a system of philosophy is the contribution of Mahavira and his disciples. It is to be noted that the doctrines of ahińså are based on the above mentioned fuudamental ideas of the Jainas. According to the Jainas, the basic idea of ahiṁsā is not just to control the outward events of one's life, but to control the inward temper in which he faces these events. So the practice of ahiṁsā will teach us not how to control events in the world around us, but how to preserve a purely inward integrity and balance of mind; in other words, how to conquer the world around us from a world both hostile and intractable.
The Jainas have a sense of sacredness of all lives, and this idea is followed both in positive and negative ways. In the negative way, it teaches the principles of ahiṁsā ('non-violence'), and the positive side of it is upekṣā ('ignoring evils received'), muditā ('the spirit of graciousness and happiness in all circumstances'), karuna ('a feeling of pity and charity') and maitri ('a spirit of active friendship by doing good'). This idea is equally found in Buddhism
Though it seems that Jainism has many things in common with Buddhism, there is a wide divergence between the two in some essential points. Jainism stresses far more on asceticism and all manner of cult exercises than Buddhism. Buddha was silent about soul, while Mahāvira taught a very elaborate belief in it. Of all Indian religions, the Jainas only emphasize the doctrine of ahinsa in more rigorous way than the others. The common characteristic feature of both the religion is the "ascetic morality".
8 For the rest of the ideas, see my article, The Philosophy of Mahavira, Sri Puskara
Muni Abhinandana Graniha, Bombay, 1979, pp. 259-261.