Jain Journal 1995 10

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

Page 41

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JAIN JOURNAL : Vol-XXX. No. 2. October 1995
himself/hersilf through moral conduct.52 Thus based on this moral conception we find a hierarchy of beings with low or high profile. Such an ideal of moral hierarchy goes hand-in-hand with their understanding of jiva or living being from one-sensed upto six sensed.
reprint, Delhi, 1971, 7.64); Mahāvira says, 'He who longs for the qualities (by this term, greed and carnal desire is meant), is overcome by great pain, and he is careless. (For he thinks) I have to provide for a mother, for a father, for a sister, for a wife, for sons, for daughters, for a daugterin-law, for my friends, for near and remote relations, for my acquaintances, for different kinds of property, profit, meals and clothes. Longing for these objects people are careless, suffer day and night, work in the right and wrong time, desire wealth and treasures, commit injurious and viloent acts...' (Ācārānga-sūtra, l. 2.1.1); 'He who owns even a small property in living or lifeless things, or consent to others holding it, will not be delivered from misery' (Sūtrakrtānga, I.1.2); In the Dialogue between Sakra (Indra) and sage Nami, as we find in the Uttarādhyayanasūtra (IX. 18-62), we have a nice expression of the conflict between the ideals of class society and state power on the one hand and those of the
simple undifferentiated life. 52. Both these traditions give different criteria for Brāhmanhood. There are
five requisites for being regarded as a Brāhmaņa-Varna (ubhato sujāto hoti), Jāti (avikkitto anupakutto jātivadena), Mantra (ajjhāyako hoti mantradhëro). Sila and Panditya, But what really makes a person Brāhmaṇa is conduct and learning (Dhammapada, ch. 26); Uttaradhyayana-sūtra(25.31-32) says : One does not become a Áramana by tonsure, nor a Brähmana by the sacred syllable Om, nor a Muni by living in the woods, nor a tāpasa by wearing clothes of kusa grass and a bark. One becomes a Áramana by equanimity, a Brāhmaṇa by chastity, a Muni by knowledge and a Tāpasa by penance.