Jain Journal 1997 01

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

Page 27

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXI, No. 3 January 1997
meet God therein. However, man fell, and has dominated all things wrongly ever since. It is therefore not surprising to read in Romans 8:19, "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God", because man, having been controlled by Satan, has dominated over them wrongly and misued them to the point that they are now on the verge of destruction.
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The way of ahimsā practised by Mahāvīra is known to us from the Acārānga I. He went alone stark naked, without using cold water, not bathing, not cleaning his teeth, not using fire and not scratching his body. He slept little, was always vigilant, and wandered around alone carefully without speaking much. He bore all the hardships, ate coarse food, often fasted, and practised meditation. The practice of ahimsā demonstrated by Mahāvīra here as the way for liberation is, needless to say, extremely rigorous asceticism in serving all things. Mahāvīra did not say, "Sacrifice yourself, and work for all things." Nevertheless, his noble path for ārambha-parigraha which has been in essence handed down by Jaina ascetics to the present-day, reveals that he attended on all things so that their precious lives would not be hurt.
'Man serves all things.' This position of man corresponds to that of the servant of servants, which stands for the period of Noah, before entering the Old Testament age. This is the path man is destined to go through in restoring his position through indemnity, and Jainism obviously represents this position in human history. It means that this position of servant of servants represented by Jainism was bound to appear before arriving at the age of the Old Testament that stood at the elder son's position in the central history of religion. Primitive religion of nature worship appearing in the ancient world, including Vedic nature worship as well as ancient Greek and Chinese nature worship, as long as they are not polluted by shamanism and magic, must be sharing the same position of man serving all things. A servant of servants can not see his Lord directly. He can see Him indirectly through the mediation of God's servants or all things, upon whom he attends. It thus seems that Jainism made its appearance to shoulder the responsibility of taking part of this position in the providential history.
Satan works through man's flesh. If his mind is strong enough to subdue his flesh, he can easily return to God. Man's flesh is unfortunately stronger than his mind. The flesh controls the mind as it wants, says Rev. Moon, because the false power of love bound with Satan at the time of the fall was stronger than the power of conscience held at that time.5 God, therefore, established religion all over
5. "Family", Kogensha, Tokyo, no. 319, Aug. 1995, pp. 24-25.