Jain Journal 2000 04

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

Page 22

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JAIN JOURNAL : Vol-XXXIV, No. 4 April 2000 possible from an absolute, ideal attitudinal or niscaya point of view. Whereas from an actual, practical or vyavahāra point of view, one cannot be without the material universe, because the embodied being itself is a combination of mind and body, spirit and flesh. And one has an intimate relationship with the material universe. But this relationship could be one of domination or of mutual collaboration and the Jaina visionary would prefer the latter. In domination one is a slave to the passions and in collaboration there could be the attitude of detachment and healthy indifference. Thus Aparigraha helps one to achieve this mental equanimity and allows a sort of ownership achieved not by grabbing the material possession or by fighting for it but through a detached acceptance and use of the same. Any possession out of greed and other passions would come under violence to the material world, in other words, dravya himsā.
Amitagati82 points out that violence is committed for the sake of accumulation of wealth or possession. Hence a householder should constantly try to limit his activity to obtain possessions. Ownership can have two results : attachment and aversion. The former manifests itself as a tendency to accumulate wealth by possessing, garbing, etc. and the latter in the form of violence. Ownership is in possession of land, house, jewels, money, livestock, servants and other luxury items.83 Attachment to wealth and a desire to accumulate it are seen when one is found extremely sad at a loss incurred in some transaction, or in hoarding grains and other items to sell them at a higher price or at a later date, overloading animals and extracting more work from servants, etc.84 Parigraha is evident when one takes things that are not one's own or when not given85, when dealing with illicit business86, indulging in adulteration, use of false weights and measures87 and writing false statements or forgery, etc.88
Jaina ethical literature elaborately deals with the way one has to acquire the means of livelihood. In order to be detached, one has to
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83. Caritrasāra by Cāmundarāya, Māņikacandra Digambara Jaina
Granthamālā, No. 9, Bombay, 1917, p. 12. 84. Ratnakarandakaśrāvakācāra, 62 by Ācārya Samantabhadra, with
Comm. of Prabhācandra, Māņikacandra Digambara Jaina Granthmālā,
No. 24, Bombay, 1926. 85. Ibid., 57. 86. Pūjyapāda on Tattvārthasūtra, 7.27, Sarvārthasiddhi, Tr. Reality, S.A.
Jain, Viraseva Sangha, Calcutta, 1960. 87. Tattvārthasūtra, ibid. 7.22; Ratnakarandakaśrāvakācāra, 58. 88. Upāsakadasanga, 1.46, with Comm. of Abhayadeva, ed. with tr. by
Hoernle, Bibliotheca Indica, No. 105, Calcutta, 1890.