Jain Journal 2003 04

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

Page 10

VINCENT SEKHAR: A LITTLE KNOWN FAITH
189
good or bad lead the person to bondage. Hence there is the need for detachment and to transcend both good as well as bad deeds. It is karma that determines the quality and the type of life in the series of births: knowledge, perception, feeling, family, body, etc.
But this does not deprive a person from being free. Law of Freedom is the Law of the Spirit. No one can take away this freedom from the human heart because it is this that sets a perosn free from sin and death (Romans 8:2). It is by one's free will and effort (new karma) that one could attain the goal of life. The Jaina masters have shown the path of new karma that puts a total stop to the damage done to the self by past acts. Liberation is the state of being free from all karma, but through a series of new efforts and discipline. Thus the power and the intensity of karma can be completely annihilated by oneself through a slow climbing of the ladder of several spiritual stages, known as the pratinās and guṇasthānas. Jaina religion is called sometimes the Religion of Self-help.
The principles that are discussed above are basic to Jaina Dharma. One needs to be conversant with this basic conception because everything for the Jains (attitude and response to life and environment) is founded on this. We could find similarities in concepts and in their explanations in other religious and philosophical traditions too. Discussing any theme in Indian systems might sound philosophic, but these basic principles have larger implications on life, the truth about pain, sorrw and suffering, sinfulness and injury to the self and others, knowledge and renunciation, etc.
The following are some of its implications for life :
(1)
Jīva, understood from its real point of view as pure and perfect, is the philosophical foundation and basis for equality and respect for all living beings. This truth is enshrined in the dictum, 'as the nature of this (i.e. man) is to be born and to grow old, so is the nature of that (i.e. plants) to be born and to grow old' (Acārānga Sūtra, 1.1.5.6). Non-violence and Vegetarianism have their roots in such as these sayings. The wickedness of the humans and of the earth in the Bible is traced to the spread of violence everywhere and all were evil in God's sight (Genesis