Jain Moral Doctrine

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal

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THE INDISPENSABLE ASSOCIATES OF ÇARITRA
his powers of cognition and to secure better and better states of nappiness here and hereafter, it was never possible to attain complete omniscience or perfection and infinitude in any direction. The dualistic section of the Vedānta thinkers also held that the emancipation of man consisted not in the attainment of any perfect omniscience or complete undetermined joy, which belonged, as they held, to the supreme God who was the Lord of all the freed and unfreed beings, but in the enjoyment of a status 'like' that of the supreme being, which always fell short of that of the Lord. The Jaina philosophers although they agreed with the Mīmāmsakas in their rejection of the doctrine of the supreme Lord were opposed to the theory of both the schools' of any imperfection, attaching to the finally emancipated beings. The Jainas maintained that man was essentially free and inifinite in his endowments but that in his finite state, his imperfection was due to his association with some principles, foreign to his fundamental nature. This foreign principle was called Karma by them, which was a reality, material in essence. They argued that when the Kārmic matter left the self completely, there was no reason why it should not emerge in its natural splendour and perfection.
The all-important question therefore arises as to the possibility of the Karmas, which according to the Jainas themselves, were attached to the nature of the self from the beginningless time, ever leaving or being made to leave the self completely. The Jainas solved the question by pointing out that although the Karma was found to stick to or to be mixed up with the soul, its intensity was liable to variation from time to time. There are occasions when the influences of the Karmas upon the self seem to wane and these serve as the opportune moments when the self is to exert and work assiduously for shaking off the shackles of the Karma. If the self avails itself of the favourable moments when the Karma-bond appears to be weak and loose and takes to the path of selfculture and self-development with a determined will, the realisation of its essential perfection becomes ensured more and more. The Jainas explain this in the following beautiful manner. Suppose a king is kept in perpetual dread of a powerful enemy and remains weakened thereby. Then suppose a time comes when the enemy is off his guard; the wary king at once utilises this opportunity, falls upon the enemy with a drawn sword and annihilates him; the result is that the king becomes perfectly free. The Jaina philosophers point out that every one's self is essentially free, so that when the Karma elements obstructing its freedom become weakened, it is possible for every one, if he is so minded, to exert himself for the annihilation
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