Jain Moral Doctrine

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

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THE INDISPENSABLE ASSOCIATES OF ÇARITRA
immediate consciousness about one's own self being a reality. Nobody can conceive that he is not; self-consciousness or the consciousness about one's own self is thus unquestionably immediate. The second object of the Samyak-darśana is the Ajīva, a collection of reals which are outside the self. The very consciousness of the self as a limited and finite being implies the immediate consciousness of the Ajiva or the non-self as a reality too. The connection of the self with what it is not, i.e., with Ajīva is called the Asrava (literally, an inflow of the non-self into the self); it is also implied in the immediate consciousness of the two foregoing co-existing realities. The result of this Asrava or the co-mingling of the two realities of the self and the non-self is the 'Bandha' or the state of the self's bondage, an immediate consciousness which every one undoubtedly has. This feeling of bondage has variations of intensity, implying that the inflow of the elements of the non-psychical into the self may be stopped; a belief in the possibility of this stoppage of the further inflow of the non-psychical which is called the 'Samyara' is certainly psychological—though a moral one. We have on various occasions experiences of accumulated feelings of weakness and depression, 'slave-mentalities' subsiding in suitable circumstances which justifies the immediate moral belief in the possibility, firstly, of the 'Nirjara' or the partial annihilation of the non-psychical elements which found their way into the self and in the next place of the Moksa which is the culminating result of those foreign elements being absolutely removed. The right belief of the Jainas thus consists in an immediate faith in the reality of the seven things viz, the self, the non-self, the connection of the self with the non-self, the psychical bondage consequent on the said connection between the two disparate realities, the stoppage of their further connection, the partial dissociation of the non-self from the self and the final and the complete dissociation of the two from each other. It is called the 'Darśana' or apprehension, because of its immediate character as shown above.
The unflinching faith in the realities which is essential to moral conduct has been described by the Jainas to be of two sorts, which are respectively called the Vītarāga Samyaktva and the Sarāga Samyaktva. The former is the calm and unperturbed faith of one whose passions have all subsided. It is practically the faith of a person who is collected in his own pure psychical nature and consists in the absolute purity of the self itself. This form of Samyktva is looked upon as the Kśāyika or the absolutely passionless faith. The Sarāga Samyaktva which may be regarded as the Kśāyopasamika or the faith of one whose passions have been controlled but
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