Jain Moral Doctrine

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

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JAIN MORAL DOCTRINE
practises black marketing (Viruddha-rājyāti-krama); or uses false weights and measures (Hīnādhika-mānonmāna); or adulterates things (Prati-rūpaka-vyavahāra).
The Vrata of Brahma or sex-abstinence is opposed to 'Abrahma' which consists in the act of Maithuna or sexual contact. The Pramatta-yoga or deliberate inclination, i.e., sex-hunger is the primal source of all sex-activities. It is needless to point out that sex-urge arouses the intensest feelings in a person and as such, it is responsible for his bad and undesirable status, both here and hereafter. Complete sex-purity is possible only in houseless sages and saints; a house-holder cannot act up to that ideal of sex-abstinence and he feels the need of a companion for the satisfaction of his sex-hunger; this explains the validity of the custom of marriage in human society. The Jaina moralists maintain that sex-indulgence is always bad from a moral point of view; even a person who has his sex-satisfaction exclusively through his wife cannot be looked upon as high-placed in the scale of moral progress. Such a person is called the 'Kuśīlatyāgi'. Although such a person stands lower in moral rank than the Muni, he is certainly better than a person, wallowing in uncontrolled sex-indulgences. At any rate the Jaina moralists recognise that living without a wife may be impracticable in most cases of ordinary men but they emphatically urge that there is no reason why one should go after a woman who is not his legally married wife.
As regards the Atiçāras or indirect transgressions of the vow of Brahamaçarya, they are indicated as--the Para-vivāha-karana or causing marriage between persons who belong to mutually prohibited families; the Itva-bikā-pari-grahitā-gamana or co-habitation with a married woman of immoral disposition; the Itvabikā-aparigrahitāgamana or co-habitation with an unmarried woman of immoral disposition; the Anangi-krīdā or unnatural intercourse; the Kāma-tībrā-bhinibeśa or surrender to strong sexual urge.
The following five Bhāvanās, on the other hand, stabilise one's vow against sexual unchastity viz. the Tyāga or refraining from hearing all talks which excite passions for women (the 'Strīrāgakathāśravaņa); from looking at the attractive limbs of a woman (the Tanmanoharānga-nirīkşaņa); from drinking liquids which excite sexual urge (the Vrsyesta-rasa) and from making one's own body clean and attractive (the Sya-sarīra-samskāra).
The last but not the least of the Vratas is the Aparigraha or non-attachment to worldly affairs. It is opposed to 'Parigraha which consists in Mürcchā or taking interest in the living or the
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