Jain Moral Doctrine

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

Page 88

JAINA ÇARITRA AS BASIS OF UNIVERSAL RELIGION AND MORALITY
Vrata's, the transgressions of which proceed from the passionate attitude and the faultless practice of which, presupposes primarily an active avoidance of the Pramatta-yoga, appear on ultimate analysis, as modes of one and the same Vrata viz., the vow of Ahimsā. All moral practices are related to the five Vrata's as complements or supplements to them, and all the five Vrata's are reducible to the one fundamental Vrata of Ahimsā. It is thus that the Jaina religion is fitly called the 'Ahimsā-dharma' or the religion of non-viol. ence. This does not mean,-as is commonly understood, that Jainism consists simply in desisting from hurting animals and giving food to ants and insects; not even does it mean that Jainism consists in doing acts of charity only and stopping the spread of violence. The Jaina religion and ethics are far more than all these; they insist that improper dispositions of mind are to be controlled, suppressed and finally eradicated and one should concentrate himself solely in his true essence i.e. his psychical nature as distinct and distilled from all influences of unpsychical phenomena.
External good conduct is of course not condemned but if good conduct is to lead to the final emancipation, it must be based on the essential nature of the self i.e. the self as free from the influences of the Kaşayas or passions. Such Çāritra or really good conduct is described by the Jaina Āçārya's as 'Saga-çariyam' (Svaka-çaritam), self-determined action, which means action proceeding from the self's own nature, that is, from the self when it is 'savva-samgamukko' and 'Nanna-mano' i.e. free from all external relations and without its mind distracted in any way. This view of right conduct, as the Jainas call it, is from the 'Niśçaya' or transcendental standpoint, as distinguished from the 'Vyavahāra' or the ordinary. The latter has within its scope even the faith in the world-realities of the soul, the non-soul etc.; even the correct knowledge of all the sacred scriptures; even the practice of such recommended moral acts as charity, penance etc. These matters of the Vyavahāra may make a person wise, respectable and fortunate but in order that these may secure to him the attainment of the Moksa or the final liberation, they should be translated into the Niśçaya i.e. taken in their transendental significance. The Niśçaya view requires that for the purposes of the Moksa, one's faith, knowledge and conduct should be 'Samyak' or right. It is said that 'whoever practises, knows and apprehends his own self, through his self as unpervaded by anything external to the self i.e. whoever becomes identified thus with conduct, knowledge and faith, well, his view-point is that of the Niśçaya'. When one fails to confine his attention exclusively to his own essential self, allows other considerations to prevail in him,
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