Jaina Acara Siddhanta aur Svarupa

Author(s): Devendramuni
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 16

included Tarka. In my opinion the root cause of exclusion of Yama and Niyama is the gradual neglect of such steps by later acaryas on the basis of Patanjali's classifying them as superficial.
The philosophical aspect of Yoga has been eleaborated in the Sankhy. philosophy. This school has done indepth study of fundamental principles. In the Nyāya philosophy only the aspects of logic have been dealt with. Dharma (piety) is the topic taken up by the Purva Mimānsā but here it is based on the rituals and not on the basic character of conduct. A variety of Yama rituals have been included and mainly the gods and heaven have been discussed. Thus emphasis has been given on superficial and formal rituals. In the Uttarmimänsā or Vedānta the central theme is Jnana (spiritual knowledge).
Out of all the Indian schools of philosophy only Buddhism is the one where conduct is given prominence. The Buddha gave so much importance to conduct that he almost completely neglected the metaphysical or fundamental aspects. Whenever a follower went to him with serious issues concerning fundamentals like soul, ultimate , soul (God), he evaded the issue altogether.
Although Buddhism has given prominence to conduct, the Jaina view on conduct has its own uniqueness. It has given equal stress on thought and conduct; it has dealt with both these aspects in serious vein. Mahavir never avoided the fundamental issues of soul, karma, the world and beyond, etc. He has emphatically dealt with all philosophical and metaphysical issues. Mahavira's view was that the sublime stream of flawless conduct should flow with equal force in all the three dimensions of mind, speech, and body or thought, expression, and action. He candidly prorounced that discipline should be observed at all three levels of mind, speech and body.
The Buddha did not give the same importance to the discipline of the body that he prescribed for that of the mind. As a result, there has been a tremendous development of meditational practices in the Buddhist tradition. However, due to the neglect of the discipline of the body, there has been a lack of desired development in the field of penance. Discipline of the body results in inconveniences and afflictions. But because of the middle path propagated by the Buddha, indiscipline arept in. This is the reason why the Buddha could not forcefully prohibit non-vegetarianism. This resulted in the spread of other evils too.