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Jaina Ethics
which are based on a false conception of the identity of the two.
An ordinary Jaina (samyagḍrşți) is not allowed to indulge in feelings of anger, pride, hypocrisy and greed continuously for more than a year, a householder at an advanced stage (śravaka) for more than four months, and a monk for more than fifteen days. Perfection or liberation is attained when these feelings are completely overcome; and not, as the Vedanta will have us believe, when the self merges into the universal self; or, as the Buddhism believes, when it is annihilated. We need not discard commonly experienced, separate, existence of the self.
The above ethical idea, which Jainism gave with reference to individual sadhana, could be interpreted afresh in the con text of modern day problems to suggest that all nations could also maintain their individuality, and yet live in peace and harmony if negative ideas of anger, pride, hypocrisy and greed could be renounced. It could, thus, teach the possibility and utility of co-existence in modern times and bring the hope of a brighter future for war-ridden humanity of to-day. If Jaina ethics could bring home to us that alone, its purpose will be more than achieved.
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