Jaina Ethics

Author(s): Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 43

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faina Ethics are possessed of infinite knowledge, potency, perception and bliss. These Siddhas are far more above gods or deities. They neither create nor destroy any thing. They have conquered, once for all, their nescience and passions and cannot be molested by them again.
These Siddhas do not and cannot return our prayers. They do not take the law in their hands so as to show to their devotees any grace or forgiveness for which there is no place in the strict law of karman. How can they, who have completely conquered attachment and aversion and are equanimous to all, be pleased or angry with anybody ?
This does not mean that prayer has no place in Jainascheme of life. By meditating upon the attributes of Siddhas and by showing respect to them we neither flatter them nor please them but simply try to awaken in us the latent potentialities of Godhood. The Siddhas do not come to our rescue but a constant mental association with our ideal, through their medium, helps us in its realisation. Therefore, it is insisted that “even though one may be inclined towards the knowledge of padārthas, and devotion of tirtharkaras and may have interest in the scriptures and may observe self-control and penance, yet Nirvāṇa is far away from him (without self-realisation).1 Some objections to the doctrine of Karman
We have seen above that accidentalism has no scope in modern times. Nothing can fall outside the circle of cause and effect. The interacting causes may cooperate or oppose or neutralise one another in such an intricate manner that the resultant combinations are not predictable easily. If we do not know this intricate chain of causes, we may call an incident accidental; but all the same, it is not without cause. On the same ground, the theories of Time, Nature or Blind Fate or Matter can be dismissed as overlooking the universal rule that there is no effect without a cause
I. सपयत्थं तित्थयरं अभिगदबुद्धिस्स सुत्तरोइस्स । दूरतरं णिव्वाणं संजमतवसंपओत्तस्स ।।
-Pañcāstikāya, 170.