Jaina Ethics

Author(s): Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 92

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4o
Conception of Morality
25 and passes beyond his mundane consciousness completely, he does require a clear distinction between good and bad. The complete conception of morality, therefore, includes both, the practical as well as the transcendental morality, which are inter-related with each other.
With this background we proceed to examine this problem, first according to Jainism and then according to other systems of Indian Philosophy. Vice and Virtue
· The result of virtues are birth as tirtharkara, gañadhara, sage, universal monarch, Baladeva, Väsudeva, god and vidyādharas and supernatural powers. The result of vices are pain, birth amongst subhumans and bad men, old age, death, disease, misery and poverty etc. It is the motive behind an action which is taken into account and not merely the outer action.2 We have given a list of actions which lead to worldly happiness (sätāvedaniya) as well as those which lead to misery (asātāvedaniya).3 It may be mentioned that both types of these acts are actuated by attachment; in the case of the former it is mild, in the case of the later it is intense. In Kārtikeyānuprekṣā, therefore, vice has been defined as intense passion whereas virtue has been defined as mild passion.4 ! Attachment, however, is present in both the cases. Transcendental morality (niscayamārga) :
The ultimate aim is to uproot even the subtlest form of passions. Therefore the relative life of vice and virtue is to be abandoned in favour of a life of pure consciousness (fuddhopayoga). The activities of soul can be classified under three heads : (i) The auspicious activities (subhopayoga), (ii) ! The inauspicious activities (aśubhopayoga), (iii) The pure activities (suddhopayoga). In śuddhopayoga the self remains absorbed in its own nature of consciousness. In śubhopayoga as well as aśubhopagoga, the self becomes extrovert and con
1. Vīrasena on șațkhandāgama, Vol. I, p. 105. 2. A 91997. QuafHathiTia wafail
--Pujyapâda on Tattvärthasülra, 6.11. 3. Supra, pp. 59-60 4. Kārtikeyānuprekṣā, go.