Jaina Ethics

Author(s): Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 97

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Jaina Ethics good or bad, which leads to Arhat-ship. From the point of view of meditation all acts, whether good or bad, are impure.1 The Nyāya-Vaišeșika System
The Naiyāyikas hold that 'so long as we act we are under the sway of attachment and aversion and cannot attain the highest good. According to the Vaiseșika system also the ceremonial piety can lead simply to worldly prosperity whereas spiritual insight (tattvajñāna) leads to liberation.3 Whether it is dharma or adharma, both lead to embodied - existence.
The Sāṁkhya-Yoga System
In Sāṁkhya, the heaven which is the result of sättvika activities, is considered undesirable in comparison to liberation. Unselfish activities are, no doubt, the indirect cause of liberation. 5
In the Yoga system our actions are classified under four heads : (1) The black or wicked deeds, as speaking ill of others; (2) The white or virtuous deeds, as wisdom; (3) The white and black or mixed deeds, as performance of sacrifice, which involves violence also; (4) The neither-white-nor-black or supra-moral deeds, as meditation of the self. It is only this last-mentioned type of action which leads to liberation. The Mimāṁsā system
Even in Pūrvamimāṁsā, which is the strongest votary of action, it is held that liberation, which lies in absolute cessation of the body, comes only when not only the virtuous (dharma) but vicious (adharma) actions also are exhausted.?
1. Radhakrishnan, S., Indian Philosophy, Vol. I, p. 419: 2. Ibid., p. 162.
Candrakānta on Vaišeşikasūtra, Allahabad, 1924, 1.1.2.
Samkhyas útra: 3.52-53. 5. Vijñānabhikṣu on Sāṁkkyadarśana, Calcutta, 1936, 1.82, 85. 6. Vyäsa on rogasūtra, 4.7. 7. आत्यन्तिकस्तु देहोच्छेदो निश्शेषधर्माधर्मपरिक्षयनिबन्धनो मोक्ष इति TATTI
-Prakaranapañcāśikā, Benaras, 1961, p. 341.