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HOUSEHOLDER'S DHARMA IN
JAINISM. (By Kamta Prasad Jain M.R.A.S.) JAINISM occupies an important place among the ancient Jreligions of India. Its philosophical tenets, ethical rules and theories of logic have a peculiar aspect of their own, which speaks itself for its antiquity and universality. Jainism maintains that all the living beings, whether a human being or a smallest insect, have a common source; i.e. the Nilya Nigoda1 And so they are but brethren-however unmanifested the real faculties of any of them may be in their present incarnations; for, the souls are under bondage of matter, which has crippled their own nature. Obviously it is evident that Jainism is based on a dualistic system of philosophy. It holds that Soul (Jiva) and non-soul (Ajiva), i.o., matter are the main factors and causes for all the manifestations of this universe. In its true nature, soul is an allseeing, all-knowing and all blissful being. But as it is in combination with matter from eternity, it transmigrates into various forms of life and undergoes all kinds of sufferings pertaining to them. The characteristics of its real nature, too are not fully manifest in this embodied condition. Hence the great aim and object for the embodied soul is to get itself separated from the combination of matter and this is only possible by following the rules of conduct, as chalked out by the great Tirthankaras, with right belief and right knowlodge.
1. Nigoda is that place in which filled with infinite number of the Nigoda Jivas. The Nigoda Jivas, in the Jaina theory, is tbat form of lite, which is lower and more miserable than even that of single-sensed beings. Here even the sense of touch is not manifest, and the souls inhabit, a part of another's body. Their life-span is very short; they are said to undergo eighteen births and deaths in one Svasa or breath. These Nigoda Jiva, furnish the supply of souls in place of those, wbich reach Nirvana. See Panchestikaya-sara etc.
2. Tattwartta Sutram. 1.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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