Jaina Mysticism and Other Essays

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 21

JAINA FAITH AND MORALS
1. INTRODUCTORY
Jainism is one of the oldest living religions of the world. It represents the continuation of indigenous sramanic culture which is at least as old as the Vedas themselves, so far as the literary evidence goes, though the archaeological evidence takes sramanism far back to Harappan civilization, which is regarded as non-Vedic in origin and outlook. The Jaina faith has, no doubt, influenced Vedism on the one hand and Buddhism on the other, though being influenced by them in the course of its gradual development. There is no denying the fact that Jainism is humanistic in its approach and spiritualistic in its depth. An unbiased eye can look into its religious fervour and moral earnestness. These two elements are so greatly intertwined in it that one is apt to confuse religion with morality and vice versa. The fact is that one cannot be reduced to the other. In practice, though the two are closely associated, yet, they are quite distinguishable. Jainism subscribes to the view that “religion if taken seriously and rationally will be deeply moral; but it is not morality”l. The two are not identical. Thus it will not be contradictory to aver that a religious man will be necessarily moral. but a moral man may not be necessarily religious. In other words, religion is coextensive with morality, but morality is not always coextensive with religion. A man may be moral without being religious. All this shows that the realms of religion and morality are theoretically distinguishable. The Jaina faith vehementaly criticises the view which identifies religion with personal and social morality, and which defines it merely as “the consciousness of the highest social values". The Jaina saints and sages have
Jaina Mysticism and other essays