Jaina Mysticism and Other Essays

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

Page 23

2. CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF JAINISM
After setting aside the sociological and theological definitions of religion let us now proceed to discuss the characteristic features of Jainism as a religion. The question now confronts us is : What are the constitutive factors which endow Jaina faith with religious fervour? In other words, how Jainism has occupied itself with religious outlook? The answer can be searched in delineating (i) the nature of self, (ii) the goal of human pursuance, (iii) the doctrine of karma, (iv) the meaning of spiritual awakening (samyag-darśana), (v) the incentives to spiritual life, (vi) the performance of spiritual exercises, and (vii) the concept of arhat and siddha.
2(i). Nature of Self : There is no denying the fact that the idea of self (ātman) occupies a central place in Jaina religion. That it exists independently of anything else is brought out by the ontological status accorded to it in the Jaina faith. It is one of the six substances. It is to be distinguished from the other substances, since it is capable of developing introversive as well as extrovertive experience. The rest are without any iota of sentience. Perhaps it is because of this that Kundakunda calls it mahārtha (a great objectivity)?, and Kārttikeya calls it uttamadravya (excellent substance)s.
The religious treatises of the Jainas deal with the nature of the self from two perspectives, noumenal and phenomenal, or transcendental and empirical, so as to bring home to us the totality of the self in its mundane and supermundance aspects. The transcendental view represents the self in its unadulterated state of existence, whereas the empirical view describes the self in its defiled form. The former state is known as siddha, while the latter one is called saṁsārī. It is to be borne in mind that these two states of self are metaphysically indistinguishable, though the karmic adjuncts create distinctions between them. In other words, the empirical self is potentially transcendental, though this noumenal state of existence is not actualized at present, hence the distinction is undeniable. In view of the metaphysical position upheld by the Jaina there are infinite selves,
16
Jaina Mysticism and other essays