Jaina Mysticism and Other Essays

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

Page 78

scribe to the discovery of a new aspect of truth. Thus Anekānta is the dynamic principle of social life, by virtue of which life is saved from being stagnant.
Apart from the prescription of social values, Mahāvīra regards mokša or spiritual values as the highest objective of human life and for the attainment of which he has prescribed the development of Samyagdarsana (spiritual awakening), Samyagjñāna (value-knowledge) and Samyakcăritra (ethico-spiritual conduct).
. Mahāvīra regards spiritual awakening (Samyagdarśana) as the beginning of the spiritual pilgrimage, and it is the foundation of the magnificent edifice of liberation. Spiritual perversion acts as a barricade to soul's true life. It is the root of all evils, the seed of the tree of saṁsāra The person experiencing spiritual perversion becomes perverted in his attitude. It poisons all our activities, so as to check the realisation of the summum bonum of life. Moreover, it is responsible for the perversity of knowledge and conduct alike. So long as spiritual perversion is operative, all our efforts to witness the sun of self's glory are bound to fail. Thus it is to be rooted out in the interest of rendering its unwholesome function. In other words, spiritual awakening is to be attained, which in turn will make knowledge and conduct conducive to the attainment of Paramātman It is only after the acquisition of spiritual awakening that the person attains the primary qualification for even marching towards emancipation from the wheel of misery. If spiritual perversion is at the root of worldly life and living, spiritual awakening is at the root of liberation. Even performing very severe austerities, persons devoid of spiritual awakening do not attain spiritual wisdom even in thousands and crores of years. Just as a leaf of the lotus plant because of its own nature and constitution is not defiled by water, so also an awakened person because of his spiritual nature is not sullied by passions and sensuous attractions. Value-knowledge and ethico-spiritual conduct is acquired through spiritual awakening. The spiritually awakened self considers his own self as his genuine abode and regards the outward dwelling places as artificial. He renounces all identification with the animate and inanimate objects of the world, and properly weighs them
Jaina Mysticism and other essays