Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion

Author(s): Ramjee Singh
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi

Page 12

Chapter One JAINA VIEW OF LIFE*
[1] (1) Life is a struggle for perfection. Philosophy should serve as the light house in this struggle of life. Hence, true philosophy, must be a philosophy of life. Our attention has uptill now been mainly directed towards the problems of reality and knowledge, God and Soul etc., but we have neglected Man. However, arts and science, philosophy and culture have got significance only in relation to man. Hence, Vyāsa correctly said : “There is nothing higher than man” ( nahi śreşthataram kiñcit mánuşāt )” Chandidās perhaps went a little further : "Man is higher than everything and nothing is more important than him" (Sabar upare mānūşa satya, tahár upare nai ). Even the Greek Sophists with their own interpretation regarded "man as the measure of all” ( Homo men sura ). The Jainas, even denied God, because they believed in the potential divinity of man. This reminds us of the famous Vedic s
saying: “Those who know Brahman in Man knows the Being who is Supreme" ( Ye puruṣe Brahman Viduste Viduḥ Parameşghinam : Atharva Veda, X. VII. 17).
(2) According to Jainism, man can attain divinity contained in the concept of Four-fold Infinities ( anantachatusaya ). Thus, it shifted the emphasis from God to Man-an outcome of the development of inwardness. Hence, the interest of Jainism has been centered mainly around man, his morality and destiny. Of the seven fundamental categories of Jaina philosophy, only two, the ‘self' and the 'Non-self' are dealt with from a metaphysical point of view; the other five are more corrolaries. Asrava (inftow of karmic-matter ) is * Jaina Lecture to the 54th Session of the Indian Philo
sophical Congress held at Madras.