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Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion
cess has a common term in Indian thought-Yoga. It is not against but beyond reason (Jñana vijñāna sahitam ).
[II] The term Yoga symbolises the core of Indian Spiritual Sadhana. The four-fold social division of occupation (Varnavibhājana ), its trade and business, language and physical culture etc. are only the external signs of the Aryans?; even the concept of other world (heaven-hell ) is not its essential ingredients. Its real and inner spirit lies in the absolute concentration of thought or one pointedness on the ultimate reality which is beyond the present space and time.3 Perhaps, on account of this distinctive feature, the Aryans have been judged as superior to all other races and climes.
In life, theory and practice, knowledge and action, empirical and the transcendental require a synthesis. As a matter of fact, the real practice of one's knowledge is called Yoga. Knowledge precedes, Yoga succeeds. But a knowledge without its practice or implementation is not only incomplete but also ambiguous. Thus Yoga is superior to the Tapas, Jñāna and Karma.4 It is the best of all the three and includes devotion also. Yoga or union with God which is attained through bhakti is the highest spiritual goal. Jñana is scriptural learning ( Sastra pāņditya )5 and not spiritual realization. Truly wise man is the Yogi. Without Yoga or concentration of mind, the human energies are frittered away in many directions and go waste. Hence, the spirit of man is the key for the success of
1. Max Muller : Biographies of Words and the Home of the
Aryans, p. 50. 2. Bhagavad-Gītā, IX. 21, “They return to the world of
mortals when their merit is exhausted." 3. Max Muller : Sacred Books of the East, Vol. I, p. 23 ( In
troduction ). 4. Bhagavad-Gītā, VI. 46. 5. Ibid ( Sankara Bha sya ).
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