Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: World Jain Confederation

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Philosophy and Psychology of The Jainas
periods Arhats, or great Masters (Saviors of mankind), are born, who through love, sacrifice of the lower nature (not of the real Self), and wisdom, teach the true doctrine. Referring to that part of the world known as Bharata Khanda (India), the last Arhat, Mahavira, was born 598 B. C. in a town called Kundagrama, in the territory of Videha. He lived seventy-two years and reached Moksha (the perfect condition) in 526 B. C.
The Jaina philosophy also teaches that each soul (Atman) is a separate individuality, uncreated, and eternal in existence; that each individual soul has lived from time without beginning in some embodied state, evolving from the lower to the higher condition through the law of Karma, or cause and effect; that so long as the Karmas (forces generated in previous lives) have not been fully worked out, it has, after physical death, to form another body, until through evolutionary processes it unfolds its absolute purity. Its full perfection is then manifested. This perfection of the individuality is the Jaina Nirvana or Mukti. The individuality is not merged into anything; neither is it annihilated. The process of this development, or salvation, may be said simply to consist in right realization, right knowledge, and right life, the details of which are many.
I will now say a few words about Jaina Psychology. There are five Gateways of Knowledge, all unfolding through the laws of evolution and Karma. The first is the senses. In the lowest form of life, there is only one sense - that of touch. In higher forms of life, there are two, three, four, (and in animals, birds, fish and men) five senses. Through the senses a limited form of knowledge is unfolded.* The second source is study and reading.
*
This is not to be confounded with telepathy, or direct thoughttransference, in which a conscious ralation has to be established between the agent and the recipient, since in genuine mindknowing the developed man knows the mental activities of others without their trying to communicate them to him.
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