Jaina Political Thought

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 40

III
POLITICAL IDEAS AND ETHOS IN THE AGAMAS
It seems to be common belief now-a-days that the happiness and improvement of mankind depends specially on the creation of an ideal social and political order. This has been a widely current belief in many civilizations such as the Western and Chinese. The great Greek philosophers held that the highest life of man could not be realized except in an organised state. For them,as for Confucius, ethics and politics are essentially continuous, being only abstractly distinct within the concrete life of man in political society. In India, too, some traditions of thought approached this socio centric outlook thought only partially The Vedic tradition mentioned earlier saw a continuity between the worldly and other-worldly happiness of man, Abhyudaya and Nihreyasa The common source of both was conceived to be the fulfilment of duty or dharma which was formulated in terms of a social order. This tradition, however, emphasized the spirit of duty rather than actual social consequences which could serve as a feedback to the formulation of duty. In fact, it looked upon the social order as divinely ordained rather than as humanly created. As a consequence society and social life, while valuable, became on this view essentially symbolic. As already mentioned, the symbolism was reflected in ritual.
The other ancient tradition which had a socio-centric tendency was represented by the Lokayata school which was wholly secular and materialistic. Not much is known of the origin of this school, but its importance in the age of Mahavira is undoubted. This school is said to have denied the existence of the soul and of any superhuman knowledge or revelation. They held the maximisation of pleasure to be the chief end of man and regarded the king as the sources of all laws and a visible God on earth. They believed in sense perception as the sole sources of knowledge, and questioned the possibility of any necessary laws or conclusions which may be rationally reached. In their empiricism, hedonism, secularism, and stateism, the ancient Lokayata school is strongly reminiscient of modern views. Nevertheless the absence of any idea of historical and social evolution differentiates their conception of the state from modern views.
27