Book Title: Jaina Religion Historical Journey of Evolution Author(s): Sagarmal Jain Publisher: Parshwanath VidyapithPage 18
________________ 8 Jaina Religion: Its Historical journey of evolution life saw that supra-mundane and natural powers can make his attempts for material comforts, success or failure, he cultivated a belief that material comforts and conveniences are not due to his own efforts but are because of the grace of these natural powers. Thus on the one hand he started eulogizing them, and singing invocations for them, and on the other hand he started pleasing them by yajñas and sacrifices. And thus pravartakadharma grew and developed into two main branches: (i) faith dominated bhakti-mārga (ii) and sacrifice dominated karma-märga. On the other hand Śramaṇa culture in its enthusiasm of living a life of purity, free from sins and independence made mokṣa or complete freedom from material prosperity or possessions its main goal of life, and for this reason it gave importance to knowledge and detachment. But the life of knowledge (jñāna) and detachment was not possible in social and familial preoccupations. Thus, Śramana culture took man to distant forests, mountains and caves. And thus it emphasized the negation of desires and body-related values and worldliness, which led the origination of the path of tapas rooted in detachment, while on the other side, in this kind of life rooted in renunciation, the doors for discussions and reflections, with a serious desire to know, opened. This in fact, led to Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.orgPage Navigation
1 ... 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140