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CHAPTER VII
IN THIS OUR LIFE
I. We have so far seen the pathway to perfection through the practice of Yoga and the stages of self-realization. But the transcendental perfection is to be rooted in the empirical life; as we cannot ignore the empirical for the transcendental. We have first to learn to live a good life in this world and then we can go higher to spiritual perfection, or else it would be like one aiming at climbing the Mount Everest without setting a foot on the base camp or without training oneself for mountaineering. Moral excellence is, therefore, as much important as spiritual perfection.
It has been alleged that the Jaina outlook, as of other ancient Indian thought, is negative. In their zeal for the other worldly ends they have ignored the things of the world; life negation and not life affirmation is the dominant spirit of their outlook; and it is throughout pessimistic. For Jains ultimate spiritual excellence could be attained by the gradual process of getting moral excellence. The good man can reach the destiny of perfection of the soul. There is no short cut to mokşa. As we have seen in the last chapter, Schweitzer maintains that the problem of deliverance in the Jaina and the Buddhist thought is not raised beyond ethics. In fact it was the supreme ethic, and it was an event full of significance for the thought of India. And in Indian thought category of Dharma is important. "So far as the actual ethical content is concerned, Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism are not inferior to others”.! Suffering in the world is a fact: sarvam duḥkham was one of the cardinal principles of the Buddha. Misery leads to think of an escape from the bonds of this life. In this sense all philosophy is pessimistic. But, the ultimate ideal of a Jaina is perfection and life-negation is a means to an end. It is the negation of empirical values of life and not of the supreme values; and
1. Radhakrishnan (S): Indian Philosophy, Vol. I. (1941) p. 52.
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