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Jaina View of Life
most of the special directions for the discipline of the Jaina ascetic are copies, and often exaggerated copies, of the Brahminical rules for penitents. The outward marks of the order closely resemble those of a Sanyāsin.'' Jacobi seems to support this view when he said "Monastic order of the Jainas and the Buddhists though copied from Brāhmaṇa were chiefly and originally intended for Kshatriyas.”20 This view was presented in the early stages of Indological research but it is difficult to be accepted. What we call Indian philosophy is a synthesis of the framana and the Brāhmaga currents of thought. The Sramana cult which was primarily ascetic in nature was pre-Aryan. And "we should no more assess the Sańkhya, Jaina, Buddhist and Ajivaka tenets as mere perverted continuation of stray thoughts selected at random from the Upanişadic bed of Aryan thought currents”." Dr. Upadhye calls this Pre-Aryan current of thought as 'Magadhan religion'.
All cannot renounce the world, nor is it desirable. Most men have to live in this world and work for their spiritual salvation, while engaged in daily routine of empirical life. They are the householders (srävakas). They cannot practise rigorous discipline of an ascetic. They have to practise the vows with less rigour, as far as possible, still without sacrificing the fundamental spirit of the Vratas. The ethical code for the layman is twelve-fold consisting of 1) five Vratas which are common for the ascetic and the householder, except for the fact they have to be practised with less rigour without sacrificing the spirit of righteousness and the main goal of self-realization. Great physical and moral advantages accrue from the observation of vows. It keeps the body and mind healthy and leads one in the direction of maintaining moral strength, ultimately to lead to mokşa. The vows practised by the layman are the aņuvratas
19. Buehler : On the Indian Sect. of the Jainas; (1903) p. 15. 20. Jacobi (H.) : SBE Vol, XXII-Intr. p. xxxii. 21. Upadhye (A. N.): Brhatkathākosu. Intr. Pravacanasära. 1943.
Preface pp. 12-13.
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