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Jaina View of Life
The importance of srāvakācāra has been enhanced by the fact that it has wide-spread application to the community, and moral ideas of the lay followers have been suited to the needs of the society for good and perfect social order. They are still useful in the perfect social order. They are still useful in the daily life of man, whether he be a Jaina or non-Jaina. A perfect social order would be possible if we follow the Vratas carefully. The Anuvrata movement started by Muni Tulsiji is a welcome crusade against the evils in society, and the most useful effort towards establishing a coherent, healthy and moral social order. The supreme importance of the lay ethics as given by the Jainas has been clear by the aticāras (infractions) elaborately mentioned by the Ācāryas.
The ethical ideal of a Jaina is not mere pleasure of the senses nor gratification of the body. Pleasures of the senses are insatiable. More we get them the more we want and the more pained we are. There is glue as it were in pleasure : those who are not given to pleasure are not soiled by it; those who love pleasure must wander about in Saṁsāra, those who do not will be liberated. Like the two clods of clay, one wet and the other dry, flung at the wall, those who love pleasure get clung to the influx of Karma, but the passionless are free. 6 Not the pleasures of the moment nor even the greatest happiness of the greatest number are attractions to the truly pious, for, their ultimate end is to attain perfection and to lead other men to the path of righteousness. Yet the Jaina does not say that pleasu. res of the senses are to be completely avoided, specially for the lay disciple. And mortification of the body is equally onesided. Rigorous asceticism for a monk is a means to an end and not an end in itself. For a lay follower, he may continue his occupation, earn money, live a family life and enjoy normal acceptable pleasures of life in good spirit according to the needs and status of an individual in society.
55. Uttaradhyayana-sūtra, XXV, 41-43 (S.B.E. Vol. XLV).
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