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Chapter VI
JAIN SADHANA
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF JAINA SADHANA
Jainism is one of the oldest living religions of the world. It has a rich spiritual, cultural and literary heritage to its credit. Indian religious quest has two main trends – Brahmanic and Sramanic. In the living world religions, Jainism as well as Buddhism belongs to the Sramanictrend. There were some other Sramanicreligions also but either they like Ājivika s disappeared in the course of time or they, like Šānkhya-Yoga and other ascetic systems of Hindu religions became part and parcel of great Hindu religion by adopting some tenets of Vedic religion.
Sramanic tradition is stereological in its very nature. It lays special emphasis on renunciation of worldly belongings and enjoyments and on emancipation from worldly existence, i.e. the cycle of birth and death. It may be accepted without any contradiction that these very ideas of emancipation (Moksa, Mukti, Nirvāṇa, Kaivalya) and renunciation (Tyaga, Samyama, Vairagya) have been cultivated by the Sramaņas. The asceticism is the fundamental concept of Sramanic tradition. It is on this ground that Jainism and Buddhism differ from the early Vedic religion.
The early Vedic religion was against asceticism and emphasized the material welfare of the individual and the society. The Vedic seers in their hymns were praising the worldly existence and praying for their own health and wealth as well as of their fellow beings, while the Śramaņas were condemning this worldly existence and propounding the theory that this worldly existence is full of suffering and the ultimate end of human life is to get rid of this
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