Jainism the Creed for All Times

Author(s): D S Baya
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 52

ever limited in scope it may be. Therefore, there is no need to refute any view-point as false. It is this liberal outlook that keeps Jainas out of conflicts that rage between various other faiths and gives it its universal character. The Jaina activities or ethics are, again, not in conflict with any other faith as they are based on the principle of universal non-violence and aim at spiritual upliftment and plead a life-style of restraint and penance for its followers - both the clerics and the laymen. The key-prayer incorporates only bowing to five paragons of spiritual virtues and is absolutely qualitative in nature without any emphasis on any particular person or persons. Again, all those who possess those qualities are venerable to the Jainas irrespective of the caste or creed to which they might belong. What could be more liberal, more universal? Eternality And Historicity Of Jaina Dharma -
Eternality – Jaina mythology holds that Jainism is an eternal faith that is believed to have been preached by infinite number of such Jinas in the beginningless past, is being preached by the Jinas present in another inaccessible region called Mahāvideha Ksetra at present and which will be preached by infinite number of more such Jinas in the coming times. Each Jina re-emphasises the precepts, preached by the Jinas before Him, as their effect fades with the passage of time.
According to the Jaina belief, each aeon (Kāla-cakra or time cycle) consists of two phases -- the ascendant phase known as Utsarpiņi Kāla and the descendent phase known as the Avasarpini Kāla. Each of these phases is further sub-devided into six eras known as Ārā. In each of these phases twenty-four Jinas or Prophet-propounders propound and preach the faith at widely separated epochs of time in the third and the fourth Arās of each phase. Presently, we are living in the fifth Ara of the Avasarpini Kāla or the descendent time phase of the current time-cycle. In the third and the fourth Ārās of this descendent time phase, too, 24 : JAINISM: THE CREED FOR ALL TIMES