________________
230: JAINS TODAY IN THE WORLD
Let us see what their main imprint has been, on the different domains we have mentioned above, and what remains of it today.
1) On philosophy and religion
Jains have always been great philosophers. Numerous are those whose treatises and commentaries expose their ideas about our world. They insist on their creed that the universe has never been created that it is eternal and experiences successive periods. Some scientists agree such an idea but a large majority continue to speak of a “big bang” without having definite proof of its cause and origin. Jains say also that the world contains different substances divided in beings with a soul (jīva) and things without a soul (ajiva). For them, all that lives has an eternal soul with innate qualities of absolute purity, knowledge and perfection but, due to the activities of body, speech and mind (yoga), it is obscured, deceived and veiled by minute particles of matter (karma) that stick to it and bind it to a cycle of transmigrations (saṁsāra) if nothing is done to remove that matter.
All Indians admit the laws of consequences of actions and of transmigrations of souls, but their opinions differ about the world. Hindus think that a God has created it and it passes trough successive periods of destructions and revivals. Regarding the soul, they assert that it may obtain liberation after various transmigrations and unites with the “Ātman” or “Supreme Brahman” Yoga philosophy proposes various means of liberation from material links (prakrti). Many of these are the same as those used by the Jains or some of their branches. So, a common origin appears, but it is difficult to say which theory was the initial one. Archaeological discoveries from the Indus Valley reveal a kind of Yogi that the Jains claim as one of them.
Buddhists, for their own part, are dubitative on the existence of a God creator but many of them consider Buddha as a God. They also
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
