Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

Author(s): Tara Sethia
Publisher: California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Page 101

Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life
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the first place. Elsewhere, however, Haribhadra allows for the possibility of other non-Jain sectarian leaders and teachings in conformity with Jainism. Furthermore, in his so-called yoga works, Haribhadra explicitly regards inner calm of any sort as a guarantor of a general orientation towards that one path which leads to moksa.10
It must, however, be said that Haribhadra was no simple apologist for other faiths or tolerant irenicist. His writings appear as harbingers of the tensions which surfaced in an extended argument which preoccupied the Svetämbara Jain community during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Here, I will eschew any reference to anekantavāda as it is not relevant to the question, whether there is any possibility of correct moral behaviour on the part of those who do not follow the Jain path.
Perhaps, the best way to introduce this issue is by reference to a text which was written some time in the late 13th or early 14th century when the Svetambara Jain community was fragmented into a variety of rival sub sects seriously divided over issues relating to lineage, ritual and the sacred calendar. It is against this background that one Nayaprabha Ganin, a teacher of the subsect known as the Tapă Gaccha produced the Gurutattvapradipa. This work's alternative title, certainly the one by which it was known in the sixteenth century, was Utsūtrakandakuddala, literally meaning, "A Spade to Dig Up the Roots of Heresy." The title clearly conveys the purpose of the text which, in fact, was the first Tapă Gaccha text to engage in serious intra-Svetambara sectarian polemic.
In this text, the objects of the author's wrath range from opponents such as the Digambaras and the temple-dwelling
8 Haribhadra, Upadesapada v. 810 (Bhuleshvar: Sri Jinaśāna Ārādhană Trust, 1989). 9 Haribhadra, Upadeśapada, op. cit., v. 639.
10 Haribhadra, Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya v. 128 in Haribhadrayogabharati (Mumbai: Divyadarśan Trust, 1989).