Lord Mahavira and His Teachings

Author(s): Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 37

Lord Mahavira and His Teachings
15
The question of exchanging one's sins or merits with any other soul is irrelevant. Now, clearly such an attitude does not leave one at the mercy of an outside agency, divine or semi-divine and enables one to work with confidence and hope. The individual, however criminal under the stress of internal and external forces, need not despair because he is latently divine, and a day will come when he will realize himself.
Jainism lays down certain ethical standards, which are duly graded for the uplift of the individual as a social being: As long as he lives as a member of society, besides what he owes to himself for his spiritual betterment, he owes a good deal to the society in which he is living; but if-he relinquishes the world and leads the life of an ascetic, his ties with society and his responsibilities towards it are considerably reduced. In Jainism, the duties of a householder are in miniature those of a monk; and a householder, while duly carrying out his household duties, rises steadily to the status of a monk.
Ahimsa is the most important principle that permeates the Jaina outlook on life. In simple language it means the greatest possible kindness towards the animate world. Jainism has prepared a praded series of living beings; and a religious person hag to strive his best to minimise harm to them. Every living being has a sanctity and a dignity of its own; and one has to respect it as one expects one's own dignity to be respected. A man of kindly taroperament sheds around him an atmosphere a Hladness. Jainism has firmly held that life is mered