Mahavira His Life and Teachings

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Luzac and Co UK

Page 95

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MAHĀVĪRA: HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS
The articles of the Jaina faith are all formulated with a view to producing a mental disposition and outlook which is different from that which is likely to be produced by the various types of akriyāvāda, ajñānavāda, and vinayavāda.1
The excellence of faith depends on the following points that one has no doubts about the truth of the tenets, that one has no preference for the tenets of others, that one does not doubt the saving qualities of one's own faith, that one is not shaken in the right belief, that one praises the pious, that one encourages the weak fellows, that one supports and loves the confessors of the law, and that one endeavours to exalt one's own faith 2
A man of knowledge is a man of faith, and a man of faith is a man of action Virtue consists in right conduct But there is no right conduct without right belief, and no right belief without the right perception of truth The quintessence of right conduct is the purity of morals which is achieved by the threefold restraint, the restraint of the body, the restraint of speech, the restraint of mind. The first step to virtue lies in the avoid
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1 Sūtrakrtānga, II, 5 the Lecture called Freedom from Error.
2 Uttaradhyayana-Sutra, XXVIII.
3 Ibid, XXVIII, 28 29
* Sūtrakṛtānga, I, 1. 2 27.