Nirgrantha-3

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 64

Vol. III, 1997-2002
The Nature of....
faculties, could directly visualise the auras of all living beings in their different leśyahues evidencing their thoughts and tendencies, and correlated these auras with the perfectly shining white aura of the Siddhas totally liberated from the factors binding down the soul to the different hues, popularly called kasaya. And, as Tirthamkaras, they served humanity by formulating a path or a ford through which the souls sinking. in the river, or ocean, of transmigration consequent to the 'dirt' clinging to them due to their actions guided by emotions and attachments, could be successfully purified and rescued. Naturally, this path was formulated on the rock of the five essential tenets of spiritual conduct, namely non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, abstinence, and non-possessiveness, acceptable equally to the Vedic seers. Being a highly disciplined Siddha himself, Mahāvīra reformulated the codes of conduct both for the renunciates and the householders, in line with the situation as obtained in his times, but adhered to the spiritual tradition as it is supposed to have come down right from the first Tirthamkara Ṛṣabha through 22 Tirthamkaras, all of whom preceded him. In view of their practical need to picture the nature of the soul as sinking in the cycle of transmigration, and in view of their own day-to-day visualization of the auras of the souls of various followers who adhered to their path of spiritualism, they talked about a soul only from the viewpoint of their astral level, rather than that of the celestial or the absolute level. And, installing their own examples as the picture of the highest attainable level, they did not see any necessity of teaching anything about God as a Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer of the world, since it was already before them and it was going to last beyond their several life-spans, and any curiosity regarding its origin etc., was quite irrelevant, in view of their goal of total liberation from the cycle of birth and death. They have likened the soul to a flame of a lamp which, like the soul, spreads the light of knowledge. Mahāvīra seems to be highly cautious not to picture the nature of soul from levels higher than the causal, since it is up to this level that the soul is possessed of "bodies" in the form of auras in consonance with their state and shape in a particular level of existence. Further, he was cautious not to talk of the highest level of the nature of the soul, which would tend to contribute to determinism, a thing which was fatal to the path of perfection through persistent endeavour, in the form of pure five-fold very strict code of conduct to be practised in very minute way in day-to-day life as an ascetic. Thus, the original discussion of the size of the soul in the Nirgrantha agamas as the one corresponding to the size of the body occupied by it, clearly refers to its physical as well as the astral bodies, as were visible to the Siddhas; all of whom had attained kevala jñāna or omniscience. And, it was this astral level which indicated the accumulation of the hues or the kaṣāyas on to them, and it was on the basis of the purity in the form of the perfect whiteness of the hue that the soul's progress towards the goal of complete freedom from the kasayas or passions was to be judged. Thus, it was this highly practical point of view that necessitated their choice of the level which should be kept in mind while imparting their teaching to the masses, and inspiring them to take to their path of
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