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THE ETHICAL CATEGORIES
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ing from the non-observance of the five cardinal virtues---constitute bad actions. These result in the individual suffering the experience of pain (asāta-vedaniya), leading an evil life (aśubha-āyus), having an unattractive and unhealthy physique (aśubha-nāman) and being born amidst unfavourable surroundings (aśubha-gotra).
Hence it is held by the Jaina philosophers that though leading a righteous life is better than leading an unrighteous one, it is not sufficient. No doubt, being born under favourable circumstances, having a healthy and long life, etc. facilitate the process of attaining perfection in that the chances of concentrating on the real problem of existence--problem of disengaging the jīva from the pollutions of the ajīva—become more. Here it should be noted that from the point of view of man himself we may say that the human ideal (of attaining liberation) gets more and more thought about as a result of favourable circumstances, but that the basic truth in Jainism is that freedom is not merely the ideal of man but that of the conscious principle (jiva) as a whole.
The ultimate ideal, being therefore the dissociation of the jīva from the ajīva, it cannot be attained merely by having pleasant experiences--however desirable these may be from the point of view of those who do not have them. The positive suggestion, therefore, is that since attachment is the ultimate cause of both good and bad actions and since both types of actions keep the individual 'bound', i. e., subjected to taking endless number of births to have the corresponding fruits, the aspirant for spiritual perfection should aim at developing the attitude of non-attachment. Once this happens, he is certainly on the highway leading to liberation. In respect of this suggestion Jainism does not differ from the other schools of Indian thought that escaping from the evils of saṁsāra entails an attitude of non-attachment towards both good and evil.
Āśrava and Bandha : The description of the next five categories is as interesting as it is important since it contains the clearcut ideas of the Jaina philosophers on the way in which freedom from the evil effects of karma is obtained. It may not be out of place here to suggest that the Jaina description of the process of getting bound by the jīva) and the technique' of liberation is almost along the lines on which the affliction of the physical body
3 Ibid., VIII. 26
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