Panoramic View Of Jainism

Author(s): Ratankumar Jain
Publisher: Ratankumar Jain

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4.0 CERTAIN SPECIAL FEATURES OF JAINISM
4.1 THE ONTOLOGICAL VIEW The ontological view of Jains is concerned primarily with the life and existence rather than the creation of the universe and the conception of God. Jainism, however, cannot be regarded as agnosticism or metaphysical nihilism. It is to the credit of Jain thinkers that they constructed a philosophy and theory of reality out of the negative approach of those who wereprotesting the dogmatism of the Vedas. Jainism does not deny reality. Jain philosophers adopted a middle course by propounding a theory that the world consisted of two eternal, uncreated, coexisting but independent categories of substances: The conscious (jiva) and the unconscious(ajiva). They developed the logic that the world is notaltogether unknowable; only one should not be absolutely certain about one's assertions. Jain philosophers said that moral and religious values must be brought out of dogmatic slavery. Wisdom must be proved by reason which, in turn, depends on the experiences of self and of others. The human experience based on reason constitutes the data for the discovery of reality. 4.2 CONCEPT OF GODHOOD Professor Surendranath Dasgupta, the famous philosopher-historian, has described the concept of Godhood as follows:
"The true God is not the God as the architect of the universe, nor the God who tides over our economic difficulties or panders to our vanity by fulfilling our wishes, but it is the God who emerges within and through our value-sense, pulling us up and through the emergent ideals and with whom I may feel myself to be united in the deepest bonds of love. The dominance of value in all its forms presupposes love, for it is the love for the ideal that leads us to forget our biological encumbrances. Love is to be distinguished from passion by the fact that while the latter is initiated biologically, the former is initiated from a devotedness to the ideal. When a consummating love of this description is generated, man is raised to Godhood and God to man."
(9) This corresponds to the Jain approach to Godhood. In Jainism, God is the supreme manifestation of human excellence. 4.3 PESSIMISM vs. OPTIMISM
Jainism is often considered to have a prevailing note ofpessimism about life. This is not true. The tone ofhopefulness pervades all aspects of Jain philosophy. "We hear much indeed of philosophy", observes Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, "as a call to transcend the narrowness of egoism and identifyourselves with something greater than ourselves as the way of salvation, but this is not in order to escape from theineradicable evil of existence but in order to find ourselves in things that give to existence its only true value." For "in the man who transcends his narrow self and merges it in the life of the whole philosophy as truth, religion as devotion and morality as goodness meet." This is similar to the Jain view of life described earlier. 4.4 THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN PEACE
We are all pilgrims of peace. So far, we have not succeeded in our quest. No doubt we have discovered science and science has given us new powers but it has not brought peace. The time has now come when philosophy and religion should turn theirattention to the problem of peace on earth. Jainism, owing to its comprehensive and accommodative nature, is well-equipped to solve the problem of world peace. Jainism preaches multiplicity of viewpoints (anekantavada) which weans us from tooexclusive occupations and dogmatic suppositions. The gigantic experiments going on throughout the world need a fullerunderstanding of the minds of the leaders of thought irrespective of their, social outlook, political beliefs,religious creed or nationality. With the complexity and vastness of the subject matter, the attainment of unanimity remains only an ideal. Great thinkers have made varied attempts to reach this ideal. It is essential that people should look at things from as many viewpoints as possible and reach an acceptable solution to problems.