Path of Arhat

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Smarak Parshwanath Shodhpitha Varanasi

Page 77

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The Path of Arhat : A Religious Democracy
and ideas, it is of no use to claim further that this force can be realised through the cultivation and development of spiritual potentiality inherent in ourself.
“Thou art that ( Tattvamasi ) is as much the call of the Jainas as that of the Upanişadas. Western ontologists have failed to recognise this. With regard to cosmological approach, the Jainas fully adhere the theory of causation, being most vocal advocates of the theory of Karma. They would, however, disagree with the cosmologists that root cause of all effects is external to our own self. Jainism maintains you are your own cause and your own effect and it is by your own effort and exertion that you can reap results, good or bad. If there is an ultimate cause, it is within you and not outside you. You are, therefore, your own master, your own God. You are not survile or subservient to any outside agency. Finality is your own potential. As Brhadaranyaka Upanişad puts it :
“Whoever worships God as other than the self, thinking He is one and I am another, knows not.” Bhagavadgitā also recognises this truth wherein Lord says — “isvaraḥ sarva bhūtānāṁ hsddese’rjuna tişthati.” Oh Arjuna, God dwells in the heart of every being. 1 Aristotle utterred a great truth, "To be happy means to be self sufficient'. Salvation, according to Jaina seers, is not a gift of capricious gods, but is to be won by earnest seeking and self discipline. Man, according to them is the sole and absolute master of his fate; but so long as his vision is clouded by ignorance, resulting in attachments, envy and arrogance, he is not able to see the path of freedom. If he is found fettered by chains, these chains are of his own forging, and by proper efforts, only he can rend them asunder.
The Indian philosophical system of 'Nyaya' is very much akin to the thinking of Western ontological philosophers on this point. Jaina reply to Nyāya philosophers is that if God,
1. $597: Fagarai passeja fagfar', Bhagavadgita 18/61.