Pearls of Jaina Wisdom

Author(s): Dulichand Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

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contribution to the field of Jainistic studies. It aims at various aspects of Jainism. It has rendered an invaluable service not only to the cause of Jainism, but also to the intellectual empire of the Indian people in general.
The contribution of the Jainas to the process of Indian thoughts and ideas are many, out of which only a few fundamental principles are adumbrated.
It is generally said that Jainism is basically a revolt against some of the fundamental issues of Vedic religion. But to me it appears that it is not. I believe that Jainism is one of the ways of interpreting human life and society, and from that point of view it is, in a sense, unique in its nature. Mahāvīra has, of course, challenged some of the fundamental issues of Vedic religion, but they are interpreted in a more straightforward way than were done before. His logic is more mundane and acute than the previous one. And from that point of view it seems revolutionary, but it is really not. Let us discuss some of the points in a nutshell.
In the first place it should be noted that at the time of Mahāvīra, the Vedic conception of the ultimate Reality or Divinity as an outside creator-God was in vogue. Mahāvīra challenged that idea ( Sūtrakstānga, 1.3.64-68 ). Not only that the conception of God as a Perfect Being was questioned. His argument was that if God were Perfect, then why were his creations imperfect? If the world is the creation of a Perfect Being, how is it that there are sorrows and sufferings, miseries and wants, and iniquities in His created beings ? Whatever may be the position of God as a Perfect Being, it is an undeniable fact that there are miseries in the world. The Jainas and the Buddhists went on further to emphasize that if the woes and troubles of the creatures were to be accounted for by the act of the creatures themselves and if the creator-God could not be held responsible for them, then what is the point of accepting the outside creator-God ?
So the Jainas eliminated the outside creator-God from their