Philosophical Writings

Author(s): Hemant Shah
Publisher: Academy of Philosophy

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Philosophical Writings
The efforts by a Jaina to strive for a higher and higher spiritual development is his real freedom. The complete spiritual development is the final, the fourteenth stage, of spiritual development known as 'Gunasthana wherein the soul is permanently liberated, and attains Siddha-hood. “This stage, in Jainism, is called the state of AyogiKevallin' which is attained when one has completely annihilated his Karmas and is thus free from the Law of Karma, i.e. free from causation."17 He is free from the cycle of birth and death and "the soul goes to the end of the universe”18 which is called 'Siddha-Shila and dwells there without visible pace. The soul in this stage enjoys unlimited freedom. “It enjoys infinite, incomparable, indestructible supernatural happiness and salvation. The soul in this highest stage, the 'Ayogi-Kevalin' stage, is free from all the connections and is omniscient, and does not perform any activity."19 Thus, we have seen how Jainism accepts partial determinism and also makes a place for limited as well as unlimited freedom. This is how according to Jainism one is fully and morally responsible for what one is or is not. There is no fatalism or predestination in Jainism. A Jaina relies on his own strength which he himself has to develop. His strength comes not from any external source but from within, as a result of his own endeavor. "In his mammoth book, Being and Nothingness, the famous French philosopher and thinker, Jean Paul Sartre, argued that we are always absolutely free. We are 'condemned to be free' he says, in a phrase that has become famous.”20 One might argue that Sartre simply echoes the Jaina conception of freedom. On attaining absolute freedom, the soul possesses the infinite capacity to know, to do and to enjoy. The liberated soul has nothing to do, no question to choose or not to choose, and no question of obligation or right. One might feel it is better to have limited freedom in the world rather than unlimited or absolute freedom in 'SiddhaShila,' But for Jainism there is both, each at its appropriate stage.