Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
emphasis is laid on the pure niscaya-naya or the suddha-naya which is described as the only true and relevant point of view, and the vyavahāra-naya is rejected as an untrue or false point of view, which only means that it is irrelevant in that context. Apart from that state of transcendental spiritual concentration on the qualities of the pure soul, the practice of all religion and morality is simply vyavahāra, which is, in this context, not only relevant but commendable. Theory of Causation
The Jaina theory of causation may help a better understanding of this topic. Reflection being the moving spirit of philosophy, it engaged itself very early with searching for the origin of the world and formulating the law of causation. Many philosophers postulated a supreme being, or some one homogeneous substance, called it the origin of the world, or 'the first cause', and there they stopped. But, others, like the Jaina philosophers, said that if both the world and the first cause are reals, you cannot apply two different attitudes to them: if one is permanent and everlasting, the other must also be permanent and everlasting, and if the one is impermanent and perishable, the other must also be so. In fact, Jaina philosophy recognizes that both the attitudes can always be taken towards everything that is real, towards every reality, past, persent or future.
We have said that all the substances or reals which constitute the universe are subject to origination, destruction and permanence. Even though the world and its constituents are everlasting, each change or the way in which a being or a thing manifests itself has its origin, as well as its cause. The primary qualities of the ultimate atoms of matter and the qualities of each individual being or soul are perpetually changing their paryāyas or the modes of their manifestation. The relations between things and between beings are also constantly changing. The result is that new things and beings are continually