Book Title: Religion and Culture of the Jains
Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 90
________________ 76 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

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258