Religion and Philosophy of the Jainas

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Jain International Ahmedabad

Page 13

12 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE JAINAS
There are infinite souls. The entire universe is filled with minute living beings. Clay, stones, etc., as they come fresh from the earth have life. Water, air and fire have life. And vegetables, trees, fruits have life. The living beings are divided into five classes on the basis of the number of sense-organs they have.
In its mundane state the soul is soiled with passions, it performs activities, enjoys pleasures and suffers pain. When passions are totally exterminated, the soul attains perfection. Infinite knowledge and infinite bliss manifest themselves in the perfect soul. This perfection of the individuality is the Jaina liberation. The individuality is not merged into anything, nor is it annihilated.
While discussing the means of liberation, Gandhi contrasts the Jaina view with the Vedānta one which contends that through knowledge alone one attains liberation. He writes : “Through work and knowledge, Jainism says, the individual develops and unfolds the potential; therefore the statement, 'I am Brahman', would be interpreted by a Jaina to mean - I am Brahman only inherently, or in embryo; I have the capacity or the actual possiblity of Brahman, what I am implicitly must become explicit. There is a vast difference between the implicit and the explicit. Those who do not recognise this difference would never make an attempt to become rational and free. In the view of Jaina philosophy, the measure of truth is samyagjñāna, that is, knowledge purged of all infatuating elements. The constitution of man is such that as soon as he removes moral vices, his intellective processes flow into a pure channel. I may add that knowledge as knowledge or morality as morality is not the ideal of the Jainas. In fact, some kind of action always goes with every form of knowledge. We never meet with knowledge without action, or action without knowledge. True advancement consists in both being right and consistent."
Chapter 5 deals with the Jaina view of the universe. The universe is infinite in space and eternal in time from the standpoint of its totality. But it is finite in space and non-eternal