Religion and Philosophy of the Jainas

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

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44 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE JAINAS giving up of dịști-rāga, as we Jainas call it, which are in our opinion the sine qua non of full and clear understanding of the self and the non-self, are seldom taken into consideration in the Westem method of thinking.
This vice of the popular method of thinking is specially apparent in religious propagandists and political leaders. Antiquity of Jainism
The opinions of scholars are divided as to the antiquity of Jainism, many claiming that it is older than Brahmanism.
When European scholars first began to investigate the history of Jainism, they were struck with the similarities between its ethical code and institutions and those of Buddhism; hence they thought that Jainism must be a branch of Buddhism. But thanks to the labours of Jacobi, Buhler and Leumann, it is now conclusively proved that Jainism is much older than Buddhism. Gautama sākyamuni mentioned Jainism. He said, “I hear that many Jaina monks received hospitality from you, and you must continue to furnish it to them.” He spoke to them as nirgrantha —- tieless. They have no money. They are homeless wanderers as Jesus was. At the advent of the Buddha the Jaina sect had already attained a prominent position in the religious world of India. Relation between the Jaina Philosophy and the Early Greek Philosophy
The first point demanding explanation is the relation between the Jaina philosophy and the early Greek philosophy. In my view there is no relation between them. The early Greek philosophers were pure physiologers; they mainly studied the material universe, and that in a rudely observational manner. We cannot call them materialists, for the antithesis between matter and spirit was unknown to them. The cosmic matter passed with them for something in itself living; they thought of it as animated, just as are particular organs. It is naive hylozoism. They were in search of an ultimate ground of the universe. The earliest Jaina records, on the other hand, dispense with this way of looking upon philosophical questions. They