Sambodhi 1973 Vol 02

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 37

Evolution of the Jaina Treatment of Ethical Problems
31
By the times of Buddha and Mahavira the society of Vedic Aryans had reached a stage of development when the emergence of an affluent minority became a most conspicuous feature of it and the affluence of this minority was earned at the expense of the greater or lesser pauperi. zation of the majority. So when the monastic communities of those times were denouncing the lust for property-a denunciation implicit in the very act of world-renunciation on their part-they were in fact denouncing the misdeeds of the affluent minority standing atop the contemporary society. And the so wide prevalence of the monastic movement was proof positive that such a denunciation was most timely. True, in its innermost essence the monastic movement was a religious phenomenon - not a social phenomenon; but in those times religion stood much more intimately related to the vitals of social life than it is in our times. Nay, in those times religion was perhaps the most potent- if not the only-ideological vehicle of conveying a social message that was to prove effective. Certainly, it was precisely because our monks were 'men of religion-oot 'men of worldly affairs'--that their criticism of the spirit of acquisitiveness must have sounded so reasonable they themselves having no axe to grindso to say ); and it was as such that this criticism must have mitigated - to whatever extent possible - the ill consequences of the economic inequlity that had arisen in the contemporary society. Thus not to claim a special kinship with any part of the regular society was the very essence of a monk's career; hence it appears implausible that in those times there were Jaina householders just as there were Jaina monks. On this question the testimony of certain old Jaina texts is revealing and should be taken note of.
It is not accidental that those oldest available Jaina texts-the Acaranga 1 Srutaskandha and Sutrakstāfiga I Srutaskandha-do not at all envisage the possibility of there being any Jaina householders. Thus in these texts an ideal monk-that is, a Jaina monk in distinction from a non-Jaina one-is always contrasted to a householder as such without it being thought conceivable that there might be a person who is a householder as well as a Jaina. As a matter of fact, the tension built up between a monk and the regular society, particularly the former family-members of this monk-is a marked feature of these texts where social questions are touched upon. Thus in them the life of a householder is subjected to a trenchant criticism, the special dangers coming from the various quarters of the regular society and threatening a monk's composure are pointed out, the tempting offers held out by a monk's former family-members are graphically detailed. Of course, problems essentially similar to those were faced also by the latter-day Saina monks but their complexion qoderwent a qualitative change when householders