Sambodhi 1980 Vol 09

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

Page 43

Buddhist and Jaina Concepts of Man...
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human beings are born endowed with the potential to realize perfection, in the form of omniscience and absolute purity, during the course of their lifetimes. The leading figure in each religion (the Buddha and Mahāvīra) has obtained his perfection at a particular moment in history; he has risen beyond the human condition through his own efforts.
Although there are other Indian philosophical systems which are atheistic in theory, for instance, Mīmāmsaka, Sāmkhya, and Advaita Vedānta, these systems belong to the Vedic tradition in practice. The Mimāṁsakas believe in the absolute' authority of the Vedas and in the efficacy of sacrifice. The Sāmkhya maintains that an infinitely large number of puruşas are, in fact, eternally free from bondage. Monistic Vedānta, although atheistic, affirms the absolute and beginningless freedom from change of Brahman. Among these schools the Mīmāṁsaka does not address itself to the problem of salvation, but it assigns the function of God to the Veda itself. For both the Sāmkhya and the Advaita Vedānta bondage is not a real state but rather an illusion.
The avowedly theistic schools, Nyāya-Vaišeşika, Viśistādvaita and Dvaita Vedānta (the basis for Vaişnavism and saivism), and Yoga, accept a real state of bondage, but they believe that salvation is possible only through grace. Therefore their practitioners are at the mercy of God and can be characterized as "devotees".
The orthodox systems of philosophy, it must be noted, do not comprise orthodox Indian religion, which basically consists of Vaişnavism and Saivism. In these religions the individual practitioner is a believer in God up until the moment of his salvation.
There is a dramatic contrast between the orthodox religions' emphasis on grace and the heterodox religions' insistence upon individual effort. In the orthodox system man lives according to the will of God, who creates, sustains, and destroys him. As it is set forth in the Puruşasūkta, the human being is a part, together with all others, of the cosmic design, and he is linked with the other components of the cosmos, as well as with its creator. The concept of the four varnas defines the human hierarchy within this cosmos, and later texts, particularly the Epic (including the Bhagavad Gitā) and the Dharma Šāstra, outline for the individual his duties, privileges, and his identity with the group, as well as the reason for his particular activity (svadharma). The performance of duty, according to the Bhagavad Gita, is the supreme means of attaining salvation, because it upholds cosmic law, does not transgress the individual's svabhāva (as defined by Sambodhi ix (6)