Schools and Sects in Jaina Literature

Author(s): Amulyachandra Sen
Publisher: Vishwa Bharati Calcutta

Page 54

SCHOOLS AND SECTS IN JAINA LITERATURE
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followers are called Abaddhiyas because according to them the jīva is not bound by karman.129
artes.
IV. NIRGRANTHA CRITICISM OF OTHER SCHOOLS. The Jaina literature contains some criticism specifically directed against the beliefs and practices of some of the contemporary schools. Later commentators have read into many of the passages in the canon criticism of others by implication. These might or might not have been meant in the texts to be criticism against the parties, the commentators take them to be directed against, and are therefore unnecessary to deal with. But the other class wherein we find in a very clear manner the criticism made as also the party it is directed against, is important as it shows from yet another point of view the stand the early Nirgranthas took in contrast with their contemporaries.
The Ajiviyas have been criticised on the ground that they do not understand that things depend partly on fate and partly on human exertion.130
If everything was unalterably fixed, as the Ajīviyas believed, and if there was no purisakāra how was it that the gods only were gods and not everybody? A god attained to that status by dint of his exertion, otherwise all would have been gods or none would have been such. From our everyday experience we find that the course of things can be altered by human exertion," our reason dictates exertion which none can deny.
The Vedānta doctrine of the ātman being the substratum of all existence is criticised on the ground that if that were true how can the consequences of evil karman performed by one result in the suffering of the same individual ?132 The one ātman underlying all would make the consequences sufferable by all of the wrong deeds done by one or by another individual who had nothing to do with the wrong deed. Again, if there were one ātman common to all there would be no difference in the lots of individuals or in their castes or station in life, and all would be sharing equally the perfection of the atman.133 The inactivity of the puruşa of the Sāmkhya would also be open to the same objection of not accounting for the variety we find in the world in the lots of men. 184
*** Sth S. 7.3. 587. 130 Sat S. I.i.2.4. 181 Upās. 7.200. 14 Sit. 9. Li..10. 11 Sat. S. II.vi.48. 1. Sät. S. I.i.1.14.