________________
Society in Jaina Philosophy and Literature
This statement inspires us to leave the bad acts and do the good acts. Good action may be of two types - first leads to self-purification and other one instructs in doing welfare of the society of all beings - including human beings. Upādhyāya Amar Muni (1966:21) accepts that:
“The feeling of renunciation in personal life is prerequisite for fair social well-being. Emancipation from limitless lust and desires is essential ethical
duty of a person for performing social service." Sukhlāl Sanghavī (1957: Part 2/146) observes:
“A society neither can entirely sustain on the maze of reclusive principles, nor can it rely on worldly pleasures. People believing only in worldly pleasures can submerge in the whirlpool of physical and materialistic ambitions, it is also true that high and dry philosophical inclination towards renunciation can also alienate living society from the source of vitality. It is historical and philosophical fact that involvement and detachment are the two sides of the same coin. No one can escape from doing evils, if he does not make efforts
for attaining virtues” (Translated from Hindī). Sāgarmal Jain (1982 II: 140) comments:
“Both world engagement and renunciation are relevant in their spheres, but mutual encroachments may endanger the significance of each of these two” (Translated from Hindī).
These statements by leading exponents prove that Jainism is not only considered to be a world-withdrawing religion, but it is a religion of acts of welfare too, and offers numerous significant ideas related to society.
