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Whitehead's Constructive Metaphysics for an Emerging Jain Diapsora Community
Rafael Reyes III
[The past century has witnessed the growth of about three million Diaspora Jains, spreading through out the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, East Africa as well as West-South and South-East Asia. This has led to the emergence of thought, prehending of multifarious ideas and experiences. As a result, there are visible differences between traditions of Orthodox Jains and Diaspora Jains. This deference may be expressed Anne Valley's chapter, title From liberation to ecology; Ethical discourses among Orthodox and Daispora Jain. Here he deals with diferences between the two.
For its treatment, the present paper takes the basis of philosophy of organism, constructive metaphysics of Alfred North Whiteheed, treated in his work 'Religion in the making'. This paper has underlined the marked differences through the respective version of famous story of 22 Tirthankara Neminatha. Through the analysis of both the versions it is derived that the emphasis of Orthodox Jainism is on ahimsă, aprigraha and anekāntavāda with central focus on liberation. While Daispora Jains are socio-centric. The response of Neminath to the cry of animal is also different. The problems discussed here in, to mark differences between traditional and Orthodox Jains are creativity, tradition and novelity, ontology and relationality.
The author concludes that Whitehead's constructive metaphysics provides a dynamic process to experience, define and refine the Diaspora Jain philosophy as well as religion, developing a way of life that espouses the three views of ahimsa, aprigraha and anekantaväda.]
Jainism as a religious and philosophical system is at an emergent period. In Jains in India and Abroad: A Sociological Introduction, Prakash C. Jain states that within the past century the growth of Diaspora Jains has been estimated at about 3 million, spreading throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, East Africa, as well as West, South and South-East Asia.' With this emergent growth comes another emergence; an emergence of thought, a prehending of multifarious ideas and experiences which have shaped diaspora Jains to express differences and push against certain traditions of classical Jains.
In Religion in the Making, Alfred North Whitehead writes that religion as expressed in human history goes through four sides or factors of itself. It ia ritual of sorts: ritual, emotion, belief and rationalization. These stages are gradual and increase in emphasis as Whitehead writes, "But certainly, when we go far enough back, belief and rationalization are completely negligible and emotion is merely a secondary result of ritual. Then emotion takes the lead and the ritual is for the emotion which it generates. Belief then makes its appearance as explanatory of the complex of ritual and emotion and in this appearance of belief we may discern the germ of rationalization." Whitehead and I myself, use this way of understanding the emergence of
