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80 Śramana, Vol 66, No. 2, April-June 2015
That seems both to recapitulate the Vedantic use of the image of waves not different from the body of water that is the ocean and yet retaining their separate identity24 but also to hint that it is the emergent pattern produced by the interaction in which the unity is to be found. The ability to see that picture comes, however, with the cultivation of the distinctively Jaina virtues of neutrality (madhyasthatā) and impartiality (samata), which for Yasovijaya are the grounding cosmopolitan virtues in a multi-faith community. Interestingly, Dara Shukoh appeals to the very same metaphor, again giving it a distinctive twist:
"The inter-relation between water and its waves is the same as that between body and soul or as that between śarīra and ātmā. The combination of waves, in their complete aspect, may be likened to abul-arwah or paramātmā; while water only is like the August Existence, or suddha or chetan."25
Here we have on display the two models of unity with which I began, the top-down model represented by the single pattern created by the waves in interaction with each other, and the bottom-up model signified by the body of water itself, to which all the waves belong. Where one might have expected the Jaina Yasovijaya to espouse the top-down model, and the Sufi Dara Shukoh the bottom-up model, what one finds instead is a desire by both to offer some accommodation of each model. And perhaps, indeed, a robust religious cosmopolitanism does require there to be space for both a unifying vision and a vision of unity.
References:
1. Goodman, Nelson. Ways of Worldmaking. The Harvester Press, 1978, p. 5.
2. Matilal, B. K., Central Philosophy of Jainism, L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedbad, 1981, p. 30
3. Desai, Mohanlal Dalichand. Yashovijayaji: The Life of a Great Jaina Scholar. Bombay: Meghji Hirji & Co., 1910, p.54
