Sumati Jnana

Author(s): Shivkant Dwivedi, Navneet Jain
Publisher: Shantisagar Chhani Granthamala

Page 24

Jainism
Dr. A. K. Bandyopadhyay
“Religion” is something spiritual and emotional. In the conventional use of the term, it means "a belief in and reverence for a supernatural power accepted as the Creator and Governor of the Universe”. Religion recognizes the existence of a superhuman power or powers. It is a specified unified system of reverence, feeling and worship. Religion comprises, within it, ethics or a system of moral principles or values, theology or organised and formulated body of views and opinions concerning God and man's relationship with God; philosophy or pursuit of wisdom by intellectual investigation and moral discipline and enquiry into laws and causes under lying reality or nature of things based on logical reasoning, metaphysics or systematic investigation of the nature of first principles and problems of ultimate reality; logic or reasoning; epistemology or investigation into the nature and origin of knowledge; and even aesthetics or the theory of beauty and artistic experiences. In the conventional sense, religion presupposes worship of God and pursuit of rituals and sacrifices to propitiate Him.
Jainism, like Budhism which came later, does not conform to the above idea or religion. If religion means self-development and enquiry into the nature of Truth, both Jainism and Buddhism come to the forefront. The teachers of Jainism and Buddhism do not talk of a God, though they had the essential and divine nature of God. Both were "God-less" and the teachers themselves became God in course of time. They believed in self-enquiry and practice of morality in one's life. Self-discipline, self-questioning, development of selfknowledge and rightful moral conduct could bring human liberation i. e. “Nirvāna" or "Moksha". Pursuit of truth with self-purification and not sacrifices or “Yajnas” can only lead to salvation. The road of freedom or liberation was open to all, irrespective of castes and creeds and without rituals but through self-discipline. Human beings can evolve to perfection by their own efforts and knowledge of reality of the world and their own minds.