Uniqueness of jain Spirituality

Author(s): Ramjee Singh
Publisher: Z_Sumanmuni_Padmamaharshi_Granth_012027.pdf

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Glory of Jain Culture
THE UNIQUENESS OF Jain SPIRITUALITY
Prof. Ramjee Singh
Emeritus Fellow Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur (INDIA)
"self-propelling force". It does not look outside but looks within and finds the truth that man is the master of his own destinies. All our pleasures and pains are result of our own actions, called karma. Our saviours or enemies are not outside us.
When we look to this universe, many questions come to us.. who created and who sustains it? Where do we stand in this great structure and who governs our destinies.. some outside force like God or is there any other set of rules called Fate ? The most simplistic explanation is to rest with the concept of God, who is at once regarded not only the creator, preserver and destroyer but also all perfect i.e., omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent etc. Connected with such magestic concept of God, there is the doctrine of God's grace. The redemption of every individual lies in offering sincere repentence and prayers to be relieved of the sin. Those who are somewhat sophisticated in their explanation attribute the sustenance and control of our destinies to some outside divine force and so on.
But there is no caprice or irrationality in the universe of karma. The Law of Karma works in the moral field just as the law of causation which works in the field of physical phenomenon. This law of moral causation is autonomous and independent and also supreme. Hence the Jainas do not need a Creator God or a Dispensor of fruits of one's action. It has faith in the capacity of the spirit in man.. the spiritual creative force called the Atman. It can achieve the four-fold infinities.. infinite faith, infinite knowledge, infinite power and infinite bliss (ananta-chatustaya). Thus the individual self is raised to an infinite temporal and spiritual hight. We can see raising the self to the status of the Supreme also in the Upanisadic-Vedantic philosophy of That Thou Art (Tat tvam asi). When the Self is raised to the status of the supreme itself, he does not need anybody's grace. Hence salvation of the self is not the gift of any capricious being but it is the direct result of our earnest effort and self-descipline.
The Jainas need no such hypothesis. It conceived an autonomous universe and an autonomous self. When we transcend the limits of ordinary biological man, we come in contact with our pure personality which is called self (Atman or Jiva). This, is the experience of pure spirituality or pure experience. This is the absolute concrete truth. Jainism conceives the whole universe as a great cosmic mechanism with its own structure and functions and also with its own
The Uniqueness of Jain Spirituality