Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 178

VALUÉS AND RELIGION
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that "in insulating themselves from their followmen, these saints were entering into a far more active relation with a far wider circle than any that would have centred round them if they had remained 'in the World' and had spent their lives in some secular occupation. They swa yed the World from their retreats to greater effect than the Emperor in his capital, because their personal pursuit of holiness through seeking communion with God was a form of social action that moved men more powerfully than any secular social service on the political plane," (op. cit., p. 639).
6. We have now discussed the influence of religion on the political, social and personal aspects of life and seen that it permeates all spheres of human activity. Religion, therefore, is an all-pervasive value, or rather the value of all values, if by value, we mean 'whatever is valuable to life'. In its generic aspect, religion also pervades artha and käma--the last two kinds of sreyas mentioned at the outset of the paper; in its specific aspects, it is limited only to the śreyas, viz. dharma which stands for religion as applied to different spheres of life. The trinity of dharma, artha and ka na is thus to be viewed as consisting of values subordinate to the supreme value of dharma in its generic aspect which is eternal and unchanging. The constituents of the trinity are the three classes of values--there being scope for change in each class within its range. Thus the multiplication and diversification of valuable objects by the development of industry and commerce do not necessitate any addition to the list. Similarly, dharma in its specific aspects provides full scope for change of values consequent upon an increased socialization of human life. The above classification of values, therefore, may be considered comprehensive and elastic enough to accommodate fresh values that may arise on account the 'change in the environing medium' and 'changes in ourselves'.
7. The trinity of canonized values known as "the True, the Beautiful and the Good" or the tetrad in which to these three is added the higher unity of God finds its parallel in the Vedantic trinity of sat (existence), cit (sentience) and änanda (bliss) as the three aspects of the non-dual Brahman (Tejobind ūpanişat, VI. 1-2; 30-31) -a trinity which is a unity in that its components are inaliena ble, nay, one without the other is unreal. Anything in order to be a value must be existent and of the nature of sentience and bliss. This is a transcendental view of value similar to the one propounded by Yudhisthira for whom nirvāṇa is the only end worthy of attainment (vide supra).
8. There is yet another mode of classification accepting as units those values or groups of values which have acquired an institutional