What is Jainism

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

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JAINA DOCTRINE its own real, natural feeling. It may be stated that pleasure or happiness is of three kinds, namely,
1. physical, that is sense produced, 2. mental, that depends on the pleasant aspect of a mental
picture, and 3. spiritual, that is independent of both the senses and
the mind, or imagination, and arises only when the soul is left free to itself to feel its own natural state,
which is joyous. The entirety of the soul-substance being but a simple, partless entity cannot but be Knowledge and Joy all over for the foregoing reasons.
The Jaina Siddhanta, therefore, points out that what we set out to obtain, namely, immortality, omniscience and bliss, are not far to seek, being our own nature. These are, however, not available to us today on account of the limitations imposed on our nature by our circumstances. Being associated with a perishable material body, the soul is subject to birth and death, while matter also acts against it to obstruct its knowledge and joy. Freedom from matter alone, then, can give us the immortality, the all-wisdom and the joy of Gods that we are hankering after.
Such is the Doctrine of Jainism. But I should point out that the Jaina Siddhanta is not merely a body of theoretical doctrines ; IT IS A PRACTICAL RELIGION OF LIVING TRUTH. Every statement of its doctrine is actually founded upon the practical experience of the very large number of Souls that have benefited by its teaching. Repeatedly have practical experience and knowledge justified the truth of the Jaina Doctrine, and the lives of those Great Ones who have attained to the Supreme Status of Divinity by following the teaching may be read in the Puranas which contain them.
The Jaina Ethics embody the practical rules of Right Conduct that enable the soul to become a God. The immediate effect of the acceptance of the Jaina doctrine is to make the worst sinner a good citizen at heart. He will then advance on the path of piety and virtue, rising, constantly, through the householder's life, to sainthood.