What is Jainism

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

Page 68

ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
2. The disease-marks are the ignorant jivas, the pro
duct of the interaction between spirit and matter ;
they are 'blind' at first on account of ignorance. 3. But when they become self-conscious in consequence
of Brahman Jñana (prayer to Brahmâ) their eyes are, as it were, opened. Hence, Brahma is said to have converted the ugly spots on the body of Indra into
eyes. 4. Indra is the father of his own father, because (a) the term father is a symbol for what is termed the
material cause of a thing, and (b) because the material cause of a purified spirit is an
impure ego, while the latter is itself the product of the union of pure spirit and matter. Hence, is the one
conceived to be the source (father) of the other. Such briefly is the nature of Indra and such the description of his highly reprehensible adultery with his preceptor's wife. We have no time to go into further details here, but it may be stated that the enemy of this god is the demon of darkness which stands for ignorance, and the rain that is associated with his name is the peaceful shower of santi (tranquillity) which descends when the heat of passions and mithyatva (error) has subsided.
Agni, the third member of this most important trio of deities, is the symbolisation of tapas as already stated. It would be most irrelevant and absurd to treat this deity as a personification of fire or of the culinary art ; but the relevancy of tapas needs no demonstration.
Even the word Agni (fire) is the most appropriate one for tapas, because asceticism is really the purification of the mind by the fire of vair igya, or the baptism of fire, as it is termed, in the canonical books of Christianity. As for the special characteristics of Agni, the god
(i) has three feet, (ii) seven hands, and (iii) seven tongues ;