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Jaina Philosophy and Religion
Dr. Vishwanath Pandey
India has been a cradle of civilization and culture. Its geographical boundaries, its mountains and rivers, its rich forests and high yielding plains all along with its moderate climate have contributed to the richness of its civilization and culture. A bountiful nature always nurses a glorious culture. But the peculiarity of Indian culture has been richness coupled with variety. Unity in diversity is a novelty of India. And this characteristic is nowhere better expressed than in its philosophy
Indian Philosophy begins in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom. In the absence of internal or external constraints subjecting human psyche to conform to any given pattern of thought, early Indian thought had to conform to no other norm excent the one laid down by itself. This is the reason why Indian mind was busy in the search for truth rather than accepting one on faith. External aggressions and inner compulsions that early India occasionally felt could not disturb its free intellectual fervour. On the contrary these disturbances deepened its quest. The Mahabharata war no doubt left a deep impact upon the mind of the people. But the quest continued. The only change that it produced was that the starch became inward and it is in the light of this intellectual temper that we have to consider Jainism.
The Vedic speculations are marked by its ethical and philosophical optimism. Numerous ideas giving birth to different philosophical systems are found in the Vedas. From the metaphysical point of view, many views such as pluralism, monothiesm, monism, materialism and even agnosticism can be traced to the Vedas. From the religious and ethical point of view, we find in them the ideas of rebirth, efficacy of karma and final liberation. The Upanisads elaborated these ideas and became more explicit on many points left somewhat in suspension in the Vedas. Metaphysically, they gave prominence to the Atman theory and discouraged skepticism and agnoticism. They are very vocal about the possibility of liberation (Moksa) and suggest several means to attain it. The path of knowledge is one such means and perhaps the surest one, although the significance of sacrifice is not underrated. The efficacy of Karma is here beyond question.
However, the crystalization of the Vedic thinking in the Upanisads could not dispel other philosophical speculations. One can find their echo in the Upanisads also. The period between the composition of the Upanisads and the emergence
