World Of Jainism

Author(s): Vishwanath Pandey
Publisher: Vishwanath Pandey

Page 78

76
THE ORIENT
eternal bliss. These classes have further divisions and subdivisions. The space does not permit to furnish all the details here,
It is, however, interesting to note in this context the Jaina doctrine or coloration (lesya). Lesya refers to different conditions produced in the soul by different karmas which are conceived in terms of different colours such as black, grey and white. Again, these lesyas have different tastes, smells character, variety and so on. It is supposed that if the passions of the soul are deeper, the lesyas are darker. A soul free from the passions has purely white lesyas. Uttaradhyayana Sutra (XXXIV) gives an exhaustive description of these lesyas. The doctrine of lesyas appear to be highly fanciful description of the notion of karmas. Dr. B. C. Law thinks that the Buddhist idea of mental contamination by the influx of impurities from outside seems to have some bearing on the Jaina doctrine of six lesyas.
It is due to karma the soul is polluted and is enchained (bandha). It has to be liberated (moksa) by destroying (nirjara) the karmic matter which veils it. This can be done only by right belief. In India the truth is not only to be known but also to be realized. Here metaphysics, religion and ethics go together. Life is an integrated reality. Knowledge, faith and action are complementary to one another. This is the ideal of Samyag-jivana, right life. I quote below in full a very interesting passage from Uttanadhyayana Sutra which poses the ethical problem very distinctly: "A man attached to pleasures and amusements will be caught in the trap (of deceit). (He thinks): 'I never saw the next world, but I have seen with my own eyes the pleasures of this life'. The pleasure of this life are (as it were) in your hand, but the future ones are uncertain. Who knows whether there is next world or not? Then he begins to act cruelly against movable and immovable beings, and he kills living beings with a purpose or without. An ignorant man kills, lies, deceives, calumniates, dissembles, drinks liquor, and eats meat, thinking that this is the right thing to do. Overbearing in acts and words, desires for wealth and women, he accumulates sins into two ways, just as a young snake gathers dust (in and out of its body). Then he suffers ill and is attacked by disease; and he is in dread of the next world when he reflects on his deeds. I have heard of the places in hell, and of the destination of the sinner, where the fools who do cruel deeds will suffer violently". This passage of the sutra sums up the Jaina view of life and the world.
42. Shri Mahavira Commemorative Volume, Vol. I, p. 158 (Mahavira
Jain Society, Belaganj, Agra, 1950). 43. V, 1-12 also in Akaranga, I, 3, 2 with slight variation.