World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 149

ued acquisition of more karmic matter. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krsna informs Arjuna that he should know his enemies to be kama (desire) and krodha (anger). Similarly, Jainism posits the 'doors' by which karmic matter enters the soul to be fourfold: anger, pride, deceit, and greed. In Jainism, the only means of slaying the four-headed dragon and thereby relieve oneself of the accumulation of karmic weight, is to completely withdraw oneself from the objective/material world. The model provided by the Tirthankaras, the Siddhas, the Preceptors, and the community of monks and nuns has offered a clear path for lessening one's karma and advancing toward the state of total purification.
Jainism is 'choro, choro, choro!' ('relinquish, relinquish, relinquish!') On account of this, Jains not only revere, but worship ascetics. The great Tirthankara's succeeded in relinquishing their worldly attachments and aversions and thereby attained total freedom from pudgala (matter). They left behind them a kind of metaphysical echo of the welfare (kalyan) generated by their presence that continues to reverberate in the cosmos and that can be mobilized by rituals and in other ways at the present time. Jains worship Tirthankaras by paying homage to the five great stages (panc kalyanak) of their lives, which are listed as 1) the descent of the Tirthankar-to-be into a human womb (cyavan), 2) his birth (janam), 3) his initiation as an ascetic (diksa), 4) his attainment of omniscience (kevaljnan), and 5) his final liberation. The devotional re-enactment of these stages enables the worshipper to emotionally connect with the Tirthankara's progression with the hope of attaining the same perfection at the end of the ritual. As the Tirthankara's are believed to exist on a plane, which is completely inaccessible to humans, worship is considered to be reflexive, i.e., the fruit of performing the ritual is attained from the performance of the ritual itself. The worshipper must therefore approach the ritual with the right spirit (bhava) in order for the rite to be effective. The crux of the ritual, which is the most important step in advancing towards liberation, lies in third stage, i.e., one's initiation into the ascetic lifestyle.
Given the Jain understanding of the defiling effects of karmic matter, the only rational response is to completely withdraw from the physical world. As Haribhadra notes, "the Yoga of Total Freedom (ayoga) is declared the highest of Yogas; Characterized by the renunciation of all things, it is truly the path of liberation." The prerequisite for the attainment of ayoga is the practice of Samarthya Yoga, which is the yoga of effort. The effort required for Samarthya Yoga denotes the strict adherence to certain precepts, which enable one to procure the energy (sakti) to separate oneself from matter. The degree of a persons' advancement on the spiritual path, indeed the very fact of his or her commitment to the Jaina ideal, is indicated by the religious practices which are undertaken - particularly those involving various self-imposed restraints. One must commit to certain goals (laksya),
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