YJA Convention 1996 07 San Francisco CA Second

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

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therefore these women are said to be excessively negligent" (Jaini 1991,142). This makes them unable to deal with the harsh conditions of ascetic life.
The Svetambara responses to these generalizations are vague. They do not directly respond to the Digambara claims, rather they dilute the claims by citing famous women in literature who demonstrated great spiritual or moral courage or blaming males who are as guilty of moral defects as women. A well-known tale used by the Svetambaras to refute Digambara claims involves the story of Rajimati, the fiancee of Nemi, the twenty-second Tirthankara, who renounced the world on her wedding day. After renouncing worldly pleasures, she was practicing penance on the mountain of Girnara where her brother-in-law, Rahanemi, was doing the same. Overcome by lust, Rahameni began to say suggestive things to her. But the spiritually-minded and virtuous Rajimati resisted his advances and put him on the right path by offering him a drink in which she had vomited (Jain 1974,71). This story illustrates the idea that women cannot be categorized under the sweeping generalization that they all used their bodies to deviate straight minded men from their path.
Women & the Position of Spiritual Power
Attaining moksa is the final goal in Jainism. At this level, the Digambars and Svetambars clearly disagree whether this goal can be reached by women. Svetambars state that women are just as able as men to manage the hardships of mendicancy. Furthermore, women are also equal in mental capacity to men to maintain this extreme level of devotion and spirituality. Yet these characteristics only apply to a woman's ability to reach moksa, and not the position of Tirthankara.
A Tirthankara goes beyond following Jain tenets and upholding the faith to "activate the Three Jewels, the uncreated Jain teachings of right faith, right knowledge and right practice, and who found a community of ascetic and lay followers which serves as a spiritual ford (tirtha) for human beings over the ocean of rebirth" (Dundas 1992,18). A Tirthankara is a brilliant personality, one who is capable of obtaining an enormous amount of devotion, loyalty, love, and respect. In the times where Tirthankaras have lived, these qualities have generally been shown to men. Society has rarely given a women the ability to attract such power.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dundas, Paul. ed, Hinnells, J. and Smart, N. The Jains. Routledge: London, 1992. Jain, K. C., Lord Mahavira and His Times. Motilal Banarsidass: Delhi, 1974.
Jaini, Padmanabh. Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women. University of California Press, 1991.
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