1.Nature of Divinity in Jaina Philosophy: Religion as a way of life and
not merely as an institution, has been natural to man. It is man’s reaction to
the totality of things as he apprehends it. It implies an interpretation of
nature and the meaning of the universe. It seeks to go beyond the veil of
visible things and finds an inexhaustible fund of spiritual power to help him
in life’s struggle in this life. The ways of god to ma and man I his struggles
in this life. The ways of the gods have been rich and varied. It may be, as
Prof. Leuba pointed out, that fear was the first of the emotions to become
organised in human life, and out of this fear God was born. Perhaps love and
gratitude are just as natural, as much integral parts of the constitution of
man, as fear; and gods were friendly beings it is still possible that men have
looked at gods with leaving sense of kinship and not with the vague fear of the
unknown powers.1 We do not know. But o
etching is certain that in higher religions fear is sublimated by love into an
adoring reverence.2 From the fear of
the Lord in the old Testament to the
worship of God’ with godly fear ad awe’
is not a far cry.
In the Vedic period , we
find a movement of thought from polytheism to monotheism and then to monism.
The poetic souls contemplated the beauties of nature and the Indo-Iraia gods,
like Deus, Varuna, Usas and Mitra were products of this age. Other gods like
Indra were Created to meet the needs of the social ad political adjustments. Many
gods were worshipped. Then a weariness towards the many gods began to be felt as they didi not know to what god
they should offer oblations. Then a
theistic conception of God as a creator of the universe was developed out of
this struggle for the search of a divine being. In ancient Greece, Xenophanes
was against the polytheism of his time. Socrates had to drink hemlock as he was
charged of denying the national gods. He distinguished between many gods and
the one God who is the creator of the universe.
2. The Jaina Arguments
against God: but the Jaias were against gods in general and even the God as
creator. They presented several arguments against the theistic conception of
God. They deny the existence of a creator God and refute the theistic arguments
of the Naiyayikas.
3. i)It is difficult to understand the nature of the world as an
effect:
a) if effect is to mean that which is made of parts (sacayva) then even space
is to be regarded as effect;
b) if it means coherence of a cause of a thing which was previously
nonexistent, in that case one cannot speak of the world as effect as atoms are
eternal;
c) if it means that which is liable to change, then God would also be liable to change’ and he would need a
creator to create him and another and so on and infinitum. This leads to
infinite regress.
ii) Even supposing that the world as a whole is an effect ad eeds a
cause, the cause need not Abe ans. intelligent one God because:
a) if he is intelligent as the huma being is then he would be full of
inperfectios, as human intelligence is not perfect;
b) if his intelligence is not of the type of human intelligence but
similar to it, then it would not guarantee inference of the existence of God on
similarity, as we cannot infer the existence of fire o the ground of seeing
steam which is simulate to smoke;
c) we are led to a vicious circle of argument if we can say that the word is such that we
have a sense that some one made it, as we have to infer the sense for the fact
of being created by God.
iii) If an agent had created the world, he must have a body. For we
have never seen an intelligent agent without a body If a god is to produce an
intelligence and will this is also not possible without embodied intelligence.4
iv) Even supposing a non-embodied being were to create the world by his
intelligence, will and activity, there must be some motivation:
a) if the motive is just a personal whim, then there would be no natural
law or order in the world;
b) if it is according to the moral actions of me, then he is governed by
moral order and is not independent;
c) if it is through mercy, there should have been a perfect world
full of happiness;
d) if men are to suffer by the effects of past actions(adesta ) the adrsta would take the place of God but, if God were to create the
world without any motive but only for sport it would be ‘moviveless malignity.
5
v) God’s omnipresence and omniscience
cannot also be accepted, because:
a)if he is everywhere he absorbs into himself
everything into his won self, leaving nothing to exist outside him:
b) his omniscience would make him experience hell ,
as he would know everything and his knowledge would be direct experience.6
vi)
It is not possible to accept the Naiyayika contention that without the
supposition of God, the variety of the world would be inexplicable because we
ca very well posit other alternatives like (I) the existence of the natural
order and (ii) a society of gods to explain the universe.
But if a society of gods
were to quarrel ad fan out as it is sometimes contended, then the nature of
gods would be quite so unreliable if not vicious that we cannot expect
elementary co- operation that we find in ants and bees.
The best way, therefore,
is to dispense with God altogether.
We find similar
objections against the acceptance of a theistic God in Buddhism also. The Buddha was opposed to the conception of
Iscara as a creator of the universe. If the world were to be thus vreated,
there should be no change nor destruction nor sorrow ot calamity.
If Isvara were to act
with a purpose, he sould not be perfect that would limit his perfection. But if
he were to act without a purpose his actions would be meaningless like a
child’s play.
There is nothing
superior to the law of Karma. The sufferings of the world are intelligible only
on the basis of the law of Karma. Though the Buddha admits the existent of the
gods like Indra and Varuna they are also
involved in the wheel of Samsara.
We have so far seen that
the Jainas , as also the Buddhists,8 were against the theistic conception of
God. God as a creator is not necessary to explain the universe. We have not to
seek God there in the world outside,
nor is God to be found ‘ in the dark lonely corner of a temple with
doors all shut. He is there witching us. He is there with the tiller tilling
the ground and the pathmaker breaking stine’, in the sense that each individual
soul is to be considered as God as he is essentially dine in nature. Each soul
when it is perfect is god.
3. The Jainas sought the
divine in man and established the essential divinity of man. This conception
has been developed in specific directions in Jaina philosophy.
As we have seen , the
existence of the soul is a presupposition in the Jaina philosophy. Proofs are
not necessary. If there are any proofs are not necessary. If there are any
Proofs wr can say that all the pramaas ca
establish the existence of the soul. It is described from the phenomena and the
noumena pints of view. From the phenomenal point of view, it possesses pranas, is the lord (prabhu), doer (karata,) enjoyed (bhokta)
limited to his body (dehamatra), still incorporeal ad is ordinarily found with
Karma,9 From the numeral pint of view,
soul is described I tits pure form. It is pure and perfect. It is pure consciousness.
It is unbound, untouched and not other that itself. The joys and sorrows that
the sosul experiences are due to the fruits of karma which it accumulated due
to the cotionuousactivity that it is having, these entanglement is beginnings,
but it has an end. The deliverance of the soul from the wheel of samasara is possible by voluntary means.
By the more and spiritual efforts involving samvara
and nirjara, the Karma is removed, the soul soul is removed. When al Karma
is theremoved , the soul becomes pure and perfect, free from the wheel of Samasara.
Being free with its upward motion it attains liberation or Moska. There is
nothing other which is as perfect. There is not other God. The freed souls are
divine in nature, as they are perfect and omniscient.
For the Jaina it is not
necessary to surrender to any higher being, not to ask for any dine favor for
the individual to reach the hihedst goal of perfection. There is no place for
divine grace, nor is one to depend on the capricious whims of a superior deity
for the sake of attaining the highest idea. There is emphasis on individual
efforts in moral and spiritual struggle for self- realization. One has to go
through the fourteen stages of spiritual development before one reaches the
final goal in the ayogakevali stage.
However the struggle for perfection
is long and arduous. Few reached perfection; and perhaps as tradition would
say, none would become perfect in this age. Among those who have reached
omniscience and perfection are the Tirthankaras, the prophets, who have been
the beacon lights of Jaina religion and culture they have preached the truth
and have helped men to cross the ocean of this worldly existence. They led men,
like kindly light, to the path of spiritual progress.
Therefore, they need to be worshipped , the Jainas worship the Titithankaras
not because they are gods not because they are powerful in any other way, but
because they are human and yet dive, as every one is divide, in his essential
nature. The worship so the Tirthankaras is to remind us that they are to be
kept as deals before us in our journey to selfrealization. No fervors are to be
sought by means of worship, nor are they camoetent to bestow favors on the
devotees. The main motive of worship f the Tirithankaras, therefore is to
emulate the example of the perfect beings if possible, at least to remind us
that the way to perfection lies in the way they have shown us. Even this
worship of Tirthankaras arose out of the exigencies of social and religious
existence and survival and possibly as a psychological necessity. We find a few
temples of Gandhiji today; perhaps, there would be many more. The Buddha has
been deified.
Apart from the worship of Tirthankaras, we find a pantheon o gods who
are worshipped and from whom favors are sought. The let of the Yaksini worship
and of other attendant gods may be cited as examples. This type of worship is
often attended by the occult practices ad the tantric ceremoialism. Dr p. B.
Desai shows that in Tamiland Yakasii was allotted an independent status and
raised to a superior position which was almost equal to the of the Jina . in
some instances the worship of Yaksini appears to have supercedes even that of
Jina. 10 Padmavati, Yakasini of
Paravantha, has been elevated to the status of a superior deity with all the
ceremonial worship, in Pombucapura in
Msore area. These forms of worship must have arisen out of the connate with
other competing faiths as with the purpose of popularizing the Jaina faith in
the context of the social and religious competition. The cult of Javalamalini
with its Tantric accompaniments may be mentioned as another example of this
form of worship. The promulgator of this cult was perhaps, helecarya of Ponnur
According to the prevailing belief at that time mastery over spells or
Mantravidya was codidered as a qualification for superiority. The Jaiana Aaryas
clamed to be master Mantra vadins.11
Jainism had to compete with the other Hindu creeds Yaksi form of worship
must have bee introduced in order to attract the common men towards Jainism, by
appealing to the popular forms of worship.
However , such forms of worship are goreig to the Jaina region. They do
not form a organic and constituent features of the Jaina worship. These
tendencies have been absorbed and assimilated in the struggle for existence and
survival. We may here fever to the iconeivable changes the Buddhist forms of
worship have undergone in the various countries of the world, like the Tantric
forms of worship in Tibeta Lamaism.
We have still some gods in Jaina cosmogony. They are the deva, the gods living in heaves like the
Bhavanavasi, Vyantaraasi, Jyotiska, ad Kalapavasi. But they are a part of the
Samasara and not really gods in the sees of superior divine beings. They are
just more fortunate begs than men because of their accumulated god Karma. They
enjoy better empirical existence than men. But we , humans, can pride ourselves
in that the ‘gods’ in these worlds cannot reach moksa unless they are reborn as human beings. They are not objects
of worship. It is therefore, necessary for us to know the true nature of man
and his place in society in which he lives , moves and has his being.
1.Diginity and freedom of the huma individual has been a common
principle for all philosophies and faiths, except perhaps for Nietzshce. marx
emphasized the potentiality of man by denying God. Kant exhorted us to treat
every human individual as a end in himself and never as a means. Democracies
are based o the equality ad dignity of every human individual. In the Mahabharata to the Jainas, the
individual soul, in its pure form its its elf divie, and man can attain
divinity by his own efforts.
2. In India, the aim of philosophy was atom vidya Atmanam viddhi was the cardinal injunction of the Upanishads.
Yajnyavalkya explains that all worldly objects are of no value apart from the
self 13 Today we have a new Humanism
where we are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of ma in this word.
Philosophical interest has shifted from nature to god and from God to man. Even the claim of absolute value for science
is being questioned . Man and his values are primary, their primacy has to be
acknowledge by any philosophy.
But with all these philosophical interests, the real nature of ma has
been eliding us. Attempts have been made to kwon him. But there has to been an
agreed conception of man easily to be understood and accepted by the common
man.
There were philosophers like protagoras who reduced man to mere
sensations. The Itheaettus describes
the Sophist conception of the individual as a complex of changes interacting
with other ofrces, and seeking to satisfy the desires.15 in English empiricism, Hume denied
everything including the human soul,
except impressions and ideas. The Human tendency was recently revived by the
Cambridge philosophers who brought philosophy to the brink o extinction.
Perennial problems of philosophy including the conceptions of soul were
dismissed as non-sense. Like the men chained against the walls of the cave in the republic the empiricists refused to
see beyond what they would like to affirm. I ancient Indian thought, Carvakas
led us to similar conclusions. It is said that the Buddhists deiced a permanent
soul. The Buddha was silent about the metaphysical problems. His disciples
analyzed soul as a aggregate of matter, feelings and sensations. Men is a
psychological personality, and when it is analyzed away sunya is realised.
However soul of ma has emerged as permanent and eternal principle
imperishable in batter . Socrates, Plato and Aristote accepted soul as a pure
eternal and imperishable principle. Plato talked of the imm0ortaltiy of the
soul. In India, the outlook in the Ireveda Is empirical. The gods were invoked
to time cows and property n this world. The idea of a permanent soul has yet to
be evolved. In the Upanishads the conception of a permanent soul gained
predominance. In the Dialogue between Prajapati and Indra we get a progressive
development of the definition of the soul in four stages- as I) bodily, 2)
empirical, 3) transcendental and 4) the absolute 16. The next step was to identify the self with the absolute. As
Radhakrsishanan says, we may not understand the truth of the saying’ that thou
are’ tatt vam asi, but that does not
give us a sufficient right to deny it .17
The idea of the self has been a fundamental caption in Jaina
philosophy. The existence of the soul is a presupposition. The soul is
described from the phenomenal and the nominal points of view. All things in
this world are divided into living ad non- living. From the phenomenal point of
view, the soul is described as possessing impartial qualities. It is possessed
of four pranas. It is the lord, the
doer, and the enjoyed of the fruit of Karma. As a potter considers himself a
maker and enjoyer of the clay pot, so the mundane soul is the doer of things and
the enjoyer of the fruits of Karma. From the numeral point of view, soul is
pure and perfect. It is pure consciousness. It is unbound, untouched and not
other than itself. Man is the jiva bound
by matter and it assumes gross physical body. Through the operation of Karma
the soul gets entangled in the wheel of Samasara. Whe it is embodied it is
affected by the environment- physical, social and spiritual in different ways.
Then it identifies itself with the various functions of the bodily ad social
environment. William James distinguishes between the self as known or the I. On the same basis , distinction between
the states of the soul as Bahairathman has been made.
3. Apart from the read nature of man it would be necessary to know him
as an individual in his physical and social environ meant. As an empirical
individual man lives in this life and is influence by the environment. To some
extent he is a product of the environment, at the same time shaping the other
selves, man cannot be separated from nature. He is a part and parcel of the
interacting forces in nature. In this sense, individual men including the
heaven born prophets are products of environment and social heritage. They also
contribute to the development of the social life this universe is a vale of
soul making’ thoraces a cosmic purpose in the incessant struggle of the
individuals in this world. The purpose as translated in human efforts, is the
perfection of men.
We have seen that for the attainment of this end we need not depend on
higher entity called God efforts of individual men are more important than the
forces that work outside man. This brings us to the problem of the human
ideals.
4. As a social being development of man depends o the ends that he
places before himself and the means used for attainment of those ends. The
Greeks, as also the edit Aryans, were full of zeal for life and its beauties.
The consummation of life’s end was to perfect life. Truth beauty and goodness
were the highest human alues. Subjectivism of protagoras would have led him to
ethical relativism. What is good for one man may not be the same for the other.
But protagoras was a teacher of cirutes and was accepted as a wise man. Still
the earlier Sophists expressed nihilistic views. Polls, a disciple of Gorigis, admired
political power in a tyrant, though evil it may be. Thrasymahus sneered at
conventions justice as mere obedience to thewisheds of those in power. The
tyrant is the happiest man .18 So was
the philosophy Nietzsche fascinated by power. He parched the philosophy of
power. There were others, like Airstrips who aimed at pleasures as the highest
end in life. Pleasure was to be sought by the Carvakas in ancient Indian
thought. Greatest happiness of the greatest number was a modified version of
this end.
However from pleasure to virtue is a long way. Socratic formulate that
virtue is knowledge expressed the basic insight into the synthesis of theory
and practice.justice and wisdom. Aristotle distinguished virtues into the
practical and the intellectual virtues . both are necessary for the development
of man.
In ancient Indian thought four cardinal human values have been
mentioned. Iartha Karma, Dharma and Moska
are to be realised by man. They represent a hierarchy o human values. The
ultimate ideal is Moksa. It is freedom from the bonds of life. Mokasa as a
release from the wheel of Samasara ad in its positive aspect as oneness with
the Highest was becoming gradually clear in the Upanishads. The state of
perfection need not be attained only after shedding off this bodily existence.
It is possible to attain such a state in this life only. The conception of
Jivanmukati has played an important part in the ancient thought. Samkara admits
the possibility of Karamamukti. Apart from the highest ideal of Moksa other ideals
are to be progressively realised at various levels of life. Over emphasis of
one ideal will lead to a partial development of civilizations. All the values
are true and need each other. This is the synoptic point of view.
5. In this age of scientific development, we are giving exclusive
emphasis on the material ends of life. Artha
and karma have become important.
Exclusive importance on one or the other of the human values is likely to lead t a patria development of human
personality. We may either go the way of mechanizing the human or divinising
the man. Western civilization has advanced in scientific development throughout
the democracy of intellect. Life in India has gone the way of
overspiritualising the human, and we lost footing on earth. It is true that the
ideal of life is Moksa but is also true that few of us can attain it in this
life. We have therefore, to reorietate our moral concepts so as to lead us to
perfection through the progressive realization of the ideal of emancipation in
the context of human life and limitations.
We have seen the Jainas have given gradations of moral practice for the
realisation of the end of perfection. There are two levels of ethical codes I)
onefor the aymen (sravakadharama)and
ii) the other for the spiritually a denced who have given up the attachment of
Samara it is the muni –mdharama. The
moral practive for them is more rigorous than for the common man. It would be
worth analyzing these gradations of moral life in the context of the moral
structure of present day society.
I think it would be possible to work out a synthesis of ‘the way of all
flesh and spirit’ ad find out a proper place for man in this universe. We can
only say that with the advancement of science and technology for the sake of
man, in our struggle to find out man we have lost him.
6. And to find out man we have to reassert the ideal of spiritual
perfection without in any way disparaging the aims of empirical life. This is
the Anekanta attitfufe. All have aimed at Moksa, but few have attained it. Yet
it is imperative on the part of us, humans, to know the real nature of the
highest perfection as presented in the ideal of Moksa.
III. Moksa as an Ideal 1. The
idea of release of the soul from the wheel of Samasara was common in Indian
philosophy except with the Carvaka. philosophy was not merely an academic
pursuit but it had a practical aim of the attainment of Moksa. The ancient
Indians did not stop at the discovery of truth but strove to realize it in
their own experiences. They followed up tattvajnana by strenuous efforts t attain Moksa or
liberation.
But the conception of Moksa was not in the spirit of the medic Aryans,
as they were profoundly interested in the happiness in this life. The Rgveda Samhita largely presents the
invocations of the gods for the promotion of happiness sin this life. Awareness
of emancipation as such is not present in the earliest recorded expression in
the Vedas. Moksa as a release from the wheel of Samasara and its positive
aspect as oneness with the Highest, was becoming gradually clear in the
Upaisads. In the chhandogya Upanisad describes
the release as freedom feon death day or night of waxing and waning and waning
of the moon. in the later Upanisads like
the maitrayani we find new ideas
jolilng against old ones’.
It is therefore possible to say
that the conception of Moksa or realest from the bonds of empirical life is
prairie preAryan. It was prevalent in India before the Aryans settled here
Indian philosophy is the synthesis of two currents of thought the Aryan and the
pre-Aryan. The Jaina and the Buddhist thoughts were original and pre Aryan.
They were assimilated in the subsequent Hindu philosophy through the
Upanishads. The Dravidian contribution the development of Indian philosophy was
no less important. The effluence of forest life, the emergence of female gods
ad the conception of Avatara were largely due to the Dravidain
influence.22 and so was the conception
of Moksa brought from the pre-Aryan thought and developed in the Upanishads and
subsequent philosophy.
Jaia religion is very ancient and pre=Aryan. It prevailed even before
Parsva and Vardhamana, the last two Tirthankaras. The Iyajurveda mentions Rsabha, Ajita and Aristaemi as
Tirthankaras. Jainism reflects the cosmology and anthropology of a much older pre-Aryan
upper class of North-Eastern India.23
Jacobu has traced Jainism to early primitive current of metaphysical
speculation.24
2. For a Jaina, the highest ideal is Moksa freedom form the wheel of
samsara. It is to be attained through right intuition, right knowledge and
right conduct 25.
Due t the activity, the soul gets entangled in the wheel of Samasra.
This process of entanglement is beginigless but has a end. The soul gets
entagled in the Samasara and embodied through the operation of Karma. it gets
various farms due to the materially use conditions (upadhi), is involved in the cycle of birth and death.
But the Jainas believe in the inherent capacity of the soul for
self-realization. The deliverance of the soul from this wheel of Samasaara is
possible by voluntary efforts on the part of the individual. The evil of karma
has to be removed. This is possible when the individual soul makes efforts to
stop the influx of Karma by samvara and
remove the actuated Karma by Nirjara.
When all the obstacles are removed the soul becomes pure and perfect and free
from the wheel Samsara. Being free with its upward motion, it attains
liberation or Moksa.
However , the journey of the soul t freedom is long and arduous,
because the removal of Karma involves a long moral and spiritual discipline.
The journey has to be through fourteen stages of self-realization called
Gunasthana. The soul has gradually to remove the five conditions of bondage- mithyatva (perversity), avirati (lack of control), pramada ,(spiritual inertaa),kasaya (pasio )and triyoga (threefold activity of body, speech ad mind). In the
highest stage of spiritual realization, the soul reaches the stage of
perfection and omniscience. This is the consummation of the struggle.
Radhakrsihanan says that it is not possible to give a positive
description of the liberated soul. The state of perfection is passively
described as freedom from action and desires, a stage of utter and absolute
aquiescece. It is a state of unaffected
peace since energy of past Karma is extinguished . in this state, the soul is
‘itself’ and no other. It is the perfect liberation. Zimmer says that after it
slippage of innumerable existence in the various inferiors stractifications the
lie monad rises to the cranial zone of the microscopic being purged of the
weight of the subtle Karmic practices that formerly held it down . nothing can
happen to it any more, for it has put aside the treats of ignorance, those
heavy evils of individuality that are the precipitating causes of biographical events.
In the higher stage of perfection, the individuality, the masks the formal
personal features are distilled away. “sterilized of colloguing, flour ad
weight the sublime crystals now are absolutely pure like the drops of rain that
descend from a clear sky, tasteless and emasculate.
This state is the Siddha state. The liberated soul has no empirical
adjuncts. It is neither long nor small, nor black nor blue, nor bitter nor
pungent. It is without body and without rebirth. He perceives and he knows all
.There is no analogy to describe the condition of the liberated soul. It is
diccicult to give a positive description of the freed soul. It is the state in
which there is freedom from action and desire, a state of rest, a passionless
ineffable peace. However in terms of positive description, we are told that the
liberated state has infinite consciousness, pure understanding, absolute
freedom and eternal bliss.26 it lives in this state of eternity. The free soul
has beginning but no end, while the soul in the Samasara has no oumenal point
of view of the greed soul is the
absolutely un conditioned.
It is difficult ot give a clear and graphic description of the
liberated soul as language is an inadequate instrument for such description.
Attempts have, therefor, been made in various ways to present a picture of the
sate of Moksa in different system sin Indian philosophy. The Buddhist have been
include to give a negative description as the extinction of every trae of
individuality. It is a state of nothingness. But, some Buddhists have
repudiated the negative conception of the liberated state, Nirvana. The
madhymaiksa soncider this stage as inexpressible. Nirvana is not an end (bhava) or abhava (oneness). It is abandonment of all such consideration of
the real. The Madhyamika conception of Nirvana comes very close to the Advaita
notion of jmukti as Brahamanubhava.
Nirvana is the transcendent life of the spritit. but Moksa according to Advaita, is the absolutely unconditioned
and is characterised by infinite bloods. But for Madhyamika, Nirvana is
inexpressible and cannot be identified with the Good or Blliss. According to
the Naiyayikas, Mokasa is a state of pure existence to which a liberated soul
attains and is compared to a dreamless sleep. The critic feels that the Moksa
of the Naiyayikas is a sword without meaning. Sleep without dream is a state of
torpor, and we may as well say that a stone is enjoying supreme felicity in a
sound sleep without disturbing dreams 33.
For the Samkhya salatio is phenomenal as bondage does not belong to
Purusa. When Purusa is free from the defilement of Prakriti it passes beyond
the bondage of the Gunas and shines forth in its pure intelligence. There is no
bliss nor happiness in the state of Mukti as all feeling belongs to Prakrti. Jaimini
and sabraa did not face the problem of ultimate release. For prabakara, Moksa
is a state in which there is absolute cessation of all dreams. It is a simple
natural form of the soul. Kumarial stated that it is a state of Adman in itself
free from All pain some refer it as a bliss of Atman. For Samkara Moksa is a
state of direct realization of something which existed from eternity. When the
limitations are removed the soul is liberated. It is the state of absolute
peace and eternal bliss. When Avdiya vanishes, the true soul stands self-
reeled free form the impurities, as the star shies in a cloudless ight. The
nature f the liberated soul is a set of oneness with Brahman Mokasa is described negatively as the state f
freedom where there is neither day not ightk where the stream of time has
stopped and where the sun and the stars are no longer seen.
The state of perfection of
Moksa need not be attained only after shedding off this bodily existence. It is
possible to attain such a state in this life oly. The conception of Jivankukata
has, therefore played an important part in the ancietthought. Samkara admits
the possibility kramamutkkti (gradual
liberation). He says that the mediation of ‘Om’ leads one to the Brahmaloka
where one gradually attains perfect knowledge.37 .He also admits the
possibility of refection and freedom from pain eve I this life. As the potter’s
wheel continues for a time to revolve eve after the vessels has been copiloted,
so also life continues even after liberation sometime. In this stage the perfect being does ot acquire
new karma. The Buddhists have also made a distinction between upadhisesanirvana and anupadhisesa –irvana. The former comes
nearer to the conception of Jianmukti. Similarly the distinction corresponds to
nirvana ad parnirvana. In the state of upadhises
nirvana, there is the total cessation
of ignorance and of passions, thought the body and the mind continue to
function but without passions.33 This
state corresponds to the Jivanmukti of Samkhya and the Vedaata The Mahayanists
added on more type of Nirvana in apratishitra
nirvana, the state of Bodhisattve who does not accept the final release
alsothough he is entitled for it . he decides to serve humanity of compassion.
According to the Jainass in the thirteenth stage of Gunashthana called sayaoga-kevali all the passions ad the
four types of Ghati karmas are destroyed. One is free for the bondage of mithyatva pramada ad passions. Haowver,
it is not free from yoga and empirical activity and is still not free form
embodied existence, as the out types of non-obscuring Karma, like vedaniya which produces feelig, ayu which determines the spa of life, nama determining the physical structure
ad the gotra responsible for one’s status in life are still operating.
One is not free from bodily existence, because the ayu karma is still to be exhausted. But there is no influx of Karma. In this sage we find omniscient
beings like the Tirthakaras, the Ganadhras ad the Samanya kecalils. They attain
the enlightenment, but still lien this world preaching the truth that they have
seen. This stage may be compared to the Jianmukti described by the Samkhya and
Vedanta systems of thought. It is like the upadhiseasa-nirvana
of the Buddhists. It may also be likened to the apratis-thita- of the Mahayanists. Such a perfect being may appear
to be ctive in this shown is merely a illusion of the senses . he is unaffected
by all that happens.39 whe Gautma, the Buddha, attainedenlightnment, he wanted
his enlightenment not to be known to others. But Brahma inspired the Buddha to
be the teacher of mankind this is the stage of sayoga kevalin or jivan mukta. So did the Trithankaras, Ganadhras
and Samanya-kealins preach the sublime knowledge to the people of this world.
Zimmer copperas this attitude of the Kevalins to the function of a lamp. Just
as the lamp lights the roamed still remaings unconcerned with what is going on
in the room, so the self enacts the role of lighting the phenomenal
expersonality solely for the maintenance of the body, not for pursuit of any
god, any gratification of sense nor any kindly goal.
In the fourteenth stage of Gunasthansa called Ayoga Kevali, te self has
attained peaceful perfection. The influx of karma is completely stopped and the
self is free from all Karmic dust.41
This state lasts only for period of time required ot pronounce five
syllables. At the end of this periods the soul attains disembodied liberation .
being now free with its upward motion the soul attains the liberation or
Mokasa.
The liberated souls live in perfect peace and prutiy in siddhasila which is the abroad of the
omniscient souls. In the Tiloyaapannatti we
get the description of the siddhasila, which
is also caled the moksasthana or nirvansthana. These freed souls enjoy ‘a
kind of interpenetrating existence on account of their oneness of status’ their
soul substance has special power by which an infinity of souls could exist
without mutual exclusion. The identity of the saved is determined But the
living rhythm retaining the form of the last physical life and by the knowledge
of the past.42 the conception of the
ibertated soul ad the abode of the souls in sidddhasila
where they live with all their individuality, is a logical possibility and
psychologically significant.
Epilogue 1. We may not attain Moksa; we do not need to we can still
keetp the ideal of perfection before us and look the perfect fouls, as ideals
to guide us like the kindly light in this life.
2. Struggle for perfection is a necessary factor in life. Sorrow ad
imperfection are a flavor to the sauce. They are necessary for onward journey
in the spiritual struggle. The efforts for self-realization will have
meaning only when this world becomes a vale of the soul making ad
the life real fight in which something
is eternally gained.43 Life is to be
considered as a struggle towheads perfection and not merely an amusing
pantomime of infallible marionettes. We should realise that’ man’ is not
complete , he is yet to be’ in what he is he is small. He is hungering for
something which is more than what he can get. It this struggle for perfection
man need not depend on God or any superior being or gacours, for he “rolls
imprteltly as you or I “Man has depend on his own self- effort the Jaina
attitude is meliroistic.
3. The synoptic view is the very foundation of Jaina out look. A Jaina
looks at the soul from the nominal and the phenomenal points of view it is
simple, perfect, eternal from the nominee point of view, but not eternal from
the yet divisible and its divisibility is a spontaneous feature. Reality is
complex like a many corrode dome and ca be predicated from many points of view.
I the analysis knowledge Jainas admit levels of experience. Sense experience is
impartial in nature and content and cannotyield the noume nal reality, although
the phenomena can be apprehend by it. Supersenwsusou experience including
omniscience is direct and gives syno0tic picture of nominee ad the phenomena
words. Draya-karma and the Bhaava- Karma are two aspects of the after effects
our action. Above all in their analysis of the way f life Jainas have
emphasized the synoptic outlook by introgucting the gradations of moral codes
as muni dharama and sravaka-dharama. This distention is
unique in Indian thought and it substantially conftubutes to the understanding of human nature and its
capabilities for the attainment of perfection.
The analysis in this sense is psychologically important Jainas have
neither denied the reality of empirical world not have they given exclusive
emphasis on this word and our life. In understanding life ad experience we have
see everything with reference to its I) substance (dryaya,) ii) nature (rua )
, iii) place (desa) and iv) time (kala). What is true of a thing in
specific conditions at a specific time may not be true if it were in a different
context, and to ginger this is to commit the faccacey of here say This is the spirit of Anekata. It expresses a catholic
outlook, the spirit of intellectual
non-violence.
The conditions of society in the present-day world demand that we ado0t
such a catholic outlook or else we perish. We are in the midst of a life where
hatred injustice and intolerance reign supreme. A new orientation of values
would be necessary for us to destroy the inverted values and then’rebuild’ to
our heart’sdesire’ what we needs today is live and sympathy and not prejudice
and pomp. We need understanding and a sense of fellowship between the peoples
of the world. And Anekanta would give us a ‘Weltancshaung’ and a scientific
interrelation of things we will then learn to love our neighbors of things. We
will thenlear to love our neighbors as ourselves. “And we can still cherish the
hope when power becomes ashamed to occupy it throne” sand ‘when the morning
comes cleansing the bloodstained steps of the nation” 44 We shall be called upon to bring the spirit
of Anekanta or sweeten the prutity of human destiny.