Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

PHILOSOPHY

If God created the world, where was he before creation? If you say he was transcendent then, and needed no support, where is he now? No single being had the skill to make this world- For how can an immaterial God create that which is material? How could God have made this world without any raw material? If you say he made this first, and then the world, you are faced with an endless regression. If you declare that this raw material arose naturally you fall into another fallacy, For the whole universe might thus have been its own creator and have arisen equally naturally. Good men should combat the believer in divine creation, maddened by an evil doctrine, .Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself is, without beginning and end, And is based on the principles, life and the rest. Uncreated and indestructible, it endures under the compulsion of its own nature, Divided into three sections — hell, earth and heaven. Two of the most interesting and individual features of Jainism are the related doctrines of "Viewpoints" ( nayavada ) and "May be" (syadvada ) which are often called together the Doctrine of Manysid- edness" ( anekantavada ). This doctrine declares that a given propo- sition though generally accepted as true may be so only in a relative sense as the absolute and whole truth can only be seen by the perfected soul. Our knowledge can only be fragmented and limited. This is brought out in the famous Indian parable of the six blind men who were told by a king to touch an elephant and describe what they felt. The man who touched the trunk said it was a snake, he who touched the tail said it was a rope., he who touched the leg said it was a trunk. The Jain tradition of tolerance is at least in part due to the doctrine of the many sidedness of truth. Founded by Adinatha Rishabhadeva, the first Tirthankara of this circle of time, Jaina ideas were in circulation during 23rd Jain Tirthankara Parswanatha's time in the eight-ninth century B.C. but it was the 24th Tirthankara, Mahavira, a contemporary of the Bud- dha, who gave shape to them in the sixth century B.C. His teachings led to the spread and organisation of Jainism. Mahavira left behind him a strongly organised religious order through whose efforts animal sacrifices fell into disuse and non-violence became firmly es- tablished as a rule of life even among those who did not join the order and influenced Indian culture a very long way. Jainism is one and undivided as far as its philosophy is con- cerned. But about the beginning of the Christian era, it split into two sects called the Digambacas and Svetambaras, chiefly on certain rules and regulations for the monks, the most important difference being that while the former held that monks should not wear any clothes the latter asserted that they could. In the 16th century further minor splits took place amongst both these sects, the most important being one that renounced idol worship altogether and devoted itself to the worship of the scriptures. These are called Sthanakvasis and Tera- panthis amongst the Svetambaras and Samaiyas among the Digam- baras.

The transformation of the atman to a jiva is the result of karma, actions of mind, speech and body of a being. Every activity or act, whether good or bad, produces karma of some sort. Activi- ties or deeds of a cruel nature result in karma of a more durable character. Unlike the Hindu conception of karma which is formless, the Jains think of it as a sort of subtle matter flowing in through the organs of sense and settling on the soul. Jain philosophy divides the Jivas in the world according to the principle of the development of the sense organs — the lowest consists of Jivas with only one sense organ (trees and plants which have only the awareness of touch), creatures with two-sense organs (worms, leeches etc which have the sense of taste and touch), three sense organs which are devoid of sight and hearing (ants, fleas, bugs and moths), creatures with four sense organs like flies, wasps and but- terflies which have touch, taste, smell and light, and the highest group with five sense organs - men, and certain animals like monkeys, horses, elephants, parrots, pigeons and snakes which possess intel- ligence. Jainism attributes souls to many things, including those not generally thought of as living, like stones, rocks and running water. In its insistence on ahimsa or non-violence, Jainism, went much further than any other Indian religion. Meat-eating is forbidden and even insect life is carefully protected. Jainism differs from Buddhism in that it subjects its lay folk to a more rigid discipline and in bringing them under the regular pastoral care of the clergy. The laymen are in theory expected to spend full moon and new moon nights in fasting, meditation prayers and penance at a Jain monastery. The Jain ecclesiastical year ends with a general contemplation and penance in which all Jains, both monks and laymen, are expected to confess their sins, pay their debts and ask pardon from their neighbours and all, each and every one in the world. For any offences committed, whether deliberate or oth- erwise. Liberation (moksha) can be gained only by monks. "Full sal- vation is not possible to the layman. In this Jainism differs from Buddhism and Hinduism which concede it in exceptional circum- stances." (A.L. Basham) The life of a Jain monk is austere in the extreme. The hair on their heads is pulled out by them with their own hands. They cannot prepare their food but must beg for it from laymen.. The life of a monk is governed by five vows: a) The vow of non-violence by which they do not hurt or harm any living thing by words, deed or feeling, b) The vow of truth c) The vow of non-stealing d) The vow of celibacy and e) The vow of non-attachment by which they abandon all property and possessions limiting themselves to only a few pieces of unsewn cloth. These rules also apply to the laity but are interpreted less strictly. The emphasis on ahimsa has led Jains avoiding agri- culture because it involves harming organisms living in the earth. Jainism, though not denying the existence of superhuman beings, has strenuously rejected the doctrine that the universe is created by a divine will or a divine mind. It has never diluted this position, unlike Buddhism which in its later version, Mahayana Buddhism, came up with a pantheon of divine beings. The Jain argument against God as the creator of the world is stated in the Mahapurana, a poem in Sanskrit composed by the Digambara teacher, Jinasena, in the 9th century.

Mahavira allowed women to enter the ascetic position subordinate to monks in the hierarchy. Jaina rituals are performed by men as well as women.

Some foolish men declare that the creator made the world, The doctrine that the world is created is ill-advised and should be rejected.