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Jain Heritage - An Appreciation

 

 

By Mr. Prakash Lall Jain

Jainism is one of the oldest religions in the world and it has a vast history, spreading over thousands of years. Unfortunately, our present day knowledge about Jainism is meager and poor. It has wielded influence out of all proportions to its size and distribution over the cultures prevailing in various periods, since the era of the first 'tirthankar', Lord Rishabhdev, also called Adinath, who was the founder of Jain religion and culture. Jains are the followers of 'Jina' (the conqueror), a title applied to all those great souls who are venerable and who have conquered their passions and emotions, have achieved liberation of their souls and have attained perfection.

Lord Mahavir, the last among the Jina, and twenty-fourth amongst the tirthankars is worshipped as the great teacher and preacher of Jainism. All the cultural and religious heritage in the form of texts (shastras) emanate from the teachings of Mahavir, who gave a new order and fresh approach to the religion in a versatile and practical form. Although it is now more than 2500 years, Jainism still maintains the same pride of place. The gospel teachings of Lord Mahavir are being spread not only within the country but also overseas to distant countries through saints and their followers.

Jain religion does not talk merely of the 'present' and the current birth. It rather elucidates the successive periods of evolutions and re-births after death, during which he shall have to bear the fruits of the deeds ( be those be good or evil) committed by him. He is inclined to think in a pensive mood that he must use dharma to strengthen his karma, which in turn could be instrumental in enlivening his births. The word 'dharma' is not just used by Jains in the usual sense of religion. It is applied in various senses, such as essential characteristics inherent in the body, like duty, morality and law with greater emphasis on ahimsa (equanimity), sanyam (restraint) and tapasya (penance).

The word `Karma' conveys the sense of a substantive force and matter in its most subtle form. It fills all cosmic space, and the soul by its communion with the outer world becomes literally enveloped by the particles of this subtle matter. These particles constitute a special body called, `karmana sarira' which does not forsake the soul till its final emancipation, called salvation, or `moksha'. Karma works in such a way that every change taking place, leaves an imprint, which built into an organism serves the foundation for future evolutions. This process of building and reforming karma goes on continuously and endlessly, according to the nature of deeds performed birth after birth. This chain of cause and effect is known as `karmic bondage'.

Jain philosophy gives simple answers to most difficult questions, not usually clarified by other faiths, such as:
(i) Who am I?
(ii) What is the aim of my birth?
(iii) Why have I taken birth?
(iv) Why do we have various possessions (while others don't) ?
(v) If I am reborn, where will I take birth; in similar environment or elsewhere?

The teachings of Lord Mahavira, which of course culminate from those of the previous Tirthankaras are accepted by all Jain followers with great reverence without prejudice to anyone. They impart peace and encouragement to reform one's life style towards leading a simple and contented life, purifying all knowledge, forsaking folly and delusion and destroying likes and dislikes; objective being to escape the misery of this unstable, uncertain and mutable world, which is even otherwise full of suffering.

The underlying reason for the wide popularity and acceptance of Jain faith and philosophy is the Jain 'shraman' (saints and hermits) culture, and the rich heritage of treasures of knowledge left behind by the holy saints or 'Acharyas'. This knowledge had been passed on by them starting right from the 'spoken' words of Mahavira (Jqr tradition) in the form of vast literature covering the entire Jain religion, philosophy and culture most prominent and ancient, among them being the 'agamas' ¿vkxeÀ. The preaching and lessons enunciated by Mahavira were recollected by the shrut gyan (as heard) possessed by the saints in those times and later recorded on tamra-patra by the first tier or immediate disciples of mahavira, called 'ganadharas'. The language in which the original texts were written was the one most popular amongst the masses at that time, called 'prakrit'.

Thus, the literature produced in the original form and the subsequent works brought out later were in such a style that even a common man could easily understand, interpret and assimilate it. It was this versatility and simplicity of the script that made the religion popular, having its followers from one corner to other in the country, with unprecedent growth in the medieval times. subsequent to the production of original texts covering the teachings, philisophy, codes of conduct and practices, all in the prakrit language, considerable literature followed over in the next centuries in other related languages, which were concurrent and prevalent in different periods and different regions, such as sanskrit, aprabhansh, shausaini, ardhamagdhi, and much later in hindi, kannada, tamil and marathi.

In around 10th century A.D. and thereafter, many scriptures, treatises and commentries were produced; all based on the original 'agamas'. Simultaneously, rare and valuable classics were brought out in the form of historical and mythological epics and philosophical studies on a range of diversified subjects, such as as contemporary logic, grammer and philosophy and biographies, commendations and eulogies of jina. Jain literature is like a vast ocean of knowledge and the credit for its protection, patronage, preservation, nurturing, reprography and documentation goes to our revered and learned saints and hermits who took upon themselves this onerous responsibility from time to time. They put in great efforts to maintain and further augment the literature and retrieve the contents of the ancient texts called `shastras' to their followers. In this process, training of disciples was also carried out, preparing them to occupy the position of their `gurus'. The great Works on religion and philosophy produced in the ancient times, all of which are not available now, contained rare secrets and comprehensive information about contemporary religions, philosophy and culture, sociology, astrology, codes of conduct for sadhus as well as followers and others. It is the onerous duty of all those concerned to give utmost care, protection and patronage to the now available priceless treasure.

In the modern times, with the advanced technology available for preservation of books, it is possible to keep safe custody of all the materials and even preserve the voluminous material in compressed form on floppies, tapes, micro-films and micri-fiches. Jain philosophy can be further nourished and the knowledge made available to anyone in his own language. This literature is the greatest heritage of the Jain community as a whole. It is the pulse of the religion. Though it is not feasible to read all the texts for every one, it is still desirable that one should have a fair idea about the contents and theme of some of the important works. Anyone claiming to be a follower of Jain religion should be familiar with the important treatises which form the basic source of information on the religion and its philisophy.

Jain perspective has been based on two main principles, that of universalism and non-extremism (anekantwada). Likewise, Jain literature emphasizes on universal applicability and religious tolerance, the approach being realistic as well as scientific. All religions have some primary scriptures which become their ideal and revered objects. In Jainism, `agamas' are the most ancient, original and impressive creations and are treated as most sacrosant and full of divine knowledge. These contain the teachings and philisophy enunciated by Lord Mahavir in all detail and futher propagated by his disciples in different periods. Originally, `agamas' consisted of 12 parts, each one called an `anga', meaning a limb and these were produced by `ganadharas', led by their chief, Gautam who was also the chief disciple of Mahavir. These 12 parts as a whole were named as `dwadashangi' (12 limbs). Over these years however, the last part, named as `drishtivada' has become untraceable and has been lost. This part is said to cover all aspects of materials, life sciences, physical sciences and divine knowledge which could lead to `moksha'.

The remaining 11 parts are the oldest available authentic works on Jainism. In the subsequent period, several new sets were prepared by the then learned acharyas, all totalling to 45 parts as named below:
(i) Primary works, called angas forming `dwadashangi': 11 nos.
(ii) Secondary works, called upangas: 12 "
(iii) Basic works, called `mool sutras': 4 "
(iv) Others, namely `chhed sutras': 6 "
(v) Prakirnak: 10 "
(vi) Chulika sutra: 2 "

The primary and basic works, containing angas, upangas and mool sutras en- compass every aspect of religion, logic, ethics, philosophy and culture as prevalent at the time of their preparation. The 11 angas as shown above are named as:

(i) Acharang sutra (ii) Sutrakritang
(iii) Rachanang sutra (iv) Ramvayang sutra
(v) Vyakhapragyapti sutra (vi) Gyata dharma katha
(vii) Upasaka dasha (viii)Antakara dasha
(ix) Annuttroppatic dasha (x) Prashna vyakarana
(xi) Vipak sutra

The first and foremost amongst all angas is the acharang sutra. It is felt that the first essential requisite to achieve moksha is `right conduct' and therefore this anga is devoted wholly to the conduct of those seeking to purify their karma. Codes of conduct are laid down in detail for strict observance for the saints (shramans), as well as common people (shravaks). The anga volumes not only dilate on the ways to achieve perfection of soul, asceticism, contemplation, austerity and meditation but also on diverse subjects like, heaven and hell, stars and planets, geography, conception and evolution of jiva (life), molecular theory, atomic physics and other advanced scientific topics, politics, sociology, trade and commerce.

The study of these scriptures would give a clear insight into all aspects of religion and would lead one to understand the concepts of right knowledge, right faith and right conduct the three jewels of Jain doctrine, which in turn would enlighten ones soul with unimpeded knowledge and intution and thus finally show the way to complete liberation and salvation. The latest translation of agamas has been carried out into Hindi by the highly learned Jain saint, Upadhyay Shri Kanahyia Lal Ji maharaj, which can be said to be one of the greatest contributions to the Jain literature in the recent times.

 

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