The Heart of Jainism/Chapter 7
The Jaina consider that the foundation of true philosophy consists of nine categories.[1] ‘He who truly believes the true teaching of the fundamental truths possesses righteousness,’ says the Uttarādhyayana.[2]
All three sects of Jaina, however much they may differ with regard to the eyes and adornments of their idols, or as to whether they should have idols at all, agree as to these principles, though the Digambara number them differently, and by including two of them under other heads make the categories seven instead of nine.
The first of these nine categories (Nava Tattva) is always given as jīva, a word which is varyingly used to connote life, vitality, soul, or consciousness. When jīva is used as equivalent to ‘soul’ it differs from the Brāhmanic idea of ‘soul’, for the Jaina believe that whilst the knowledge possessed by the jīva (or ātmā) may be boundless, the jīva itself is limited; whilst followers of the Sāṅkhya, Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika schools believe the soul to be co-extensive with the universe. Both Brāhmans and Jaina believe, in contradistinction to the Buddhists, that the soul is absolute and permanent, and according to the Jaina it is the jīva which suffers or enjoys the fruits of its deeds, and then, in consequence of the karma it has acquired, goes through the succession of rebirths, and finally, obtaining freedom through the destruction of its karma, soars upwards to mokṣa.
A famous śloka of the great Hemāċārya thus describes the characteristics of the jīva:
It performs different kinds of actions, it reaps the fruit of those actions, it circles round returning again; these and none other are the characteristics of the soul.
Jīva has further been described as a conscious substance, capable of development, imperceptible to the senses, an active agent, and as big as the body it animates.[3]
In a most interesting note Dr. Jacobi suggests that the Jaina have arrived ‘at their concept of soul, not through the search after the Self, the self-existing unchangeable principle in the ever-changing world of phenomena, but through the perception of life. For the most general Jaina term for soul is life (jīva), which is identical with self (āyā, ātman)’;[4] and the way in which the category jīva is divided and subdivided, building up from the lesser to the more developed life, certainly bears out Dr. Jacobi’s contention; for the Jaina lay stress on Life not Self.
Sometimes jīva itself is considered as a division of Dravya (or substance), its chief characteristic being ċaitanya (consciousness).
The powers or Prāṇa possessed by Jīva.This conscious sentient principle, jīva or ātmā, so long as it feels desire, hatred and other attachments, and is fettered by karma, undergoes continual reincarnations. In each new birth it makes its home in a new form, and there assumes those bodily powers or prāṇa[5] which its various actions in previous births have entitled it to possess, for the possession or non-possession of any faculty depends on karma. The most perfectly developed jīva has ten prāṇa and the lowest type must possess at least four. Of these ten prāṇa, five are called Indriya prāṇa, since they relate to the senses. They are the sense of touch (Sparśendriya); the sense of taste (Rasendriya); the sense of smell (Ghrāṇendriya); the sense of sight (Ċakṣurindriya); the sense of hearing (Śravaṇendriya).
There are also three other powers known as Baḷa prāṇa: bodily power (Kayabaḷa), speech (Vaċanabaḷa)and mind (Manabaḷa). The ninth Prāṇa, Ānapāna prāṇa (or Śvāsoċċhvāsa) gives the powers of respiration; and the tenth prāṇa, Āyu prāṇa, is the possession of the allotted span of life during which the jīva has to sustain a particular bodily form.
The divisions of Jīva into:—i. Two classes.In order to understand Jīva more fully, the Jaina divide it according to the class of beings in which its past karma may force it for a time to take up its abode. The first closes division which they make is into Siddha and Saṁsārī. A man’s karma may force him to dwell in some being still struggling with all the troubles of this present world, sullied by contact with Ajīva (insentient matter), and having further rebirths to undergo before he can reach mokṣa; or he may have attained deliverance and become a Siddha. The Saṁsārī live in the world, but the Siddha, or perfected ones, who are freed from karma, live in a place called Īṣatprāgbhāra, which consists of pure white gold and has the form of an open umbrella.[6] The beings who dwell there have no visible form, but consist of Life throughout and possess paramount happiness which admits of no comparison,
ii. Three classes.We have divided Life into two classes: Siddha and Saṁsārī, perfected and unperfected; we may now, the Jaina say, divide Saṁsārī life into three divisions: male, female and neuter.[7]
iii. Four classes.Or again, we may regard it in four ways, according to the place where it was born. Jīva born in hell are called Nārakī; those born in a state lower than human and inhabiting the bodies of insects, birds, reptiles, animals, or plants are named Tiryañċ; Manuṣya are jīva born as human beings; and those who are born as spirits, whether gods or demons,[8] are called Devatā. These four possible places of birth are shown in the accompanying Svastika sign, which is constantly seen in Jaina books and temples.
iv. Five classes.Jīva may be classified in five ways, according to the iv. Five number of senses it possesses, as Ekendriya, Be-indriya,[9] Tri-indriya, Ċorendriya, and Pañċendriya.[10]
iv (a). Ekendriya jīva.Ekendriya jīva possess only one sense, the sense of touch, but have four prāṇa: touch, body, the power of exhaling and inhaling, and the allotted term of life.
They are subdivided into Pṛithvīkāya, Apakāya, Teukāya, Vāyukāya, and Vanaspatikāya. Things belonging to the earth, such as stones,[11] lumps of clay, salts, chalk, diamonds and other minerals, are called Pṛithvīkāya ekendriya. Though ordinary persons are unable to perceive in these the power of suffering, yet a Kevalī can do so, for he sees that they have four prāṇa, including the power of breathing and of touch. The longest span for which a jīva can be compelled to inhabit such a lodging is twenty-two thousand years, and the shortest time less than forty-eight moments,[12] but as the jīva’s karma is gradually exhausted, it will be reborn into happier conditions.[13] These earth lives are also divided into those which we can see and those which are invisible to the human eye. By ill-treating any earth life we deprive ourselves of our chance of happiness and perfect wisdom.
The Jaina believe that water[14] itself (not, as is so often supposed, the animalculae living in it) is inhabited by Ekendriya jīva called Apakāya ekendriya. Apakāya include rain, dew, fog, melted snow, melted hail, &c. The shortest span a jīva can pass in water is a moment,[15] though more usually it will have to wait there for rebirth for at least forty-eight moments; but the longest time its karma can condemn it to this imprisonment is seven thousand years. It is this belief in the power of inflicting pain on water that makes Jaina monks so particular about only taking it when it has been boiled and strained and prevents some of them using it at all for toilet purposes!
A man’s karma again may force him to become a Teukāya ekendriya, or fire life, and he may have to pass into an ordinary fire, the light of a lamp, a magnet, electricity, a meteor, flintstone sparks, a forest conflagration, or a submarine fire,[16] but one can only be condemned to be a fire life for a period varying from one instant[17] to three days (i.e. seventy-two hours). A difference of opinion exists amongst Jaina as to whether one can be condemned to become lightning or not, for it does not seem to be known for certain whether or no Teukaya exists in lightning.[18]
Again, all sorts of wind, such as cyclones, whirlwinds, monsoons, west winds and trade-winds, are thought of as inhabited by what are called Vāyukāya ekendriya jīva. It is difficult for us to understand that wind has a body and can be made to suffer pain, but all this is plain to a Kevalī. The period a jīva may spend as wind varies according to his karma from one instant to three thousand years.
All vegetable life, or Vanaspatikāya, also possesses but one indriya. These jīva are divided into two classes: Pratyeka, or life such as that of a tree (e.g. an orange or mango tree), whose various branches, fruits and leaves possess life derived from it, and Sādhāraṇa, the life possessed by potatoes,[19] onions, carrots, figs, &c. Strict Jaina will not eat any of the latter class, for example, potatoes, beet, onions, &c., because more than one jīva has taken up its lodging there; but they will take oranges and mangoes, once they are ripe, for then they are inhabited by only one life. Life as a vegetable[20] may last from one instant to ten thousand years.
iv (b). Be-indriya.Ascending the scale, we come to jīva possessing two senses (or Be-indriya), that of taste as well as that of touch, and having six prāṇa: taste, touch, body, the power of exhaling and inhaling, an allotted term of life, and speech. Such are animalculae, worms, things living in shells, leeches, earth-worms. No one can be condemned to be a Be-indriya for longer than twelve years.
A strict Jaina abstains from killing anything even in the Ekendriya class, but the actual vow of Ahiṁsa or Non-killing for laymen starts from the Be-indriya class. Monks vow not to kill anything in the Ekendriya class, and hence refuse to touch water, clay, a clod of earth, fire, &c. They cannot of course help breathing air, but to hurt it as little as possible they cover their mouths with a cloth. Monks never snap their fingers, or swing or fan themselves, lest they should injure air. No point in Jainism has been more misunderstood than this, even scholars[21] supposing the mouth-cloth to be worn to prevent the taking of animal life, whereas it is to prevent the taking of air life.
iv (c). Tri-indriya.In the next highest class, Tri-indriya, are placed all those beings that in addition to the sense of touch and taste have also the sense of smell, and so possess three indriya and seven prāṇa. In this class are red ants, white ants, black ants, bugs and moths. A Jaina told me that in order to please the insects of this class a devout householder when he finds vermin will often place them on one particular bedstead and then pay some poor person from four to six annas to spend the night on that bedstead! Others, however, deny this. Of course no true Jaina will kill vermin, but will carefully remove it from his body or house to some shady place outside where it can dwell in safety. They say that, far from killing vermin, they are bound to protect it, as it has been created through their lack of cleanliness. No one’s karma can force him to pass into this class of being for more than forty-nine days, or for less than an instant of time.
iv (d). Ċorendriya.Beings still higher in the scale are the Ċorendriya, those possessed of the four senses of touch, taste, smell and sight; these of course have eight prāṇa. Wasps, scorpions, mosquitoes, gnats, flies, locusts and butterflies should be included under this heading, and also, according to some Jaina, moths, which are, however, often classed as Tri-indriya. Beings cannot be kept in this division for longer than six months without rebirth.
iv (e). Pañċendriya.The extra sense added to the jīva in the next class is that of hearing; and these Pañċendriya should therefore, to correspond, be possessed of nine prana. Some, however, have an extra prana added, that of mind, and these are called Saṁjñī pañċendriya, whilst the rest who have only nine are called Asaṁjñī. There are four divisions of the Pañċendriya: hell beings, lower animals, human beings and demigods. Of these the hell beings, human beings and demigods are possessed of intelligence, and so are certain creatures such as cows, buffaloes and other domestic animals; whilst frogs, fish and disease germs have no intelligence, for these are all self-created!
Germs which are thus classified in a way that seems strange to us as Pañċendriya are of great importance in Jaina philosophy. When engaging in Pratikramaṇa (or Paḍīkamaṇuṁ), i.e. Confession, Jaina think of the sins they may have committed against any being possessing any indriya and ask forgiveness. At this time they also think of any germs which they may have created by sinning against the laws of sanitation in fourteen specified ways. If through a man’s carelessness or insanitary habits germs should have multiplied and infection spread, Mahāvīra declared him to be guilty of a sin as grave as that of murder.
The minimum of time which a being may be sentenced to spend as a hell being or a demigod is ten thousand years, and it may extend to thirty-three sāgaropama. In the case of human beings (including germs, which are ranked as humans!) and lower animals, the period may extend from one instant to three palya of time.
We have already followed the Jaina as they divided Jīva, in two, in three, in four, and lastly in five ways. v. Six classes.We now come to the six ways in which Jīva may be divided, namely, into Pṛithvīkāya, Apakāya, Teukāya, Vāyukāya, Vanaspatikāya, and Trasakāya. Of these we have studied earth, water, fire, wind and vegetable lives, so it only remains for us to look at Trasakāya. The Jaina say that in the class of Trasakāya are included all lives that have the power of motion and which, when swayed by trāsa (dread), can try and get out of danger. All lives possessing two or more indriya are included under this heading as Trasakāya or mobile, whilst earth, water, fire, air and vegetable are considered immobile.
vi. Seven classes.Again, Jīva may be classified in seven ways: hell beings (which are all neuter!), male lower animals, female lower animals, male human beings, female human beings, male demigods and female demigods.
vii. Eight classes.This last is perhaps a somewhat artificial classification introduced for the sake of symmetry, but when we come to the next series, where Jīva is divided into eight classes, we touch on one of the most important points in Jaina philosophy, and one which it shares with the followers of Gośāla. The Jaina say Jīva may be divided into eight classes according to the six Leśyā[22] by which it is swayed, and according to whether it is swayed by any emotion or not.[23] These emotions affect the colour of the soul they govern just as a crystal is coloured by the hue of the substance on which it rests.
vii (a).Beings in the first class, or Saleśī, include all who are yet swayed by any of the three good or three bad emotions.
vii (b).Kṛiṣṇaleśyā is the worst of the three bad emotions, and it is described as being black as a thunder-cloud, bitter as a Neem tree, smelling like a dead cow, and rougher than a saw to the touch. Jīva, under the direction of this so graphically described bad temper, accumulate karma by all sorts of cruel and violent acts without stopping to think of the consequences. All the emotions last for differing periods according to whether they influence a god, a hell being, or a man.
vii. (c).In the third division are all those ruled by Nīlaleśyā. This emotion is less evil than the last, though it is still evil enough; its colour is blue as indigo, its taste more pungent than pepper, it still has the odour of a dead cow about it, and its roughness is as bad as ever. A man under its influence is envious of the good qualities of others; he will not only not perform austerities or acquire knowledge himself, but tries to hinder others from doing so; and he is lazy, gluttonous, and wanting in modesty. Such a man thinks only of his own happiness, and pursuing only his own pleasure is continually beset by evil thoughts and purposes.
vii. (d).The last wicked emotion that may lead men to do evil is called Kāpotaleśyā. It is grey in colour like a dove, as bitter of flavour as an unripe mango, and of as evil an odour and as rough to touch as its predecessors. A man under its command becomes crooked in thought and deed, he develops into a thief and a liar, loves intrigue, and delights to expose the bad qualities of others whilst concealing his own faults. It is torment to such a person to see others prosperous or wealthy.
vii. (e).There are three good emotions whose scent is like to fragrant flowers and whose touch is as soft as butter, and these govern three more classes of beings. The first good emotion, Tejoleśyā, is red like the rising sun and sweeter to the taste than ripe mangoes. It removes all evil thoughts from the jīva under its sway as dawn destroys the darkness of night, and all under its influence are bright and happy. Men governed by it are firm in their religion, afraid of sinning, anxious to keep the law, desirous of getting knowledge, humble and free from curiosity, straightforward and righteous.
vii (f).The second good emotion takes its name, Padmaleśyā, from the lotus-flower, for jīva beneath its dominion open their hearts to all good things as lotus lilies expand to the sun. Its colour is yellow,[24] and its taste is better than honey. Through its power a man controls anger, pride, deceit and avarice, and gains as a reward a quiet mind, whose thoughts are always calm and collected.
vii (g).The last emotion, the Śuklaleśyā, is the highest of all; it is as white as pearls, and its taste sweeter than sugar. Love and hatred disappear when a man is under its influence, and he feels in harmony with all nature. Knowledge is now complete, austerity finished and character perfected, for, governed by it, the mind itself becomes a sun and has no stain of evil and, unbarred by karma, the way lies open to mokṣa.
vii (h).The eighth class of jīva are called Aleśī, for they have done with all feeling and completely stultified everything in their personality which might respond to emotion. Only the Siddha are to be found in this class.
viii. Nine classes.The Jaina divide Jīva again in nine ways : Pṛithvīkāya, Apakāya, Teukāya, Vāyukāya, Vanaspatikāya, Be-indriya, Tri-indriya, Ċorendriya, and Pañċendriya, but all these have already been discussed, and this division is only made for the sake of symmetry.
ix. Ten classes. When Jīva is classified in ten ways, the five old divisions we already know of (Ekendriya, &c.) are used, but each of these is subdivided into two classes, Paryāptā and Aparyāptā, according as they have or have not all the Paryāpti. There are six of these paryāpti: āhāra, the seed of life; śarīra, the body; indriya, the senses; śvāsoċċhvāsa, breathing; bhāṣā, speech; and mana,[25] intellect; and in this order the Jaina believe the jīva develops them as it passes by transmigration from life to life. The resemblance between paryāpti and prāṇa will be noticed. A Jaina sādhu told the writer that the peculiarity of paryāpti consisted in the fact that when a jīva migrated from one life to another, it could obtain these paryāpti in the space of forty-eight minutes. Others, however, say that paryāpti and prāṇa are practically identical. Some jiva have all six paryāpti, some five, and some four; but none can have less than four; if a jīva dies before it attains the number decreed for it, it is classed as Aparyāptā.
x. Eleven classes.When Jīva is classified in eleven ways, to the first four orders of indriya are added the three subdivisions of Pañċendriya (nārakī, tiryañċ and manuṣya) which we have already discussed, and then to these are added the four subdivisions of demi-gods, or Deva.[26] Jaina subdivide their gods into Bhavanapati, the lords of the lower parts of the earth, who are often serpents of various kinds; Vyantara, evil spirits such as ghosts, witches, goblins, &c.; Jyotiṣī, who live in ‘planets’, under which are included sun, moon, and stars; and Vaimānika, or residents of celestial worlds, which are sometimes larger and sometimes smaller than our world.
xi. Twelve classes.The twelve ways in which Jiva can be looked at are made up of Pṛithvīkāya, Apakāya, Teukāya, Vāyukāya, and Vanaspatikāya (i.e. the five divisions of Ekendriya), Trasakāya (the collective name for the last four indriya), and the subdivision of each of these six classes into Paryāptā and Aparyāptā.
xii. Thirteen classes.The thirteen ways are similarly artificially formed by dividing the six Leśyā into Paryāptā and Aparyāptā and adding Aleśī.
xiii. Fourteen classes.In the fourteen-fold division the five orders of Indriya are divided into Paryāptā and Aparyāptā, but Ekendriya are divided into two new classes: Sūkṣma ekendriya and Bādara ekendriya. In the first of these are lives so minute that they can never be seen, killed, or destroyed, whilst those of the Bādara ekendriya can be killed or destroyed, and can sometimes be perceived. To make up the number to fourteen the two divisions of the fifth class, Saṁjñī and Asaṁjñī, are included.
The second great Tattva of the Jaina deals with Ajīva (things inanimate), and is in all respects the opposite of Jīva. Until jīva is freed from one particular division (pudgaḷa) of ajīva, it is impossible for it to progress towards deliverance. The union of jīva with ajīva is never so absolutely complete as to make their separation impossible. Ajīva is divided into two main classes: Arūpī (without form) and Rūpī (with form). Arūpī ajīva has four great subdivisions: Dharmāstikāya,[27] Adharmāstikāya, Ākāśāstikāya and Kāḷa.[30]
Dharmāstikāya.Dharmāstikāya helps the jīva associated with pudgaḷa[31] progress just as (to use their own illustration) water helps on the movements of a fish. It is divided into three classes: Skandha, Deśa, and Pradeśa. The whole power of motion is called skandha; a large fraction of it is called deśa as long as it is linked with skandha; while pradeśa is a small fraction of deśa. The Jaina declare that they had so thoroughly studied the laws of motion that they were cognizant of the law of gravity long before Sir Isaac Newton discovered it.
Adharmāstikāya.Adharmāstikāya the Jaina explain by an illustration of a man walking along a road on a hot day; he sees the shadow of a tree, and the shadow first attracts him to seek its shelter, and then keeps him quietly resting under it. So Adharmāstikāya without any movement on its part first attracts and then keeps motionless the one attracted. It has the same divisions of skandha, deśa, and pradeśa as Dharmāstikāya.
Ākāśāstikāya.The third subdivision of Arūpī Ajīva is Ākāśāstikāya, or that which gives space and makes room. If, for example, a lamp is lighted, it is Ākāśāstikāya which gives space for its beams to shine in; if a nail be knocked into a wall, it is Ākāśāstikāya which gives it space to go into the wall. Again, if a lump of sugar is dropped into a cup of water and melts, the Jaina declare that the water remains water and the sugar sugar, but that a hidden power gives the sugar room to melt, and this power is Ākāśāstikāya. As a house affords room for its residents, so Ākāśāstikāya gives space for Ajīva to dwell in. Ākāśāstikāya is also divided into skandha, deśa, and pradeśa, but the skandha of Ākāśāstikāya includes space in the heavens as well as on the earth.
Kāḷa.The real nature of Kāḷa or time (the fourth division of Arūpī Ajīva) can only, according to the Jaina, be understood by the initiated. To the worldling Kala bears the connotation of ‘time’,[32] and he divides and subdivides it into seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, &c. But to the initiated Kāḷa is indivisible,[33] and is that which is continually making old things new and new things old.[34] As an illustration, the Jaina quote the fate of a jīva or soul which may be forced by its karma to inhabit the body of a child. The child grows up into a young man, and finally dies in old age, and the jīva is forced to inhabit afresh the body of another infant. The jīva remains the same, but the power that made its covering body at one time old and then young again is Kāḷa. As jīva in this sense is indivisible, it cannot have the divisions of skandha, deśa, and pradeśa.
All these four divisions of Arūpī ajīva are further subdivided with regard to Dravya (substance), Kṣetra (place), Kāḷa (time), Bhāva (nature), and Guṇa (qualities). For instance, Dharmāstikāya is considered of one substance; its place is the seven lower worlds, including the worlds of the serpents, this world, and the worlds of the demi-gods; with regard to time, it is without beginning and without end; its nature is without colour, without smell, without taste, imperceptible to touch, and without form; its quality is that it helps motion. Adharmāstikāya when looked at in this way agrees with Dharmāstikāya in every point, excepting that its special quality is to arrest motion. Ākāśāstikāya differs in that it has its place in both Loka and Aloka, and that its quality is to afford space. Kāḷa with regard to place is found in two-and-a-half continents only (i.e. Jambūdvīpa, Dhātakī Khaṇḍa and half of Puṣkara), and its quality is to make old things new and new things old. In this way they make up twenty divisions, and sometimes thirty by skandha, deśa, and pradeśa, out of the four original divisions of Arūpī ajīva, without, however, adding enough new material to make it worth our while to follow out the labyrinth.
PudgaḷāstikāyaThe Rūpī division of Ajīva contains only Pudgaḷāstikāya, or matter which possesses colour, smell, taste and form, and is perceptible to touch. Pudgaḷa can be consumed or destroyed, and it may decay or alter its form. Where there is no pudgaḷa present, none of the five primary colours, black, green (or blue), red, white, or yellow, can be present, and so, for instance, a Siddha who is freed from pudgaḷa is freed from colour also. The smells of pudgaḷa, the Jaina say, are of two kinds, pleasing and unpleasing,[35] and a Siddha being free from pudgaḷa is also free from odour.
Pudgaḷa may have any of the five flavours: pungent, bitter, astringent, sour, or sweet. It may be of five shapes: circular, globular, triangular, square, or oblong, i.e. ‘stretched out like a log lying on the earth.’ A Siddha, of course, is freed from all shape.
There are eight kinds of ‘touch’ that pudgaḷa may have: it may be light or heavy, hot or cold, rough or smooth, wet or dry; but a Siddha can possess none of these qualities.
Jaina indulge their genius for subdivision by dividing each colour by the two smells, five flavours and eight touches, and then again they divide each smell by the five colours, five tastes and eight touches, and so on, till they get 560 divisions out of pudgaḷa.
Pudgaḷa is also divided into four classes: Skandha, Deśa, Pradeśa, and Paramāṇu (i.e. the smallest particle). Skandha, deśa, and pradeśa are linked together, but paramāṇu is separate and indivisible.
The pudgaḷa enter and leave our bodies incessantly, and are infinitely more numerous than jīva. As we shall see later, the Jaina believe that karma arises out of pudgaḷa . The Jaina hold that it is through Jīva and these five divisions of Ajīva (Dharmāstikāya, Adharmāstikāya, Ākāśāstikāya, Kāḷa, and Pudgaḷāstikāya) that the universe exists, and that these serve instead of a creator, whose existence they do not acknowledge.
Nine kinds of Puṇya.Another of the great Tattva deals with Puṇya or merit.[36] The actions which lead to the good karma which bring peace of mind are called puṇya, and there are nine ways of performing these actions.
i. Anna puṇya.If we give food to deserving people who are hungry, weak, destitute of help and needy, we perform Anna puṇya. The greatest merit is gained when the food is given to monks or nuns, but these must be Jaina ascetics (not Hindu for instance), and in order to gain the fullest benefit from charity the food must be given in such a way as not to involve hiṁsā.[37] It will be remembered that Mahāvīra in a previous birth, when a woodcutter, gained great puṇya by feeding a party of monks who had lost their way. His reward was that in his next incarnation he became a devatā, and after many many rebirths was incarnate as Mahāvīra. For less illustrious services one may in the next life become a merchant, or a ruler, or gain some other coveted position.
ii. Pāṇa puṇya.In common with many other religions that have arisen in sultry lands, Jainism teaches that a special reward is attached to giving water to the thirsty (Pāṇa puṇya). There is no harm in giving unboiled water to a layman, but boiled water must always be given to an ascetic. The story of Neminātha, the twenty-second Tīrthaṅkara, shows how great the reward is. A king named Śaṅkara and his wife Jaśomatī once showed kindness to some thirsty monks by giving them water in which grapes had been soaked. In their next birth, as a reward, the king was born as Neminātha and his wife as the daughter of a famous king of Soraṭh; in this incarnation, though betrothed, they did not marry, but instead they both became ascetics on the day fixed for their wedding, and eventually obtained mokṣa.
iii. Vastra puṇya.A great reward is also obtained by giving clothes to the poor (Vastra puṇya) and especially to monks, as the following legend teaches. Once upon a time a rich merchant’s wife saw some monks shivering with cold, and made them blankets of cloth of gold out of some magnificent material she had by her. As a recompense she became in her next birth Marudevī, the mother of the first Tīrthaṅkara Ṛiṣabhadeva, and attained mokṣa in the same incarnation.
iv. Layaṇa and
v. Śayana puṇya.Another legend illustrates the reward gained by any one, even a heretic, for building or lending a house to a monk (Layaṇa puṇya), or providing seats, beds or bedding (Śayana puṇya). A potter named Śakaḍāla, a follower of Gośāla, once saw Mahāvīra enter his village and approach his dwelling. At first he thought of not inviting Gośāla’s great opponent into his house, but seeing Mahāvīra’s divine qualities, he at length asked him in and gave him lodgings and a bed. (He could not offer food, as a sādhu may not eat at the house where he stays.) In return Mahāvīra taught Śakaḍāla the law and converted him to the true faith, and he became a devoted Śrāvaka in this life and after death a god. Being reincarnated as a man, he became a sādhu and so reached mokṣa.
vi. Mana puṇya.By thinking well of every one and wishing them well we gain Mana puṇya, and vii. Śarīra puṇya.by exerting ourselves to render them service or to save life we accumulate Kāya or Śarīra puṇya, as the following history shows. In a certain forest there was a small clearing, and once, when a terrible fire raged in the wood, all the animals rushed to this spot, and it became dangerously overcrowded. Even the mighty elephant had taken refuge there, and as he happened to raise his foot to change his position a hare ran under it. The elephant saw at once that if he put his foot down he would crush the hare, and in that crowded space there was not another place to which the hare could possibly move. So the elephant continued to hold his foot in the air for hours and hours, until at last, worn out, he fell to the ground and died. Immediately he was reincarnated as the son of a mighty king, and in his next birth became an ascetic and attained mokṣa.
viii. Vaċana puṇya.Merit is also won by speaking without hurting any one’s feelings, and so as to influence others towards religion and morality (Vaċana puṇya). Kṛiṣṇa, for instance, the favourite Hindu deity, when King of Dvārakā, once heard Neminātha preach. He felt that he himself could not face the hardships of a monk’s life, but he urged any of his subjects who could to receive initiation, and promised to look after their families. Some of the people thereupon became monks, and this brought Kṛiṣṇa[38] so much Vaċana puṇya that he is bound eventually to become a Tīrthaṅkara, though he has a lot of karma to work off first.
ix. Namaskāra puṇya.One may also obtain merit by reverent salutations (Namaskāra puṇya). The Jaina say that one first bows to religious men, then one gets to know them, next one decides to follow their example and by so doing one attains mokṣa. The Digambara and Śvetāmbara can obtain merit by bowing reverently to the images in their temples, but the Sthānakavāsī, having only gurus to bow to, show them double reverence and so have been accused of worshipping[39] their gurus, which they indignantly deny, pointing out that they make them no offerings of flowers, fruit, &c. It would be quite impossible to write down even the names of the legends told with the object of illustrating the great rewards gained by doing reverence. In fact the first step to mokṣa is said to be climbed by bowing. We have seen that the god Kṛiṣṇa is to be a Tīrthaṅkara, and the Jaina say that he will take his first step from Pātāla (a lower region), where he now is, towards this high future by doing reverence.
The forty-two ways of enjoying the fruit of Puṇya.We have seen that there are nine chief ways of laying up merit: the Jaina believe that there are forty-two ways in which the reward of this merit can be reaped. If one is ways of very happy in having all that one needs to eat, drink and wear, one knows that one is enjoying Śātavedanīya. If one is born in a high family (Ūñċagotra); if one has had the joy of being born as a man (Manuṣya gati), and not as a beast, god, or hell being; and moreover if one is sure to be born in one's next birth as a man and not a beast (Manuṣya anupūrvī), one is experiencing three happy results of puṇya. The last of these results is often likened to the reins that pull an ox on to the right road, so strong is the force inherent in puṇya. If the merit acquired were very powerful, one might be born as a god and so enjoy Devatā gati, even becoming Kṛiṣṇa or Indra. To be even a minor god is a stage higher than being born as an ordinary man, and another of the fruits is Devatā anupūrvī, which keeps one on the path of becoming a god.
If we have all five senses in this life, it shows that we are enjoying Pañċendriyapaṇuṁ, and if we have a large and imposing body instead of a little one like an ant, that is owing to Audārikaśarīra. Sometimes puṇya has a magical effect, owing to which one may gain Vaikreyaśarīra, or a body like a god's, which can appear and disappear at will, can produce six or four hands, and become mountainous or minute. Certain monks by virtue of their knowledge and of their austerities gain the power of sending out a tiny body from themselves which can go to Mahāvideha and obtain answers to any doubts or spiritual difficulties from the Tīrthaṅkara there.[40] This tiny body is called Āhārakaśarīra, and the power of creating it is regarded as one of the most valued fruits of puṇya. Certain other fruits of puṇya (Audārika aṅgopāṅga, Vaikreya aṅgopāṅga, and Āhāraka aṅgopāṅga) carry with them the assurance of having the full complement of limbs with these last-mentioned three bodies. It is only through having heat in one’s body (Taijasaśarīra) that such physical functions as digestion, circulation, &c., can be carried on, and the possession of this heat is one of the fruits of puṇya. Tejoleśyā is inherent in such a body, and so is the power of producing magic fire. Every one possesses a body (Kārmaṇaśarīra) round which his various karma accumulate, and without which one could never experience any of the happy fruits of merit; the very possession of this body is owing to puṇya, for every one has amassed merit of some kind.
Several of the rewards result in bodily strength or beauty, such as Vajraṛiṣabhanārāċa saṅghayaṇa, which ensures one’s possessing bones in one’s body as hard as iron and as strong as a bull’s; Samaċaturastra saṇṭhaṇa, that gives a well-proportioned, shapely and elegant body; and Śubha varṇa, Śubha gandha, Śubha rasa and Śubha sparśa, which endow one with a good complexion, pleasing bodily odour, good corpuscles in one’s blood, and a skin that feels smooth as a peach to the touch. Again, the fruit of puṇya ensures one’s being neither too fat nor too lean, but of exactly right weight (Agurulaghu nāmakarma), and also makes one so powerful (Parāghāta nāmakarma) that one is always victorious. Asthma or consumption are a clear sign that one has committed sin in a previous existence, for merit would have won Uċċhvdsa nāmakarma, which ensures one’s having no impediment in one’s breathing.
Jaina also believe that as a result of merit they may be born again as Jyotiṣī devatā, living in the sun for one life and giving off almost unbearable effulgence. This effulgence is a result of Ātapa nāmakarma. Others as a reward of merit go to the moon, where it is very cold, and so they give off a cold radiance which is due to Anuṣṇa nāmakarma. Even one’s method of walking is affected by one’s previous actions, and a stately gait (Śubhavihāyogati), like that of an elephant, a goose, or a bull, is a much coveted prize for merit.
Another fruit of puṇya (Nirmāṇa nāmakarma) leads to one’s being born with all one’s limbs supple and perfect. Through Trasa nāmakarma one is certain to be born as at least a two-sensed being and may be endowed with all the senses. Some lives are microscopic, but if one has acquired Bādara nāmakarma, one may rest assured that one will at least have sufficient size to be perceptible to the naked eye. In whatever class of life one is born, provided only one has gained Paryāpti nāmakarma, one will be perfect in that class.
Every ailment and every illness is traced back to a fault in a previous birth: thus a rickety child must have committed some sin which prevented its gaining Sthira nāmakarma, for that would have given it strong and well-set limbs, fine teeth and a well-knit frame.
It has been already mentioned that Jaina believe that every onion, potato, garlic, carrot, turnip and ground root is the home of innumerable jīva. If a man has acquired Pratyeka nāmakarma he cannot be forced to dwell in one of these underground roots, but in whatever body he may be born, he will have that body to himself. There cannot be more than one jīva inhabiting a human body at the same moment, nor more than one in a bird, beast, or insect; it is only underground roots that take in troops of tenement lodgers.
Certain other rewards ensure one’s having a handsome body (Śubha nāmakarma), at least from the waist up, or being loved by all with whom one comes in contact (Subhaga nāmakarma), having a pleasant voice (Susvara nāmakarma), gaining respect from all whom one meets (Ādeya nāmakarma), or even gaining fame wherever one goes (Yaśokīrtti nāmakarma) .
Three different results of puṇya decide the term of life which one will spend as a god (Devatā āyuṣya), or a human being (Manuṣya āyuṣya), or a lower animal (Tiryañċ dyusya). The greatest and the final reward of punya is Tīrthaṅkara nāmakarma, which ensures one at last becoming a Tīrthaṅkara.
The eighteen kinds of Sin.In order to understand the religion of the Jaina we must try and grasp their idea of sin, for it is a very different conception from the Western, being in fact often ceremonial rather than moral.
i. Jīva hiṁsā.To take any life seems to the Jaina the most heinous of all crimes and entails the most terrible punishment; yet the central thought of Jainism is not so much saving life as refraining from destroying it. ‘Ahiṁsā parama dharma—Destroy no living creature! Injure no living creature! This is the highest religion!’ declared a modern Jaina lecturer, and with almost Irish eloquence he goes on to say: ‘I stand before you this noon to speak on a religion whose glory the dumb creatures, the cows, the goats, the sheep, the lambs, the hens, the pigeons, and all other living creatures, the beasts and the birds sing with their mute tongues; the only rehgion which has for thousands of years past advocated the cause of the silent-tongued animals: the only religion which has denounced slaughter of animals for sacrifice, food, hunting, or any purpose whatever,’[41] ‘The foundation principle of the Jaina religion’, writes another,[42] ‘is to abstain from killing.’ They even call their faith the rehgion of non-killing (Ahiṁsā dharma). To people believing thus, killing (Hiṁsā) is the greatest sin and abstaining from killing (Ahiṁsā) the most binding moral duty. There is a higher and a lower law for ascetics and for the laity. A monk must strive not to take any life (insect, vegetable, or animal) that has even one sense, but the laity are only forbidden to take any life possessed of two or more senses. The Jaina make a very interesting distinction between spiritual and actual murder (Bhāva hiṁsā and Dravya hiṁsā). One sins against Bhāva ahiṁsā by wishing for any one’s death or desiring harm to befall them. Not only so, but if one does not continue and complete one’s own education, or strive to improve one’s own mind, or if one fails to exercise and discipline one’s own soul, one commits Bhāva hiṁsā, for one kills by stultification what one might have been.[43] Dravya ahiṁsā (or the forbidding of material killing) is absolutely binding on all Jaina of every sect, and to offend against this is the greatest of all sins. Breaches of the seventh commandment are considered as breaking this law,[44] because more than one jīva are thereby held to be destroyed.
As a man kills a jīva, so will he be killed in hell, and lurid pictures are published to illustrate this tenet; but if any one kills a monk, that monk in the next world is given the privilege of killing his murderer without sinning against Ahiṁsā.
The Jaina say (with how much truth is doubtful) that their ancient rivals the Buddhists were once as careful as they to observe the rule against killing, but when Buddhism spread to different lands, it had to be adapted to the habits of people who declined to give up slaughter. A Jaina friend of the writer once acted most dramatically the way in which he declared Buddhists in Burma who desire to eat fish lift them carefully out of the water, and, having left them on the bank to die, say: ‘Lo, here is a poor thing that has died! No sin will accrue to us if we eat it.’ They also assert that the Buddhists in Tibet, calculating that sin accrues equally whether they kill the smallest or the greatest jīva, say: ‘Therefore since we must acquire sin, let us kill an elephant,’ and so get as much as possible for their money.
In connexion with Ahiṁsā the lecturer whom we have before quoted gives a derivation for the word Hindu which is perhaps more ingenious than ingenuous:
‘Hindus were not those who originally lived on the banks of the river Indus. Hindus were those from whom hiṁsā was away. Let us not misunderstand words. Let us interpret them correctly. It is those men who are the slaves of taste who say that Hindus were those who lived on the banks of the Indus. We, Jaina, call Hindus those from whom him or hiṁsā is du or dūr, i.e. away!’[45]
ii. Asatya or Mṛiṣāvāda.Though Hiṁsā is the greatest of crimes, the Jaina also recognize seventeen other sins, and the next worse of these is untruthfulness, Asatya or Mṛiṣāvāda. They divide the way ordinary folk talk into four classes: they may tell the truth; or they may tell absolute lies; they may occasionally make use of white lies; or their conversation may be a mosaic of truth and lies. Now a Jaina is only allowed to speak in two ways: either he must tell the truth; or, if that be too difficult, he may avail himself of white lies; but he must neither lie, nor speak the half-truth half-lie that is ever the blackest of lies.
The sad story of King Vasu shows the power of absolute candour and the fall that follows any declension from it. Vasu was known as ‘the Truth-teller’, and his throne was established on veracity; indeed, so strong was the power engendered by his absolute fidelity to truth, that his throne was supported by it alone at a great height from the ground. Two men named Parvata and Nārada came to him to ask him to tell them the exact significance of the word Ajā, for one held it to mean ‘grain’ and the other ‘goat’. The king’s paṇḍit had told him that it meant ‘grain’, but instead of saying this, the king, endeavouring to please both parties, gave the word a double signification, saying it might mean either ‘goat’ or ‘grain’. The result of this deviation from the strict truth was that the king’s throne fell to the ground, but if you look in a dictionary you will see the word bears a double meaning to this day!
The rules regarding truthfulness and untruthfulness differ for monks and laity, as we shall see when we come to discuss the twelve vows.
iii. Adattādāna.Dishonesty (Adattādāna) is another class of sin which is forbidden to all Jaina; besides actual theft, this sin includes keeping lost property or treasure trove, smuggling, cheating, taking bribes, and all treason and law breaking. It was explained to the writer that the reason why treason and law breaking were included under this category was that originally they led to much financial profit, and all illegitimate financial profit was stealing; nowadays they are not so advantageous, but they are still strictly prohibited. Under this head is also forbidden all sharp practice in business, together with the misappropriation of trust funds and the use of charitable funds for private gain.
iv. Abrahmaċarya.Another sin that also bears a different connotation for the professed religious and the layman is unchastity (Abrahmaċarya); for whereas a layman is bound to maintain his own wife in all honour and happiness, it is sin for a sādhu to allow so much as the hem of his garment to touch a woman. When we deal with the vows, we shall notice how much Eastern and Western monasticism have in common on this point.
v. Parigraha.The Jaina realized how many sins sprang from excessive love of one’s own possessions. They taught that if a monk kept one garment or one vessel above the allowed number, or if he even became over attached to one that he lawfully possessed, he committed the sin of Parigraha, or covetousness. In the same way the layman was instructed that if he showed uncontrolled grief when one of his cattle died or his money disappeared, he too had given way to greed.
vi. Krodha.As one studies more closely the Jaina idea of what sin consists in, one is struck with their profound knowledge of the human heart, a knowledge shared by all faiths which practise confession. Another thing that strikes one is the great stress they lay on anger (Krodha) as a source of sin. The merest globe-trotter notices how differently we Westerners look at anger, hardly accounting it a sin, while to an Oriental it seems a most heinous offence. We shall have to return to the subject of anger again and again in our analysis of Jaina thought; here it will suffice to notice that the Jaina hold that anger, though generally unrighteous (apraśasta), may also sometimes be righteous (praśasta). For instance, it is righteous for a guru to scold a lazy disciple[46] or for a magistrate to speak severely, but it is unrighteous to get angry without a cause, or to add to the ill feeling between two persons.
vii. Māna.The seventh of the eighteen kinds of sin is conceit or Māna, and of conceit there are eight forms:[47] pride of caste, of family, of strength, of form, of wealth, of reputation, of learning, and last but not least, the pride of being a landed proprietor.
viii. Māyā.A great deal of confusion has arisen over the word Māyā, which the Jaina use to denote the eighth sin. The Vedāntists of course use the word to mean illusion, and a smattering of their philosophy is now so common, that many people loosely read Vedāntism into all Indian philosophy and suppose māyā invariably to have this meaning. The Jaina, however, consider themselves to be nearer to the Sāṅkhya than the Vedanta school of philosophy, and their properly instructed[48] teachers declare that the word generally means intrigue, cheating, attachment, ignorance, wealth, and only occasionally illusion. In the Jaina scriptures it usually connotes intrigue or cheating.
A commercial people are naturally prone to this sin, but the sanction it carries with it is very heavy—a man who cheats in this life may be born a woman in the next! Not only commercial but religious cheating may involve this penalty, as the case of Mallinātha, the nineteenth Tīrthaṅkara shows. In a previous life he and five friends delighted to perform their religious duties together, and all six fasted and meditated with the utmost regularity and circumspection. Gradually, however, Mallinātha began to long to outdo them in austerity, and thus get ahead of them on the path to liberation; and so, yielding to temptation, he once added an extra fast to the days they had agreed to observe and kept it on the quiet without telling his colleagues. His friends were deeply grieved when they discovered the deceitful way they had been outdone, but Mallinātha suffered also; for though he had acquired so much merit that it automatically made him a Tīrthaṅkara, the spiritual māyā he had indulged in turned him into a female one.[49]
ix. Lobha.The Jaina have many legends that show the evils of Lobha or avarice, the ninth kind of sin. Thus, a great king, Subhūma, lost his kingdom through greed and was drowned in the sea; and it was through avarice again that a certain merchant prince lost all his millions and died without a pie. Indeed the proverb Lobha pāpanuṁ mūḷa, ‘avarice is the root of sin’, is current not amongst Jaina only but among all Indians.[50]
Kaṣāya.We now come to an analysis of these four sins (anger, conceit, intrigue and greed), together called Kaṣāya, which is of the first importance to our sympathetic understanding of the strength of Jainism. The value of Jaina philosophy lies not only in the fact that it, unlike Hinduism, has correlated ethical teaching with its metaphysical system, but also in the amazing knowledge of human nature which its ethics display. Very often Jaina divide and subdivide a subject in such a way as to throw no fresh light on it, but in the subdivisions of these four faults (which they rightly and profoundly regard as sister sins) they have seized on an essential truth, that the length of time a sin is indulged in affects the nature of the sin; for sins grow worse through long keeping.[51]
The worst degree to which any of these four sins may be indulged is called Anantānubandhī, when the sin is cherished as long as life lasts, and if there be an offender in the case, he is never forgiven. Whilst under the sway of sin to this degree, it is impossible for a man to grasp any ideas of religion or to give his mind to study.
In the next degree (Apratyākhyānī) the sin, though nursed for a year, is confessed at the great annual confession of sin.[52] During the time that a man is under its influence he might possess an intellectual grasp of religious principles, but it would be impossible for him to carry them out into his daily life.
In the third degree (Pratyākhyānī) the sin lasts only for four months and is confessed and given up at Ċomāsī[53] (the four-monthly confession), but during those months in which it is indulged, it prevents a man becoming a really holy monk or layman, though outwardly he may keep the vows. For instance, it would not hinder his doing some outward act such as giving up eating potatoes, but it would prevent his really giving up all attachment to the world.
The same four faults are cherished to the least of the four degrees (Sañjvalana) when renounced at the evening confession, or at least not carried beyond the fortnightly confession; but during the time a man indulges them to even this degree, though it would be possible for him to become a monk, he could not become the ideal sādhu as depicted in the scriptures, the goal which every true ascetic has set before him, and which he hopes to attain. This point the enlightened and spiritually minded Jaina love to discuss and compare with the Christian ideal of consecration and throwing aside every weight to reach the goal.
The Jaina are past masters in the art of illustration, and it is interesting to notice in their sacred books and in their sermons how many of their allegories are drawn from common objects of the countryside. It makes one realize how largely India is a country of villagers. Each of the four sins has its own parable. In the case of anger, the least degree is likened to a line drawn on water, which soon passes away; the next to one drawn in the dust, which is stamped out and effaced in a day; the third to a crack in the dried mud at the bottom of an empty village tank, which will not disappear till the yearly rains fill the tank and cover it; and the worst of all to a fissure in a mountain side, which will remain till the end of the world.
To illustrate the four degrees of conceit, the Jaina take the stages of the growth of a tree, and remind us that the twig is pliable and easily bent again to humility; that the young branch of a tree can bend humbly if a storm force it; and that the wood of the stem may be taught humility (though with difficulty) by being oiled and heated; but conceit in the worst degree outdoes any simile taken from a tree, being as unbending as a pillar of stone.
Deceit or intrigue again leads to crookedness: in the least degree it can be straightened as one can straighten a bamboo cane; in the second degree it is like the crooked track of moisture left in the dust by the dripping from the water carrier’s leather bucket; when it grows worse it is as crooked as a ram’s horn; and in the worst degree of all it is like the knot in the root of the bamboo, the crookedest thing in the land.
The most subtle perhaps of all the similes is that which deals with greed, and the Jaina illustration of its effects on the soul is of special interest, for this sin is said to change the colour of the human heart. If avarice be cherished even to the least degree, it will stain the soul yellow like turmeric, but this discoloration can easily be washed off; if greed be given way to for a fortnight, the heart will be soiled like earthen cooking-pots which can only be cleansed with great labour; if one cherishes it for four months, its stain grows as difficult to efface as the marks left by the oil of a cart wheel; and in the last degree it can never be washed away in this life, whatever efforts one may make, but is as ineffaceable as the crimson dye.[54]
The result of any of these four sins, if indulged in to the worst degree, is to condemn a man to rebirth in hell; the next worse forces him in his next life to become a bird, a beast, or an insect; if he has not indulged his sin for longer than four months, he may be born as a man; if he had thrown it off within a fortnight from its inception, he might become a god; but if in all his life he had remained free from all wrath, conceit, intrigue and greed, he would become a Siddha without rebirth.
All these four, Krodha, Māna, Māyā and Lobha, are called Kaṣāya, or things which tie one down to this world; they are also called Ċaṇḍāḷa Ċokaḍī, the four vile or outcaste ones, and the following legend is told to show how indulgence in them destroys all true dignity and drags one down to the lowest level. A certain Brāhman, having bathed and worshipped, felt himself polluted by the accidental touch of a sweeper woman, and, being enraged, swore at her. To his astonishment she promptly caught hold of his garments, and the more he swore at her, the more tightly she clung. Mad with rage, the Brāhman rushed to the king demanding redress. The king asked the woman how she had dared to catch hold of a Brāhman, but she replied that the Brāhman had already polluted himself by receiving a Ċaṇḍāḷa into his heart when he became angry, and therefore her touch could no longer pollute him, for he had become her fellow outcaste.
The Jaina sum up their teaching about these four sins by saying that when wrath leaves, forgiveness for others[55] enters; when conceit goes, humility comes; intrigue gives place to simplicity; and when avarice disappears, content reigns.
x. Rāga or Asakti.The tenth class of sin is even more worth our studying, seems to put into our hands the key that unlocks the very heart of Jainism and reveals the loneliness within. All over-fondness (Rāga or Āsakti) for a person or thing is sin, since it hinders that perfect detachment from the world which is the goal of the whole system.
It is easy to see that in a coarse way an attachment may hinder a monk’s progress, but the legend that the Jaina tell to illustrate this obvious fact is worth recording, for it shows how clearly they have realized the strange contradictions in character that may exist in the same person. It is told how Mahāvīra once preached at the court of Śreṇika, King of Magadha, with such power that the heir, Prince Nandiṣeṇa, became converted and, leaving all his splendour, went to live in the woods. There unhappily he fell under the sway of a courtesan, and as he felt he could neither leave her nor give up his belief that Jainism was the true faith, he had resort to that most intricate of all compromises, a bargain with his conscience. He decided to stay with her and also to preach Jainism, though he no longer practised it; he determined as a further sop to his conscience to regularly convert ten people to Jainism every day. He continued to do this for some time, but one day he happened to have only ten people in his audience, and though he converted nine of these, the tenth, a goldsmith, was a very hard nut to crack. The woman wanted her breakfast, but the erstwhile prince was determined to get his tale of ten converts complete. At last the woman called out ‘Why on earth don’t you convert yourself and so get your ten, and let us have our breakfast?’ The taunt went home, and there and then he tore out the hair, which had grown whilst he dallied with sin, and returned to the forest. The Jaina say that such a man, having overcome rāga, would on his death go to svarga.
This was of course an example of wrong love, but the Jaina believe that indulgence in even right affection will hinder one’s attaining liberation, as the pathetic story of Mahāvīra’s greatest disciple, Gautama, shows. It will be remembered that Gautama could not conquer his personal attachment to the great ascetic, and despite all his endeavours he continued to think of him as ‘my master’ and ‘my friend’, thus showing that he had allowed himself to become attached by the roots of his personality to another. Only on the night that Mahāvīra died was he able to overcome all mamatva or feeling of personal devotion and possession. It had been easy for Gautama to give up all outward possessions of wealth and property, it was agony to him to tear out love from his heart. Devout Jaina are very interested in the contrast between this story and that of the Christian disciple, Thomas, who touched the highest development of the Christian faith when his mamatva became perfected, and he could say to his Master: ‘My Lord and my God.’[56]
Our study has now brought us to a most interesting parting of the ways between Jainism on the one hand and both Hinduism and Christianity on the other, for the understanding of which the writer is deeply indebted to both Jaina and Hindu friends, who have taken endless pains to make their view-points clear.
As all personal attachment is burnt up in the glow of asceticism, the true Jaina cannot hold any doctrine of personal devotion (bhakti) to a god such as has inspired so much of the most beautiful Hindu literature. Yet there is amongst some modern Jaina a tendency towards giving to Mahāvīra a devotion which almost resembles bhakti; this may be indirectly due to the influence of the Bhagavadgītā, which is widely read amongst them, or of the stories they have read of Jesus Christ, for whose person the Jaina, with their eager love of all that is tender and beautiful, have a great reverence. Nevertheless, according to their creed, they do not believe in a Creator, much less in a Father Omnipotent, to whom they might feel such personal devotion. The state of godhood is what they fix their thoughts on, a state of passive and passionless beatitude enjoyed by several separate Siddha; and for this state of godhood they are permitted to have an attachment, and it is on their own attainment of this state that they fix their hopes and their ambitions. ‘Why should I love a personal god?’ a Jaina once said to the writer, ‘I hope to become a god myself’. And in one of their sacred books the whole matter is summed up in words terrible in their loneliness: ‘Man! Thou art thine own friend; why wishest thou for a friend beyond thyself?’[57]
xi. Dveṣa.The eleventh kind of sin, hatred or envy (Dveṣa or Īrṣyā), is entirely evil, and the soul that would proceed on the great journey must completely free itself from it. As it often springs from possession, the man who strips himself of all property goes far to rid himself of the sin too, as the following legend shows.
There was once a king named Draviḍa, who on his death divided his property between his elder son, Drāviḍa, and his younger, Vārikhilla, leaving the senior more property than the junior. The younger, however, succeeded by wise management in so increasing his estate that his elder brother grew more and more envious, and finally on some pretext or other a war broke out between the two. During the monsoon there was perforce a truce, and Drāviḍa had leisure to hear a famous non-Jaina ascetic preach on the sin of envy; becoming converted, he went off to the camp of his younger brother to beg forgiveness. The brothers were completely reconciled, and both of them not only renounced envy, but agreed also to renounce their kingdoms, the possession of which had given rise to so great a sin. They became Jaina sādhus and lived at Śatruñjaya, and passing from thence to mokṣa they became Siddha. And still on the full moon day of the month Kārtika, when the faithful go on pilgrimage to Śatruñjaya, they remember the two brothers who gave up all things to free themselves from envy.
xii. Kleśa.Quarrelsomeness or Kleśa, the twelfth form of sin, is specially dangerous to family happiness, as we can easily understand, when we remember how many members of a family live under one roof in India. This is believed to be the particular vice to which mothers-in-law are liable, and it is often only owing to the influence of this sin that they complain of their daughter-in-law’s cooking! The Jaina scriptures are full of examples of the evils that spring from such quarrelsomeness, showing that it has often not only ruined families but even destroyed kingdoms.
xiii. Abhyākhyāna.So greatly do the Jaina value the peace of their homes, that the next sin, slander (Abhyākhyāna), is also looked at chiefly as a home-wrecking sin. So grievous a crime is it, that nature will work a miracle to discredit it, as illustrated by the following legend. In a certain city a fierce mother-in-law accused her son’s wife of unchastity. The poor girl could only protest her innocency, but was quite unable to prove it, till suddenly a great calamity befell the city: the massive gates of the town stuck fast and could not be moved! An astrologer, being called in to help, declared that they could only be opened by a woman so chaste that she could draw water from a well in a sieve and sprinkle with it the obdurate gates. The accused girl seized this chance to prove her innocency, and did it so successfully that her slanderer was confounded and condemned.[58]
xiv. Paiśunya.Paiśunya, or telling stories to discredit any one, is another sin resembling in its guilt that of slander.
xv. Nindā.It is also a very serious sin to be always criticizing and finding fault (Nindā). The Jaina tell many stories to show that one should look at one’s own sins and not at the sins of others, saying that if one is continually thinking of the faults of others, one’s own mind becomes debased and one grows like the very sinners one criticizes.
xvi. Rati, Arati.It is natural for an ascetic religion to reckon the lack of self-control in the presence of either joy or sorrow (Rati Arati) as a very grave sin, tending, as it does, not only to injury of health and spirits, but also to excessive attachment to temporal and transitory objects of affection.
xvii. Māyāmṛiṣā.The seventeenth form of sin in our list, Māyāmṛiṣā, is very far-reaching. It is that species of untruthfulness which in ordinary conversation leads to suggestio falsi, and which in rehgion leads to hypocrisy. The Jaina love of the countryside and their shrewd country wit is shown in the fact that the typical example they quote of the hypocrite is the stork. This bird, they declare, stands on the river bank on only one leg (to pretend he has the least possible connexion with the things of earth) and seems to be lost in meditation, but, if a fish appear, he swoops down and kills it, thus committing the sin of hirhsa, the most heinous of all crimes, whilst professing to be engaged in devotion.
xviii. Mithyādarśana Śalya.The last of the eighteen sins, Mithyādarśana Śalya, embraces those that spring from false faith, such as holding the renegade Gośāla, who was nothing but a failure, to be a Tīrthaṅkara, or believing in a false religion,[59] or taking a man who is a hypocrite for one’s guru. There are altogether twenty-five divisions of the sin of false faith, but we need only glance at one or two of the most important, as throwing an interesting light on the way Jaina regard the religions by which they are surrounded. Such are Laukika mithyātva, or believing in such gods as Gaṇeśa or Hanumān, whom the Jaina do not believe to be gods at all; and Lokottara mithyātva, which includes all forms of spiritual bribery, such as the offering of vows to various Jaina saints or gurus for the fulfilment of the worshipper’s wishes. Under this it is even forbidden to pray for a child’s recovery from sickness! It is also accounted a sin, though a venial one, if a Jaina woman, for instance, promises in the event of a son being granted to her to give a cradle to a temple, or to donate money to a sādhu, or that her husband will feed their caste fellows; for the Jaina say that they should never give alms with any object save that of aiding themselves on the journey to mokṣa, and should be careful not to import into their religion the practices of an alien faith.[60] Two other branches of the sin of false faith are such as might prevent conversion to Jainism: the obstinate holding of a belief, when the holder is convinced it is false (Abhigrahika mithyātva); and the resting content in a state of ignorance, when there is an opportunity of striving to learn (Ajñāna mithyātva). Other sins included under this head consist in lack of reverence towards sacred things: for instance, he who fails to pay the honour due to a guru or a god is guilty of Avinaya mithyātva; and a man who enters a temple wearing his shoes, or chewing betel-nut, or who spits in the temple precincts, is guilty of Aśātanā mithyātva. The last of these twenty-five which we need enumerate is Anabhigrahika mithyātva,[61] the sin which any Jaina would commit who, for example, became a theosophist, or came to regard all religions as true and all their founders and apostles as equally worthy of reverence and belief.
Such are some of the faults which are included under this sin of false faith, the last on the list of the eighteen kinds of sin. Such a list is in itself enough to justify the claim of the Jaina that the philosophy of their faith is an ethical philosophy; but to Western eyes it seems no less remarkable for its omissions than for its inclusions. To judge this list fairly one must remember that it is not an unused piece of lumber stored away in the Jaina statute book, but that the most careless of Jaina test their consciences by it at least once every year, and that the more devout use it every four months and some even every fortnight. It cannot be denied that such lists, together with kindred enactments, have educated the Jaina conscience to some knowledge of what sin is.
Under their fourth principle the Jaina include not only the forms which sin takes, but also the results which follow from it. Jaina have a great admiration for beauty of person and of intellect, and they believe that sin in a previous birth will inevitably produce deformity in mind or body in the next existence.
The five Jñānāvaraṇīya.They say that there are five ways in which sin can impede knowledge. It may impede the free use of the intellect (Matijñānāvaraṇīya). It is true that when a man becomes a Siddha, his soul will have perfect knowledge and will be able to cast aside the mind as no longer needed, but in this life he must use his intellect and his five senses to the full as a means of gaining wisdom. Sin in a previous birth hinders all exercise of the intellect, as dirt clogs the machinery of a watch. Another effect of sin on the intellect is to prevent our gaining any good from hearing or reading the scriptures (Śrutajñānāvaraṇīya). Sin also impedes the use of occult powers. Certain Jaina, even after shutting their eyes, know what is going on around them, but the effect of some sins would neutralize this knowledge (Avadhijñānāvaraṇīya). By the practice of austerities these occult powers can be so developed that a man can know what is going on in Jambūdvīpa, Dhātakī Khaṇḍa[62] and half of Puṣkaradvīpa, but previous sin ( Manaḥparyāyajñānāvaraṇīya) would spoil these powers, even as another of its results (Kevalajñānāvaraṇīya) can prevent any one’s attaining omniscience, the highest knowledge of all. Evidently the Jaina have clearly realized that part of the wages of sin is death to the intellectual life.
The five Antarāya.Sin can also impede our enjoyment of many other things The five besides intellect. If one is longing to experience the pleasure of giving away, and even has everything ready, sin will prevent one’s actually dispensing the alms (Dānāntarāya). If a man works hard in business, but never manages to make a profit, he knows that it is owing to sin (Lābhāntarāya). In this case, however, he may hope to overcome the effect of sin, if it had not become ripe enough for punishment, by accumulating merit. There are two ways of enjoying the possession of property: there is the enjoyment a poor man would take in having some great luxury like a motor car, and the enjoyment he has in using such necessaries of life as food and clothing. The fruit of sin will prevent his enjoying either (Bhogāntarāya and Upabhogāntarāya). The Jaina hold also that sin will prevent a man's rejoicing in his strength, and if they see that some one, though evidently possessing great physical or spiritual powers, has been from his youth up unable to use them (Vīryāntarāya), they say at once that he must have committed some sin in his previous birth.
The four Darśanāvaraṇīya.Sin has a specially evil effect on sight, both physical and spiritual (Ċakṣudarśanāvaraṇīya): one effect of sin may, be to actually render a man blind, a less gross sin would result in his being short-sighted, and if the sin were only a venial one, its fruit might be only night blindness. Other sins would injure other senses (Aċakṣudarśanāvaraṇīya) such as hearing, smelling, tasting and the sense of touch. Then, just as we saw that the degrees of knowledge were impeded as a penalty for sin, so with regard to sight in various degrees: sin prevents any one seeing with the eyes of the soul what people at a distance are doing (Avadhidarśanāvaraṇīya), and of course also hinders any one from getting that supernatural vision which is only possessed by the omniscient (Kevaladarśanāvaraṇīya) . If any sin be very heinous, its fruit may ripen in the very life in which it was committed, so that the sinner may suffer for it before death without having to wait for rebirth, but usually the wages of sin accumulate and only affect a jīva in succeeding lives.
The five Nidrā.Sin seems to have a specially unfavourable influence on attempts at meditation, for one of the fruits of sin is slumber, that great foe to prayer. All indulgence in sin leads to sleepiness: if the sin had been slight the slumber is light (Nidrā), and the sleeper can be awakened easily; but heavier sin brings on heavier slumber (Nidrānidrā), from which the awakening is painful. In a worse state sleep comes uninvited to a man as he tries to meditate when he is standing up or sitting down (Praċalā); and as a punishment for yet grosser sin it does not wait for movement to cease, but overpowers him even as he is walking along the road (Ċalā or Praċalāpraċalā). The worst type of slumber (Styānarddhi or Thīṇarddhi) is the fruit of gross sin, and indues its victims with terrific vigour, so that they possess at least half of the strength of the great Vāsudeva. With this strength they commit in their sleep all sorts of crimes, murders and manslaughters, so that their guilt is increased, and with it is increased also their slumber, hence they are perpetually involved in a hideous circle of crime bringing forth slumber and slumber bringing forth crime, from which there is no relief.
Five unclassified results.In the long list of eighty-two results of sin one comes after Nidrā to some unclassified results, which we shall deal with more fully elsewhere, such as the being born in a low-caste or poor family (Nīċagotra), being born in hell (Narakagati), or suffering sorrow on sorrow (Aśātāvedanīya), perhaps in hell. As a result of sin, too, the force (Narakānupūrvī) is accumulated which will send one to hell, and the time one will have to spend there (Narakāyu) is also dependent on our previous sins.
The twenty-five Kaṣāya, including the nine Nokaṣāya.Next on the long list come the twenty-five Kaṣāya (those sins which result in tying men to the cycle of rebirth). We have discussed[63] sixteen of these under the heads of anger, conceit, intrigue, and greed, and their subdivisions, and must now look at nine minor faults (Nokaṣāya) and their results. These sins are such as it is very important for ascetics to avoid, but as they are not in themselves very heinous transgressions, they do not bring such terrible consequences in their train. Nevertheless a sādhu must avoid the sin of laughter (Hāsya), for when he made the great renunciation he bade farewell to all enjoyment of merriment. If a sādhu laughs even once, some punishment will follow, and if he persists in the indulgence, it will lead to his rebirth. The next sin is worth remembering, for it brings out most clearly the difference between the Christian ideal of asceticism, as typified, for example, by St. Francis of Assisi or David Livingstone, with their joy in all the beauty and wonder of the world, and the Jaina ideal. A sādhu must not rejoice in beauty (Rati[64]) nor in the joyousness of a little child, nor in the sound of exquisite harmony, nor in the glories of art, for a religious has done with all pleasure which is worldly and arises from delight in pudgaḷa. A monk has bidden farewell also to all disgust (Arati), and must not feel dismay at the sight of an evil-looking person, or on hearing even the vilest abuse. A sādhu must be free from all fear (Bhaya) of men or animals: indeed in their scriptures he is expressly told that, even if he sees a vicious cow coming for him, he is not to leave the road, but with a mind ‘not directed to outward things’ continue in contemplation.[65] Similarly he must never indulge in grief (Śoka) through being deprived of anything, but must remain undisturbed, even if thieves rob him of his last garment. Many legends record how scrupulously good monks have abstained from the next sin, that of feeling dismayed when assailed, either by words of hatred or contempt, or by an evil smell (Dugañċhā). The remaining three minor faults (Puruṣaveda, Strīveda, Napuṁsakaveda) remind us how completely the Jaina ascetic has parted with love and affection, for if he be a true monk, he must form no friendship even with another monk, and similarly no nun may desire the companionship of another nun, or a neuter of a neuter. Though these nine minor faults are sins that the ascetic is specially bound to shun, they also show the things that the layman will do well to avoid, for the over-indulgence in any of them will result in rebirth.
Six results affecting class of jīva.Sin will further affect the class of beings into which one is born in the next incarnation, for the Jaina draw no barriers between animal and human lite, and the result of sin in this life may be to accumulate a force (Tiryañċ anupūrvī) which will cause one to be reborn on the next occasion as a beast or a bird (Tiryañċ gati) or as a one-sensed, two-sensed, three-sensed, or four-sensed being (Ekendriya nāma, Be-indriya nāma, Tri-indriya nāma, Ċorendriya nāma).
Six physical blemishes.Sin also results in personal ugliness of various kinds. If one sees some one who walks in a very ugly way like a camel or a donkey, one knows at once that it is the result of sin (Aśubha vihāyogati); certain ugly diseases (Upaghāta nāma), such as boils under the tongue, diseases of the throat, teeth dropping out, or curvature of the spine, are caused by sin. Indians very much admire a complexion of the colour of ripe wheat and dislike a very dark skin; and Jaina believe that complexions are the result of conduct in a past life, and that a really black skin is the fruit of sin (Aśubha varṇa). So is an unpleasant bodily smell (Aśubha gandha), unpleasant bodily essence (Aśubha rasa), and a skin that is unpleasant to the touch (Aśubha sparśa). The general result of beliefs of this kind is to dry up sympathy for sufferers from bodily defects.
Sin also results in loss of bodily strength, and to understand this we must try and grasp a new idea of anatomy. The five Saṅgheṇa.The Jaina believe that sinews are wrapped round the bones of the human frame like a bandage, and that on the tightness of this wrapping the strength of the body depends. Sin has affected this bandage in five particular ways: firstly (Ṛiṣabhanārāċa saṅgheṇa), owing to the general depravity of the age, the peg that fastened the bandage tightly to the human frame and prevented its getting unwound has dropped out, and got permanently lost, so that there is no security against loss of bodily strength. As the world has grown steadily wickeder, the bandage has passed through successive stages of becoming loose (Nārāċa saṅgheṇa) and so greatly weakening the body; dropping half off (Ardhanārāċa saṅgheṇa); slipping right off (Kīlikā saṅgheṇa), so as to leave only the two little nails that fastened the bones before they were bandaged; until at last we reach the present epoch, when not only has the bandage entirely disappeared (Sevārtta saṅgheṇa), but also the nails that held the bones, and so the human frame, having lost the strength the bandage formerly gave, as well as the cohesion due to the nails, now only keeps together in a weakened condition ‘owing to sockets, &c.’!
The five Saṁsthāna.Sin also results in various deformities in the human body. A good figure is held to be a reward of past merit, and the various failures to reach the perfect physical standard are the fruits of sin. As the upper portion of a banyan tree is famous for its beauty, whilst nearer the ground it looks ugly enough, so it often happens that, though the head and trunk of a man are perfectly formed, his legs are short and spindly; this failure of upper and lower to correspond (Nyagrodhaparimaṇḍaḷa saṁsthāna) is the fruit of sin. So is the reverse (Sādi saṁsthāna), when the head and trunk are miserably thin and badly developed, while the legs are strong and vigorous. Or the head and legs may be normal, but the torso ill-formed (Kubjaka saṁsthāna). The result of sin may be to make a man a dwarf (Vāmana saṁsthāna); and still grosser sin may result in the malformation of every limb and every feature (Huṇḍa saṁsthāna).
The Sthāvara Daśaka.Pursuing our way down the long list we come next to a rather heterogeneous group of ten results of sin. Certain sins condemn the soul that commits them to be born in the next life in the class of motionless beings (Sthāvara) , or perhaps to be so tiny as to be invisible and unable to move (Sūkṣma). Other sins prevent a soul acquiring the full number of powers and senses that belong to the class in which it is born (Aparyāpti). A still more dreaded result of sin forces a soul to take up its abode in a body already inhabited by numberless other souls (Sādhāraṇa). Jaina, as we have seen, believe that thousands of lives lodge in every single potato, onion, artichoke and beet; and so they never eat any tuber, root, or bulb, lest they should take not one but thousands of lives by so doing. No punishment is more feared by the Jaina than that the jīva, instead of having some shelter (human, animal, or vegetable) to itself, may have to lodge along with myriads of others in an overcrowded dwelling. Again, as the result of sin, the body that the jīva inhabits may be complete in every respect, but the limbs may be unstable (Asthira): a shaky hand, a palsied head and loose teeth are all put down to sin in a past life. Sin may make a man unlucky and his name so inauspicious (Aśuhha) that people do not like to mention it early in the morning, lest misfortune pursue them all day; or it may make a man a failure (Durbhaga), so that everything he touches goes wrong. The voice, too, may be affected (Dusvara), so that it becomes unpleasing to the listener and lacks all harmony: a donkey’s bray, the hooting of an owl and the cracked voice of a man all bear witness to sin in a previous life. Though the sound of a voice may be all right, the effect of sin may be to take away all authority from it (Aṅādeya): when a man’s commands are disobeyed, his warnings disregarded, and his words disbelieved, it is plain that he must have sinned deeply in his last birth. One notices, too, that however hard some men strive, disgrace instead of fame seems to be their lot (Ayaśa); this also is the result of sin.
Mithyātva mohanīya.The last of the eighty-two fruits of sin (Mithyātva mohanīya) is the most terrible of all, for it deprives a man of the power of believing in the truth. He is forced by it to believe in a false instead of in a true god; in an evil guru and not in a good one; and in a false creed instead of the true faith.
The forty-two Āśrava.Karma (the accumulated result of action) is one of the central ideas of the Jaina faith, and the fifth principle of Jaina philosophy deals with the way karma is acquired by the human soul. Just as water flows into a boat through a hole in it, so karma according to the Jaina flows into the soul through Āśrava and impedes its progress. No soul can attain to mokṣa till it has worked off all its karma, auspicious and inauspicious (Śubha and Aśubha). There are forty-two chief channels or Āśrava through which karma enters a jīva; and of these, seventeen are regarded as major.
The seventeen major Āśrava.The Five Senses.The easiest way for karma to enter is through the senses: so the five indriya must be guarded; otherwise, through the ear for example (Kāna āśrava) pleasant sounds may be heard and so gloated over and indulged in that a man would find it impossible to live without them, and eventually through his delight in these siren sounds forget all duty and be lost to all progress in the upward path. Or once more through the lust of the eye (Ānkha āśrava) he may be so entangled by the beauty of women or art as to be hindered from any progress, and so evil would flow into his soul. Again the delight in sweet odours (Nāka āśrava), as of flowers, perfumes, or scent, may make him forget his duties. Similarly taste (Jībha āśrava) may become a hindrance to him, for he may waste time and money in purchasing delicacies, and even eat things forbidden to the devout. The Jaina lay great stress on the importance of controlling the sense of taste, for if that be disciplined, all the other senses can also, they say, be kept in restraint, whereas gluttony affects sight, hearing, smell and the sense of touch. The sense of touch, too, must be carefully controlled (Sparśa āśrava), or the love of touching smooth things, for example, may become such a snare that the toucher may be lulled into unconsciousness through the pleasure of it.
The four Kaṣāya.Karma may enter through the four emotions (Kaṣāya)[66] whose exercise ties the soul to the cycle of rebirth, for if anger be indulged (Krodha āśrava), it burns the soul of him who gives way to it, as well as the soul of the person he may injure, and so both are harmed. Conceit and pride (Māna āśrava) are a terrible foe to progress and open the door to all sorts of karma, besides they are the deadly enemy of courtesy, by which merit is obtained. Deceit and intrigue (Māyā āśrava) lead to many kinds of falseness in word and deed, and thus much evil karma is accumulated; and lastly avarice (Lobha āśrava) leads first to cheating and then to actual thieving, and is opposed to self-sacrifice and self-restraint.
The Jaina say that these four evil emotions must be checked on the principle of cultivating the corresponding virtue. Thus the angry man must exercise forgiveness, the proud man humility, the deceitful frankness, and the avaricious contentment; but how this is to be done is not explained.
The five Avrata.Again, through not taking the five great vows evil karma may flow in five ways (Pañċa Avrata). If a man fails to go to a guru and, standing in front of him, to promise with folded hands that he will not kill, this simple omission to promise, without any commission, will lead to the acquisition of karma; for the Jaina hold that without the stiffening of resolution that comes through taking the vow one is more liable to do wrong; this liability leads to instability of mind, through which some karma enters. Of course more karma would enter if one should go further and act contrary to the spirit of the vow. Similarly karma is acquired by failing to take, or offending against, the spirit of the vow against lying, thieving, coveting and acting unchastely.
The three Yoga.Karma will also flow into any soul which has allowed either mind, speech, or body to become too entangled with a material object. If the mind is taken up with meditation on a Tīrthaṅkara or on a Siddha, the influence is good, and a favourable channel (Śubha āśrava) is opened up, through which, instead of karma, merit (puṇya) flows into the soul; but if the mind is occupied with an evil thought (e.g. if such and such a merchant dies, I shall get his wealth), a bad channel is opened, and through this bad channel (Aśubha āśrava) evil karma enters. In the same way there is a śubha and aśubha āśrava of speech: by repeating the name of Siddha or the Pañċa Parameśvara merit is acquired, but by evil or abusive speaking bad karma enters the soul. Finally, if one saves life, for example, by bodily exertion, it is śubha āśrava, whilst killing is, of course, aśubha āśrava.
The twenty-five minor Āśrava.Besides these seventeen major channels or āśrava, there are twenty-five minor ways by which karma is acquired, all of them connected with action. If one is not careful minor about the movements of one's body, an injury may be inflicted on some person or thing (Kāyikī āśrava) and evil karma acquired, and the same thing may happen through the careless use of weapons (Adhikaraṇikī), or through hatred (Pradveṣikī), or intentionally (Paritāpanikī), or some prāṇa (Prāṇātipātikī) may be injured. Again, by beginning to build a house or to till a field some insect life may be hurt (Ārambhikī), or by gathering together great stores of grain, cattle, or wealth covetousness may arise (Pārigrahikī) and give birth to karma. One might do some one an injury through deceit (Māyāpratyayikī), or acquire evil karma by acting contrary to the dictates of Mahāvīra and obeying the commands of some false faith (Mithyādarśanapratyayikī). Through omitting to take a vow to go to a certain place (e.g. to America) one might go there, and when there acquire evil karma, or, in the same way through omitting to take a vow against eating certain things one is liable to eat them and so acquire karma (Apratyākhyānikī). By looking at some object with excessive love or hatred, one makes a channel for karma to enter (Dṛiṣṭiki), and by touching other objects one produces the same effect (Spṛiṣṭikī). Another interesting belief of the Jaina under this head is that sin committed in a previous existence forms a channel through which, in this life, karma may be more easily acquired (Prātityakī). The Jaina, who in all sorts of ways show their realization of the dangers of wealth, believe that if the possessor of many goods be much praised for possessing them and thus give way to conceit, he opens the way for evil karma to accrue (Sāmantopanipātikī).
Machinery is guilty of destroying so much insect life, that Jaina should only use it with the greatest caution, for a man, even if he be an employé working at the express command of a rajah whom he is bound to obey, does not therefore rid himself of his personal responsibility, but acquires evil karma through every life he takes (Naiśastrikī).[67] The employer, however, is also responsible, and if a servant in obedience to his master's order so acts as to injure any jīva, his guilt is shared by his master, who will also have acquired evil karma (Svahastikī). There is an expressive Gujarātī adjective ‘doḍhaḍāhyuṁ’ applied to people who are too wise by half; when folk suffer from this in religious matters and know more than Mahāvīra taught, they open the way for karma to flow in (Ājñāpanikī). Defamation also leads to karma, and if a man unjustly speaks ill of another, he has thereby opened the door to evil karma (Vaidāraṇikī). The caustic wit of the Jaina shows in the next item on the list, for they teach that if a man pretends to be listening to a sermon with great interest and all the time his wits are wool-gathering, he has formed a new channel (Anābhogikī) for karma. They also aim a shrewd blow at all reformers and such-like troublesome folk by declaring that a very dangerous way of opening new inlets for karma is to act in any way against the prejudices, usages, or beliefs that one knows one's fellow caste-men to hold in this world, or that one believes they will hold in the next! (Anavakāṅkṣāpratyayikī). In the same way karma accrues if one acts against rule, or fails to control one’s speech, body, mind, or movements (Prayogikī). There is a difference of opinion as to the next item on the list (Sāmudāyikī). Some paṇḍits hold that it refers to the channels an individual may open by acting in such a way that all the eight karma simultaneously flow in. Others believe it denotes the channels a crowd of people may open at the same moment, as, for instance, if a number of persons go to see a man hanged and all hope that the hangman will not keep them waiting about, but will get the execution over as quickly as possible; when this occurs every single member of the crowd who feels this desire has opened a passage for bad karma. When people act under the influence of deceit or covetousness, they open a way for karma (Premikī), and so they do when swayed by anger (Dveṣikī). In fact, karma, either good or bad, must accrue so long as one has a body; even a Kevalī (who, knowing all sin, tries to avoid it), so long as he is in the flesh, is forced into some action, and every action good or bad produces karma (Īryāpathikī). So long as there is any karma remaining, either good or evil, one cannot reach mokṣa. The logical outcome of this belief one sees, for example, in the action of Mahāvīra’s parents, who, trying to avoid all action, lest karma (the result of action) should keep them from liberation, abstained even from the taking of food, and so, prompted by the highest motives, died of starvation. Only by dying can a Jaina help acquiring karma, and karma, either good or bad, ties them inexorably to the weary cycle of rebirth. Here, again, we touch one of the great contrasts between the teaching of Mahāvīra, who, good and great as he was, taught a system, the logical outcome of which is death, and that of the Founder of Christianity, who came that His followers might have life, and have it abundantly.[68]
We now come to the sixth principle of Jaina philosophy, which is the converse of the fifth, the way, namely, in which the inflow of karma into the soul can be impeded. The karma that has already been acquired can be dissipated and so liberation attained, if only no new karma accrue: ‘As a large tank, when its supply of water has been stopped, gradually dries up by the consumption of the water and by evaporation, so the Karman of a monk, which he acquired in millions of births, is annihilated by austerities, if there is no influx of bad karman.’[69]
The fifty-seven ways of impeding karma.The Jaina themselves consider this principle of Saṁvara of supreme importance, and it contains matter that is more often quoted by them than anything else. Long and wearisome as we shall find the lists it contains of the fifty-seven ways of impeding karma, yet they are worth our study, for, having already learnt what the Jaina mean by sin, we shall now learn what they mean by holiness.
The five Samiti.The first five ways of arresting the inflow of karma refer to outward behaviour. A man who would be holy must observe the greatest care whenever he walks anywhere not to injure any living thing (Īryā samiti). This rule is, of course, specially binding on all monks and nuns, for the Jaina have a comfortably lower standard for the laity. Ascetics must enter and leave their monasteries with the greatest care, lest they step on any insect; they must, wherever possible, avoid field-paths and keep to highways, where an animal or an insect can be more easily seen and avoided; they must walk miles round rather than cross a green patch of ground wherein there are likely to be many living things; and they must carefully examine the ground a vāma’s length ahead (i.e. the distance of outstretched arms) before treading on it. A sādhu to keep this rule must, curiously enough, never cross the open sea,[70] though he may cross a creek. In order that a layman may keep this rule, he must strive always to act so as to give trouble to no living thing whilst he is walking, sitting, or sleeping.
To arrest the inflow of karma one must also guard the words of one’s mouth (Bhāṣā samiti): one must always speak kindly, never by word inflict pain on any one, and in every way strive not to sin through speech. The Jaina believe in auricular confession; and if, for instance, a man has eaten a potato but means never to do so again, he will confess his sin secretly to a sādhu, and the sādhu (if he is certain that the penitent means never to offend again) will inflict a certain penance according to the rules laid down in the Vyavahāra Sūtra, Niśītha, or Bṛihatkalpa. Should the sādhu, however, break the seal of confession and repeat what has been told him, he will have failed in Bhāṣā samiti and be guilty of great sin. Under this rule one must also guard against frightening any one by speech, making a mock of any one, or preaching false doctrine.
Circumspection must also be exercised about all matters connected with eating (Eṣaṇā samiti). A sādhu is only allowed to use fourteen kinds of things all told, inclusive of wearing apparel, food and drink. He has to beg for everything he eats, but even then his food is limited, for in order to guard against karma he must be careful only to take such food as is allowed to him, e.g. he must not take food underneath which a fire is burning. If it is raining, a monk must not go out from the Apāsaro (monks’ rest-house) to beg for food; and, as no layman may take food to the Apāsaro, it often happens that during the rainy season the sādhus get really hungry in their endeavours to avoid acquiring karma. Again, a monk must not take food if he thinks that by so doing he will leave the donor’s household in straits; in fact there are altogether forty-two faults which a sādhu must avoid committing when he begs for or receives food. A layman is simply bound to refrain from committing sin in order to obtain food. Under this rule again all intoxicants[71] are forbidden to monks and laymen, and so are meat, butter and honey.
In order to stop the inflow of karma a sādhu must also be careful to possess only five cloths {Ādānanikṣepaṇā samiti), and when these are presented to him he must take them with the greatest care, gently removing anything that may be on them, lest in the very receiving of them he injure any insect life. If he borrows a stool (for he may not own one) he must dust it carefully and then sweep the ground free from any insects before he sets it down. In the same way a householder should arrest the possible inflow of karma by carefully dusting all his books and vessels with a poñjaṇī, the small brush used by the laity, which is a smaller edition of the brush a sādhu may never part from. A layman must also scrupulously sweep his hearth and the wood he is going to burn, and be very careful that the room he is going to keep his water-vessels in is thoroughly swept. The result of these rules (as any one who has had the privilege of friendship with Jaina ladies will testify) is to keep a Jaina house exquisitely clean and fresh.
The careful disposal of rubbish and refuse is another way of preventing karma being acquired (Parithāpanikā samiti[72] or Utsarga samiti). If a sādhu after begging food find that there is insect life in it, he must neither use it, nor throw it carelessly away, but carefully deposit it where it can neither do nor suffer harm. A monk must never keep either food or water overnight, but must carefully dispose of anything that remains over from the last meal in some convenient place. Monks must try when out begging only to accept as much food as they actually need, for if they have often to throw away things, karma is acquired. All other refuse of every kind must be carefully disposed of by both laity and monks in desert places where nothing can be injured by it.
The three Gupti.Of equal importance with the five rules for outward behaviour are the rules for the controlling of mind, speech and body, and the Jaina speak of the eight rules together as ‘the essence of their creed which a sage should thoroughly put into practice; such a wise man will soon get beyond the Circle of Births’,[73] and again as comprehending the whole of the teaching of the Jaina and of their sacred books.[74]
In order that karma may be arrested, the mind must be controlled (Manogupti) in three ways: one must not indulge in uncontrolled grief, anger, joy, or anxiety (Asatkalpanāviyogī); neither must one show any partiality, but must think alike of rich and poor, realizing that in both there is a soul, and one must fix one’s mind on doing kindnesses and obeying the tenets of religion (Samatābhāvinī); and above all (Ātmārāmatā) one must think steadily, not of external things, but of one’s own soul and of the saints who have attained omniscience.
Speech can be specially controlled (Vaċanagupti) in two ways: either by observing a vow of silence (Maunāvalambi) for a certain number of days, or (Vākniyami) by speaking as little as possible, and when it is absolutely necessary to speak, holding a piece of cloth (mumatī) in front of one’s mouth in order not to injure the jīva of the air.
The movements of the body must also be controlled (Kāyagupti) if the acquisition of karma is to be arrested: a human being must be careful to control his movements according to the rules laid down in the scriptures (Yathāsūtraċeṣṭāniyami), and at last, when he becomes a saint omniscient, must maintain his limbs in that state of absolute immobility (Ċeṣṭānivṛitti) possible only to a Kevalī.
There is the same difference in standard as to the way a monk and a layman must observe the gupti that we have noticed in all the Jaina rules, and the following example may illustrate it. If a sādhu and a layman meet a shooting party, and the sportsmen ask where the deer they are trying to shoot has gone, the monk must keep silence, for he may neither aid in the taking of life nor lie, but the ordinary man may point in a wrong direction or give an untrue reply, for, in order to save life, a layman may tell an untruth. The keeping of the gupti is supposed to protect a sādhu from all temptation; and the scriptures say that if a monk possesses the three gupti, his peace of mind cannot be disturbed even by well-adorned goddesses.[75]
The twenty-two Parīṣaha.Since the inflow of karma can also be checked by enduring hardship, the laity should endeavour to sustain certain hardships, but the ascetic was expressly commanded by Mahāvīra himself[76] to endure ‘the twenty-two troubles’ (Parīṣaha[77]) that are likely to beset him in his life as a wandering mendicant.
A monk must accordingly be prepared to endure the trial of hunger (Kṣudhā parīṣaha), if he cannot obtain food blamelessly and without committing one of the forty-two faults, even though he were to grow as emaciated as the joint of a crow’s leg. However thirsty (Tṛiṣā p.) he may be, he must never take unboiled water lest he should destroy some life. However cold a monk may feel, he must endure it (Śīta p.), without wishing that the sun would rise, that a fire were lighted, or that he had more clothes; nor must an ascetic ever warm himself at a fire, or light a fire. In the same way he must endure heat (Uṣṇa p.), without fanning himself, going to a river side to cool himself, or longing to pour cold water over his body. If when a monk is meditating, a mosquito or a hornet sting him (Daṁśa p.), he must not brush it away nor be irritated by it, but must remain undisturbed, and by self-control conquer his internal foe, as an elephant at the head of the battle kills the enemy.[78] A monk must also endure anything in the way of clothing (Vastra p.[79]), being content either to be without it or to receive dirty, old and torn garments. He must also be absolutely indifferent to the sort of lodgings (Arati p.) he may be given in the different villages. To the Jaina, woman was always the temptress, never the helpmate, and the ascetic is warned to renounce all liking for women’s society (Strī p.), remembering that they are ‘a slough’. An ascetic is bound also cheerfully to keep the rules about changing his lodging (Ċaryā p.): he must never stay longer in a village nowadays than a month in fine weather, or four months in the rainy season, but the shorter time he stops the better (if possible only one night), lest he should grow fond of any one and form a friendship however innocent.
All monks must perform their meditation either sitting or standing, keeping the eyes and limbs absolutely immovable. The more disagreeable a place one chooses to meditate in the better, so the holiest monks choose the most unpleasant spots (Naiṣidhikī p.[80]). Every Indian believes that the place where corpses are burned is haunted by all sorts of hideous evil spirits, so that by going to meditate in such a spot, or in a jungle haunted by tigers or lions, a monk very effectually endures hardness, and shows his indifference to fear by remaining immovable even when attacked by evil spirits or wild beasts! If a monk be benighted on his peregrinations, he must gladly endure such hardships (Śayyā p.) as sleeping in the open air or under a tree, without even a plank for a bed; and in the same way, if no one lends him a bed in a town, he must sleep contentedly without it, knowing that he is thus arresting karma. Karma is also checked by calmly enduring taunts and reproaches (Ākrośa p.) and not taking cruel or rankling words to heart.
The Jaina say that, before the ‘Pax Britannica’ ruled in India, there was constant quarrelling between members of the various religions, and the followers of Śaṅkarāċārya in particular persecuted them; this often led to fights, but the Jaina sādhus were urged to receive even beatings philosophically, being assured that such endurance (Vadha p.) would hinder the accumulation of karma; and to help them they were told to reflect, when struck, that after all it might have been worse, for they had not lost their lives. It sometimes happens that a rich man’s son or even a prince becomes a Jaina sādhu; and it is specially unpleasant for a man of such social position to go round begging, for ‘the hand (of the giver) is not always kindly stretched out to a monk when he is on his begging tour’,[81] but by enduring this (Yāñċā p.) he retards karma. Sometimes too a monk is met with a blank refusal, or for fear of committing any of the forty-two faults has himself to refuse food offered to him; he must bear this (Alābha p.) calmly, thinking that though he get nothing to-day, he may perhaps get something to-morrow.
Illness (Roga p.) affords a monk a chance of checking the growth of karma, if he endure it patiently as punishment for past sin (we have already seen that Jaina look on all illness as punishment for sin in a previous existence) and neither desires medical attendance, nor cries out that he is dying or dead, but continues to think of the welfare of his soul, neither acting himself nor causing others to act. The jungle grass in India is so full of thorns and prickles that the Jaina scriptures truly say that if a naked ascetic lies on the grass he will certainly be badly scratched; in the sun the pain of the scratches will grow insupportable, but the ascetic who cheerfully endures this pain (Tṛiṇasparśa p.) knows that he is impeding karma. If a monk is given water that has been previously boiled, he is allowed to sponge his body or wash his clothes with it, but he may never bathe or wash his clothes in a running stream; when an ascetic feels dirty and sticky and hot, he must never allow his mind to rest on the delicious joy and refreshment of a bathe, but is told, on the contrary, that by enduring the horror of feeling dirty in his body (Mela p.) he is benefiting his soul (!), and practising ‘the noble excellent Law, he should carry the filth on his body till he expires’.[82]
It is a perilous moment for a monk when he is praised; but if he can listen with absolute indifference (Satkāra p.), he has obstructed the inflow of karma; and, vice versa, he must also carefully perform the easier task of hearing himself blamed unmoved. Even without being actually praised by others, a man may become puffed up through realizing the extent of his own learning and accomplishments: such feelings must be sternly repressed (Prajñā p.) if karma is to be checked. To other monks there comes the opposite temptation to be cast down at the thought of their own ignorance (Ajñāna p.), but this also must be endured with indifference. Finally, when enduring hardships or studying other religions, a monk must never allow a doubt as to the value of asceticism or the truth of his own religion to enter his mind, but must be willing to endure martyrdom rather than change his faith (Samyaktva p.).
The ten Duties of Monks.An ascetic can also stop the inflow of karma by faithfully observing his ten great duties, which in a lesser degree are binding on the laity also. The first of these duties is forgiveness (Kṣamā): every day and every moment of the day a monk must learn to control his anger, and instead of giving way to wrath practise the difficult duty of forgiveness. Monks are constantly reminded of how Mahāvīra forgave his enemies, and, instead of getting angry and so letting karma flow into his soul, even preached to a wicked cobra which bit him.
Every day, too, a monk must strive to control the arrogance which rises in his soul, for that would open the door to endless karma, and instead he must cultivate the humility (Mārdava) which subdues pride. This duty the Jaina illustrate by the story of the two sons of the first Tīrthaṅkara Ṛiṣabhadeva, which they entitle ‘O Brother, come down from the Elephant of Pride’. Ṛiṣabhadeva’s younger son, so the legend runs, became a sādhu, and some time afterwards the elder son, Bāhubaḷa, followed his example and became an ascetic too, renouncing, as he thought, everything to do so, but he found that there was one thing he could not renounce, and that was pride in his seniority of birth, so that he could not bow down to his younger brother, who was, of course, his senior in the religious life. For days poor Bāhubaḷa struggled in vain alone in the forest to overcome his pride, till at last his father became aware of the spiritual conflict he was going through, and sent his daughter to help her brother. She spoke so beautifully of the glory of humility, that it enabled him to conquer his pride; and so, becoming humble enough to receive help from a woman, he also became humble enough to do reverence to his younger brother and thus check the entry of karma, which would otherwise have annulled all the merit he had gained through being an ascetic, besides binding him for centuries to the cycle of rebirth.
Again, by separating himself from every sort of intrigue or deceit, in speech or action, and cultivating that simplicity (Ārjava] which is opposed to cunning, a monk or a layman can prevent the entry of karma. He must be careful, however, not only not to tell a direct he, but also never to indulge in speech that could bear two meanings.
A sādhu must keep himself free from all greed (Nirlobhatā), possessing nothing but the oldest clothes, and retaining no metal;[83] if he borrow so much as a needle, he must return it ere nightfall, lest, any door being left open through which avarice might enter, karma should enter with it. The Jaina love to tell the story of Kapila, a layman who through fear of greed became a sādhu. Kapila had been left an orphan, and his friends, seeing his poverty, advised him to go to the court of a certain king whose custom it was to give a boṇī (morning gift) of two māsā to the first beggar he met. On his arrival at court Kapila took good care to be the first petitioner the king should see, but when he was offered the customary two coins, he explained to the rajah that he was really very poor, and that as a māsā[84] was a very small weight, two would not go far. The king told him to sit down and think what gift would satisfy him, and he would give it him, so Kapila sat down in the pleasant garden and began to think. He asked himself if two or four or even eight māsā would content him, but his greed steadily growing, he saw that even half the kingdom would not satisfy him, for he would still desire the other half. It frightened him to think what karma he might accumulate if avarice, when given way to, grew at this terrible rate. He saw that greed and selfishness are one, and the root of all the evil in the world, and he realized that for him there was no safety save in the religious life, for a sādhu is forced to check the very beginning of avarice.
All monks and laymen must also practise fasting and austerities (Tapa[85]), for by so doing they combat desire, one of the great ways through which karma enters. We shall have to examine the twelve ways in which austerities are to be practised when we are studying the eighth principle, Nirjarā.[86]
A monk is also bound to subdue and control his mind, his body and his speech (Saṁyama), lest through any act, thought, or word karma should be acquired, and in particular he should guard against taking life in any way.
An ascetic must be careful to speak the truth (Satya), lest any deviation from it should give rise to karma, but he is bound to speak the truth lovingly and in such a way as to hurt no one’s feelings.
There is a manifold duty of purity and cleanliness (Śauċa[87]) binding on all monks, for an ascetic must keep himself free from all suspicion of dishonesty or thieving, and oppose to this the constant giving of alms, and he must also keep his body pure and his soul free from all dark thoughts.
An ascetic must also remember never to look on anything as his own (Akiṁċinatva): he must regard no person as related to him, and no thing as his property.
A monk must strictly observe the duty of celibacy and chastity (Brahmaċarya) in nine specified ways, which are called the Nava Vāḍa or Nine Ramparts, and which we need not trouble to detail. In a passage which throws a most interesting light on an old-world Indian household long before the birth of Christ, one of the Jaina sacred books, the Sūtrakṛitāṅga, describes the fate that awaits a monk who breaks the law, marries and settles down.[88] It recites how he will have to fetch and carry for his wife, bringing her lip-salve, ribbons, combs, looking-glasses, &c.; and how, if a son be born, he will have to hold the baby or hand it to its mother. ‘Thus some supporters of their sons have to carry burdens like camels. Getting up in the night they lull the baby asleep like nurses. . . . This has been done by many men who for the sake of pleasures have stooped so low; they become the equals of slaves, animals, servants, beasts of burden—mere nobodies.’
The five Ċāritra.The inflow of karma is also arrested by observing the Five Rules of Conduct or Ċāritra, which are specially binding on monks and nuns, but should also be observed by the laity. The first rule (Sāmāyika ċāritra) entails two things: the giving up of all evil conduct, and the turning to good actions such as meditation. Both Sthānakavāsī and Śvetāmbara ascetics are supposed to give themselves up to meditation continually, and a layman must do it twice a day. A Digambara layman must meditate four times: morning, noon, evening and midnight. In order to carry out the rule perfectly, both laity and monks must endeavour to keep their minds in a state of equanimity, and to look on all mankind with indifference.
The duty of repentance (Ċhedopasthāpanīya ċāritra) is also binding on all who would arrest the growth of karma. If a monk sins, he must confess to his own guru and do the penance inflicted, which will be designed to fit the crime: for instance, if a young monk, feeling hungry, has eaten some of the alms given to him without first showing the food to the senior monk in the Apāsaro, he may be ordered to fast for two days, or to fast from the particular grain he took for four days; if, however, a monk has committed one of the great sins which infringe the five vows, for example given way to unchastity or dishonesty, he would have to take the great vows again, meekly standing in front of a guru. This retaking of the vows is called Navī dikṣā or re-ordination, for it is the actual taking of the vows, and not the accompanying ceremonies, which is regarded as the essential part of initiation. If a layman, on the other hand, sins in some gross way, he would after confession and penance have to retake, not all the twelve vows, but only the one which he has broken.
The third duty (Parihāraviśuddha ċāritra) is variously interpreted by the different sects. The Sthānakavāsī and Śvetāmbara believe it to be carried out when nine monks at the order of their superior go out together to perform austerities or tapa for eighteen months. (Of the nine monks six will do tapa for six months, and the remaining three will serve them; for the next six months the three servers will perform their austerities together with three of the original six, and be served by the three remaining; and for the last six months in the same way another six will do tapa and three serve.) The Digambara on the other hand regard the duty as performed simply by being careful not to injure any jīva whilst moving about.
It is not very clear why the fourth rule (Sūkṣmasamparāya ċāritra) should have separate enumeration here, for we shall come across it again when we are considering the fourteen steps towards liberation.[89] The rule emphasizes the importance of being bound to the world as loosely as possible, and of casting out the very last root of passion after the tumult caused by it has died away. If a man has done this, he has reached the tenth step in his upward progress.
By the time a man has reached the last stages of this upward road, he will have lost all attachment to the world, and think only of his soul; so that he will automatically keep the last (Yathākhyāta ċāritra) of the Five Rules of Conduct.
The twelve Bhāvanā or Anuprekṣā.Finally the layman or the monk can arrest the inflow of karma by keeping the Twelve Great Reflections or Bhāvanā always in mind.
First, one must constantly remember that all things in this world, ourselves, our bodies, our wives and our children, are transient (Anitya bhāvanā), and that nothing is permanent save Dharma (religion) and the soul that has faith in dharma. Once upon a time, so the Jaina illustrate the truth of this reflection, a beggar having eaten an unusually good meal spread his miserable bedding under a tree, placed his waterpot beside him and, putting a stone under his head, fell asleep. He dreamed that he was a king with three wives to admire him, servants to wait on him and slaves to fan him. He awoke to find that all his wealth and all his grandeur had vanished, and that only his torn bedding and his waterpot remained: even so in this life we must expect everything we care for to pass away.
Another thing that a Jaina is bound constantly to remember is that there is no shelter for him (Aśaraṇa bhāvanā). In this world of misery, disease, old age and death, neither wife, friends, nor guru can afford us protection; only by the practice of dharma can we escape from the cycle of rebirth. To illustrate the truth of this reflection the following story is told. There once lived in India the son of a wealthy landowner, who was so handsome that his father, his mother and his wife all adored him. Suddenly the young man was stricken with an excruciating disease of the eyes, and though his parents and his wife strove to lighten the pain, they were powerless. Gradually the youth realized that, as no one could shelter him from disease, so no one could be his refuge from death, and the reflection induced him to promise to withdraw from the world, if religion could cure him. His eyes were immediately healed, and he went as an ascetic to live in a distant forest. The king of that country happened to pass, and was astounded to find so goodly a youth living the life of a monk, and thought he must have withdrawn from the world in consequence of some injustice or oppression. He therefore offered to take up his cause, remedy any wrong that had been done to him, and protect and shelter him against future injustice. But the ascetic showed the king how impossible it was to find any shelter in this world from oppression or from disease and death, and how the only true refuge was to be found in voluntarily forsaking all that one had, and following a law whose goal was death; on one who had taken up such a life no injury could be inflicted. The king, listening to this moving discourse, realized that in this world he could not even protect his own royal self, and so he too became an ascetic,[90] and by so doing stopped up all the channels through which he could be wounded or through which karma could flow.
By never forgetting that the cycle of rebirth is endless, and that one may be reborn as a bird, or beast, or denizen of hell (Saṁsāra bhāvanā), the wise will be stirred up to try and stop the inflow of karma in this life, the only opportunity a man may have for so doing.
We must also remember that we came unaccompanied into the world, that we shall go out of it unaccompanied, and that unaccompanied we shall have to endure the expiation of our karma (Ekatva bhāvanā). A king named Nami was led to understand this reflection in the following manner. He once fell very ill, and his queens called in a physician, who ordered him to be rubbed with sandal wood. Each queen, terrified of being widowed, seized a piece of wood and rubbed some part of the king’s body. As they rubbed, their many bangles jingled, and the august patient, who was not only ill, but also irritable, exclaimed against the din. Instantly each of the ladies tore off all her bangles save one (to have taken all off would have been unlucky, since it would have looked like anticipating widowhood) and the rubbing proceeded in silence. The king asked what they had done, and when they explained to him that each of them was now only wearing one bracelet, the true meaning of the bhāvanā he had heard so often dawned on him. Exclaiming that he was born alone and must die alone, he renounced the world and his wives, and proceeding to the forest, received initiation as a monk, and died in a few years.
Again, karma is impeded by remembering that in reality the soul is separate from the body (Anyatva bhāvanā), though through ignorance we think of it as attached thereto, for a soul cannot actually be united to body or wealth, wife or child. As an illustration of the importance of this reflection the Jaina tell the following legend. Once upon a time the great King Bharata, the son of Ṛiṣabhadeva, was seated on his throne, magnificently arrayed in all his jewels, when he noticed that the ring he had been wearing on his little finger had slipped off. He thought how ugly the finger looked without it, but reflected that the finger had never possessed the ring, the contact with which had been purely fortuitous. Amused at the idea, he removed the rings from each finger, and noticing how bare each looked when stripped of all adventitious decoration, he became so strongly convinced of the truth of this reflection, that the inflow of karma was arrested, he became at once omniscient, and as in a few more years all his acquired karma also disappeared, he eventually became a Siddha.
The object of another reflection (Aśauċa bhāvanā) is to lead us to despise our bodies. To do this we must constantly remember that the body is compact of filth, and has such dirty habits that even our souls become soiled by contact with it. If we forget this reflection and become proud of our bodies, great misfortune will befall us, as the following story proves. A certain prince called Sanatkumāra was so handsome that his beauty was discussed in the assembly of the gods, two of whom were sent down in the guise of Brāhmans to discover if he were really as beautiful as he was described. Unfortunately this visit of the gods gave rise to such pride in the heart of the prince, that karma flowed rapidly into his soul; and, as a result of this karma, ill health (which, as we have seen, is always traceable to karma) beset the prince, until at last he had no less than sixteen diseases. However, he patiently endured the karma his conceit had given rise to, gradually worked it off, received initiation as a sādhu, and finally became a Siddha.
The seventh reflection (Āśrava bhāvanā) reminds us that in the worldly life karma is constantly flowing in through the various channels which our actions, passions and senses, if uncontrolled, leave open to it, and that all our sufferings come as a result of this karma. How much we may suffer, if we ourselves open the channels, we may learn from the story of King Puṇḍarika. There were once two brothers, both of whom ruled as kings, but the elder brother, Puṇḍarika, realized that this world was merely a junction of canals through which karma was continually flowing, and so decided to renounce his throne and become an ascetic. He received initiation, but gradually found that the life of an ascetic was too hard for him, and eventually persuaded his younger brother, Kuṇḍarika, to give up the kingdom in his favour. Becoming once more a king, Puṇḍarika, instead of being happy, found it only too true that the world is a dreadful place for acquiring karma; and during his life he accumulated so much, that he is still, by undergoing countless rebirths, trying to expiate it.
One must also reflect on and determine to adopt means (such as the taking of vows) which will impede the inflow of karma, and this reflection (Saṁvara bhāvanā) is illustrated by the history of the younger brother in the last story. Kuṇḍarika was delighted when his elder brother took his crown, for now, he thought, he would have a chance of arresting the inflow of karma; so, meditating on this reflection, he renounced the world, took the vows of an ascetic, and soon gained mokṣa, leaving his unfortunate elder brother still tied to the cycle of rebirth.
Again, one must remember that by performing austerities one can expiate karma (Nirjarā bhāvanā).
One must also reflect on the world (Loka bhāvanā), remembering that it was created by no one, and that the elements it contains are in a sense permanent. By thinking of the various worlds under the form of a man, one will understand that at his feet is hell, his body is formed by men who will have to undergo fresh births, the head is Devaloka, and at the top of the head are the Siddha, those who will never again pass through rebirth.
To arrest the inflow of karma one must also remember (Bodhibīja or Bodhidurlabha bhāvanā) that everything is easy to acquire in this world save the three jewels: Right faith, Right knowledge and Right conduct, which can only be acquired by a human being. In the long cycle of rebirth it seldom happens that a jīva obtains human birth. Reflecting thus, one must determine to use this opportunity to the fullest, and, taking the first step in the pathway of religion, continue on the upward course.
Finally, one must remember (Dharma bhāvanā) that the highest religion is to kill nothing and to injure nothing, but to keep the three jewels, and to follow thankfully the law of the Jaina, So doing, one will be able to cross the troubled ocean of the world, be freed from the cycle of rebirth and attain mokṣa.
These twelve[91] reflections are considered so important by the Jaina that one finds them referred to in some form or other in every book on Jainism, and it is recorded of them in one of the sacred books, the Sūtrakṛitāṅga, that ‘He whose soul is purified by meditating on those reflections is compared to a ship in water; like a ship reaching the shore he gets beyond misery’.[92]
The seventh principle of Jaina philosophy deals with the bondage of the soul to karma: this is caused by the union of the soul with pudgaḷa,[93] and the difficulty of understanding it lies in the fact that the word pudgaḷa is simply untranslatable. English-speaking Jaina usually render it by the word matter, but that is unsatisfactory. Perhaps the safest way to get at the meaning is to quote some of the illustrations the Jaina themselves use. ‘Now the principle of Bandha or bondage’, says a Digambara Jaina, Mr. Latthe, ‘is defined as the mutual entrance into each other’s spheres of the soul and the Karman. When the soul is attacked by the passions like anger and love, it takes on the Pudgal [material] particles fit for the bondage of the Karmas, just as a heated iron ball takes up water-particles in which it is immersed. This is the bondage of the Karmas.’[94]
Another favourite illustration is taken from spilling oil. If oil is spilled on a cloth, dust will easily adhere. The cloth represents our jīva or ātmā (soul), the oil represents our passions, transgressions and activities (Kaṣāya, Pramāda, Avrata, Yoga) by which karma is acquired, and the dust represents pudgaḷa. They say also that karma represents a book of which pudgaḷa are the leaves.
The four kinds of Bondage.However difficult this is to understand, their teaching about the actual bondage is quite clear. They classify it in four ways: according to its nature, its duration, its intensity, and its mass.
Man creates his own karma according to his own character (Prakṛiti): if we are by nature bitter and sharp, we shall have to endure bitter karma; if, on the other hand, we are sweet and pleasant, though we may accumulate karma, yet it will be sweet and pleasant.
Karma can also be classified according to the time it takes to expiate (Sthiti): some will take a thousand years, some only a decade, and some can be worked out in a day.
The intensity of karma (Anubhāga) also differs: it is much heavier at some times than at others; for instance, if two boys are playing ball and one hits a cow and repents, but the other when he hits the cow is rather proud of so good a shot, then the first boy will have far less heavy karma to expiate than the second.
Some karma has attracted more pudgaḷa, some less; so the Jaina also divide karma according to its thickness and thinness (Pradeśa).
To illustrate these four classifications the Jaina take a lāḍu[95] as an example. Some lāḍus, they say, are such as to cure coughs and rheumatism (!), and this shows their nature; others can be distinguished according to the time they keep good; others by whether they have melted butter in them or not; and others are thick or thin according to the amount of flour with which they have been made. We shall have to study karma more in detail later on, when bondage to it will be further considered.
In spite of all precautions karma does accumulate, and one of the great categories of the Jaina faith deals with its destruction. This can only be accomplished gradually, and the Jaina compare the way in which water slowly drains out of a porous jar with the tedious way in which our accumulated karma may be dried up. One of the chief ways of reducing the sum of our karma is by burning it up in the glow of austerities; and these austerities are of two kinds, exterior or bodily (Bāhya), and interior or spiritual (Ābhyantara), all of which, though binding on the ascetics, are also beneficial to the laity.
The six exterior austerities1. Anaśana.The first bodily austerity is fasting (Anaśana). One may take a vow to fast for a fixed period (Itvara), such as for a day, or for thirty days, or one may take a vow to fast for ties. the rest of one's life (Yāvatkathika) . Of course the latter vow is the more beneficial and destroys far more accumulated karma, so when a monk is very ill, and knows that he is going to die, he takes this vow. If he has taken the first vow, he may eat nothing, but may drink water or whey, but the second vow excludes water or any liquid as well as all food. This of course amounts very often to suicide by starvation, and it still takes place far more frequently than Europeans realize. For instance in Aḥmadābād, as lately as 1912, a sādhu named Ċhaganalālajī took this vow, though in perfect health, and died after forty-one days’ fasting;[97] and the following year in Rājkot a nun named Jīvībāi, having first seriously weakened herself by prolonged fasting, took this vow and died after two or three days. To take this vow and die on a bed of Kuśa grass is called Santhāro ; and though in this age of Dusama[98] it is impossible for those who do so to go straight to mokṣa, as they would formerly have done, yet they pass to Devaloka, and may hope, if their previous karma was good and their faith in the Jaina creed strong, to pass to mokṣa after fifteen more incarnations.
ii.UṇodarīIf any one fears to face a complete fast, he may yet lessen his karma by partially fasting (Uṇodarī). He may vow, for instance, to take a mouthful less every day, and so gradually decrease the quantity he eats. The Jaina consider this to be very beneficial to the health of the body as well as of the soul.
iii. Vṛittisaṅkṣepa.There is another vow of fasting, or rather of limiting the food one eats (Vṛittisaṅkṣepa), which may be taken in four different ways. If a monk or layman has been in the habit of consuming twenty different kinds of food, he may promise to limit his choice to, say, fifteen (Dravya). Or he may limit the number of places from which he will obtain food (Kṣetra), a sādhu vowing, for instance, that he would only beg in one particular street, and a layman[99] that he would only eat food in Rājkot and Aḥmadābād, and so when travelling between those places refusing food at the junctions en route. Again, one may promise that one will restrict one’s food by time (Kāḷa), a sādhu, for example, eating only the food begged before noon, or a layman promising not to take another meal after his midday one. Or the vow might deal with posture (Bhāva), a monk promising only to receive food that is given to him by some one who is standing upright, and a layman deciding only to eat what his wife offers him in a certain position.
iv. Rasatyāga.An ascetic usually vows when ordained to abstain all his life, save when ill, from melted butter, milk, sugar, molasses, or any other food that specially delights him (Rasatyāga). He does this lest he should grow fat and sleep too much,[100] and his interest in religion grow dim. A layman often promises to abstain for a particular day from the special food he most enjoys.
v. Kāyaklesa.Jaina believe that they may also reduce their karma by bodily austerity (Kāyakleśa), such as sitting to do meditation in summer on heated stones in the full glare of the sun, or in winter in the coldest places that can be found, without wearing sufficient clothing. There is one such austerity which is peculiar to Jaina ascetics, Loċa, or pulling out the hair by the roots. It is said to be most profitable, as showing to the ascetic how hard a life he will have to undergo, and at the same time proving to others that he has strength of mind enough to endure it. If the sādhu is ill, the following words are quoted to him: Loċevā muṇḍevā kattevā, i. e. if the pulling out of the hair cannot be endured, hair cutting or shaving may be employed.[101]
iv. Saṁlīnatā.There is another austerity which might almost be described as the avoidance of temptation by control (Saṁlīnatā) in four ways: first by governing the senses (Indriya saṁlīnatā) and not allowing the eyes, for instance, to look at anything beyond a certain distance ; then by controlling anger, deceit, pride and greed (Kaṣāya saṁlīnatā); or by refraining as much as possible from the exercise of intellect, speech, or body (Yoga saṁlīnatā), sitting silent, for instance, in a cramped position; and lastly, by being very careful where one goes to stay, and previously ascertaining that no woman lives near (Viviktaċaryā).
The six intrior austerities.Karma is also dried up by the right use of six interior or spiritual austerities.
i. Prāyaśċitta.The first of these, confession and penance (Prāyaśċitta), is ties, binding on both ascetics and laity. The ascetic must confess to the chief guru, and the layman to whatever sādhu he chooses; and they must perform the penances allotted to them, according to the rules laid down in the sacred books. Also every morning and every evening when they engage in Paḍīkamaṇuṁ[102] they must confess their faults generally in the following Māgadhī formula: Miċċhāmi dukkaḍaṁ,[103] ‘May my sin be forgiven.’ Greater faults a layman will confess privately to a sādhu at intervals of two or four months, or whenever he specially feels the need of confession, and will perform the penance given to him. A sādhu should confess a grave sin at once, for if he should wait even till the time of Paḍīkamaṇuṁ some karma will have accumulated, and more still if he should wait for the big fortnightly Pakkhī Paḍīkamaṇuṁ. The accumulation of karma will be worse if he does not confess till the quarterly Ċomāsi (Ċaturmāsī) Paḍīkamaṇuṁ, and his last chance comes at the annual Saṁvatsarī Paḍīkamaṇuṁ. If he misses that and continues with his sin unconfessed, though to all outward seeming an ascetic, he has ceased to be a true sādhu, and if he dies, he will slip far down the ladder of birth (Adhogati). Similarly, if a layman should nurse the sin of anger unconfessed and unrepented of, despite all the opportunities these various services give, he would undoubtedly pass to hell on his death.
ii. Vinaya.Another interior austerity on which the Jaina lay great stress is reverence (Vinaya), for this, duly paid, destroys a great accumulation of karma. Both laity and ascetics should show respect to all who are their superiors in knowledge (Jñāna vinaya); in faith (Darśana vinaya); and in character (Ċāritra vinaya). They must keep their minds (Mana vinaya) in an attitude of humility towards their superiors; and do them honour by politeness when speaking to them (Vaċana vinaya); and by salutation and bodily service (Kāya vinaya); and should observe all the old customs of reverence prescribed in the religious books (Kalpa vinaya) to be performed either in the house or in the monasteries. Under this last heading is included all the reverence a wife should show her husband.[104] On rising in the morning a Jaina woman prostrates herself at her husband‘’s feet and worships him. (The sentence in the English wedding service where the husband says to the wife ‘With my body I thee worship’ comes as a terrible shock to an old-fashioned Jaina gentleman!) During the day the wife prepares her husband’s meal and only eats when he has finished; and in the evening, when he comes home tired, she massages him.
iii. VaiyāvaċċaKarma may also be worked off by another ‘austerity’ (Vaiyāvaċċa), service rendered to ascetics, or to the poor, the helpless and the suffering, by giving them food, water, shelter, or clothing. All the friends of the Jaina desire to see them taking their proper share in the uplift of India, and perhaps one might suggest that this belief of theirs in the reflex benefit of helping others provides them with a powerful text from which to preach the duty of social service.
iv. SvādhyāyaStudy is another interior austerity (Svādhyāya). The Jaina lay great emphasis on the duty of studying their doctrines and their scriptures by reading, catechizing, repetition, meditation and preaching, but they declare that there is no duty that their laity and especially their college graduates more neglect. Rich Śvetāmbara laymen often pay a paṇḍit to teach their sādhus during the long intervals of the day when, having finished their begging round and having nothing else to do, they spend their time in idleness; but they complain bitterly that the ascetics are generally too lazy to learn. A Sthānakavāsī monk may not study with a paid paṇḍit, only with one who gives his services freely; but they also show little desire to learn. The whole question, however, of the education of their monks is now occupying the attention of the educated laymen of both sects, and, together with caste, is regarded as one of the burning questions of the day.
v. DhyānaKarma is also destroyed by meditation (Dhyāna), which the Jaina consider to be another austerity; but it must be remembered that there are also two evil ways of meditating: one, grieving too much for the dead (Ārta dhyāna), wailing and beating one's breast in grief for them; and the other, remembering with anger any personal injuries one may have sustained and brooding over them (Raudra dhyāna); by doing either of these things one only accumulates karma instead of destroying it. There are, however, two good ways of meditation: the first is thinking on religious subjects in accordance with the precepts laid down in the sacred books (Dharma dhyāna); and the second (which can only be performed after Dharma dhyāna) is the purest and highest meditation of all (Śukla dhyāna), when, freed from all earthly thought and cares, the soul meditates on the fact that it itself is on the way to become a Siddha.
vi. Utsarga.The last discipline (Utsarga) consists in showing and feeling absolute indifference to the body and its needs. Only ascetics as a rule practise this in its furthest development (Pādopagamana santhāro), which leads to death. The sādhu climbs some sacred hill such as Pārasnātha, Girnār, or Śatruñjaya; and there, in order to do nothing that may lead to karma, he does absolutely nothing at all, but awaits death without moving hand or foot, head or body. The influence of a negative religion is then worked out to its irresistible conclusion, and with all the sorrows and ills of the world waiting to be relieved, the soldier deserts his post in order to free his own soul from suffering.
It is strange that a religious system which begins with the most minute regulations against the taking of the lowest insect life should end by encouraging human suicide.
When the ātmā is freed from all bondage to karma and has passed for ever beyond the possibility of rebirth, it is said to have attained mokṣa or complete deliverance. The old-fashioned Jaina believe mokṣa to be a place situated above the head of the figure that represents Devaloka;[105] while some of the more enlightened describe it as a state or condition of freedom.
A being who has attained mokṣa is called a Siddha or perfected one, and only a human being can directly become a Siddha. ‘The space occupied by each of the perfect is boundless’, says the Nava Tattva,[106] ‘and increases according to any one’s desire.[107] The term in which they remain in this state is also infinite. Their parts are innumerable. There is no returning again to a worldly state, and no interruption to their bliss.’
The Jaina definition of a Siddha is a being ‘without caste, unaffected by smell, without the sense of taste, without feeling, without form, without hunger, without pain, with- sorrow, without joy, without birth, without old age, without death, without body, without karma, enjoying an endless and unbroken calm’.
Some Jaina say that no one who is born a neuter can ever reach mokṣa; and the Digambara declare that no woman can ever reach mokṣa without first undergoing rebirth as a man.
The Śvetāmbara, whilst holding that it is possible for a woman to become a Siddha, nevertheless declare that very few women indeed have ever had sufficient strength of mind or body adequately to study the faith,[108] or endure the hard life of an ascetic. But while not more than ten neuters or twenty women in the old days used to attain perfection, one hundred and eight males used to do so; for the Jaina seem to think men more religious than women. All the twenty-four Tīrthaṅkara, ending with Mahāvīra, have obtained mokṣa and become Siddha, though it is still by the name of Tīrthaṅkara that the people love to speak of them.
In the country of Mahāvideha there are at present about one hundred and sixty Tīrthaṅkara, as well as many Kevalī, who will ultimately proceed to mokṣa. No one in the present age can proceed to mokṣa from Bharatakṣetra, which includes modern India.
There are fifteen different kinds of Siddha: those who have been Arihanta and have become Siddha are called Jina Siddha; those who, without even having been Arihanta themselves, have yet been the disciples of Arihanta are called Ajina Siddha.
A Tīrtha Siddha is one who has been previously a Tīrthaṅkara, and to be considered a Tīrthaṅkara a man must have been an ascetic, have preached, and have founded a community or Tīrtha consisting of at least four people (a monk and a nun, a layman and a laywoman). If a man die before he has preached or founded a community, he will nevertheless become a Siddha if he has had the requisite history behind him (for such a history automatically compels one to become a Siddha), but he will be called Atīrtha Siddha: for instance, the mother of Ṛiṣabhadeva became a Siddha, but an Atirtha Siddha, for at the time that she attained mokṣa no community had been founded.
Though the recognized path to Siddhahood is by becoming an ascetic, a householder of eminent holiness might nevertheless on his death pass straight to mokṣa, as King Bharata did, without ever having been an ascetic; such a jīva is called a Gṛihaliṅga Siddha. It is the glory of Jainism that, whatever its present practice, its doctrines steadfastly declare that conduct is greater than caste. It is possible for a non-Jaina who exhibits perfect holiness in his life to pass to mokṣa and become an Anyaliṅga Siddha: for instance, the famous ascetic, Valkalaċīri, who never professed the Jaina creed, became a Siddha of this class. Those who follow the usual path and find deliverance by way of asceticism are called Svaliṅga Siddha.
The dwellers in mokṣa are also classified according to their previous sex into Pūlliṅga Siddha, who were formerly men; Strīliṅga Siddha, who were women, and Napuṁsakaliṅga Siddha, who during their past life were neuters.
Again they are divided according to the influences that led them to become Siddha. If it was their own gurus who influenced them, they became Buddhabohī Siddha; if it was some particular thing, Pratyekabuddha Siddha, and if it was of their own notion without any outside influence, Svayamhuddha Siddha. They are also classified according to whether they proceeded to mokṣa by themselves, as Eka Siddha; whereas, if in the same samaya one hundred and eight went together, they are called Aneka Siddha.
The Siddha, though they are the highest class of jīva, are never worshipped, although the Tīrthaṅkara are. When one asks the reason why the same Being should be worshipped in his unperfected and not in his perfected state, even the non-idolatrous Jaina give as the reason that the jīva who has reached Siddhahood has no longer a body, and that it is impossible to worship or pray to a bodiless soul. The answer is intensely suggestive, bearing witness as it does to the materialistic influence of idol-worship on all sects of the Jaina. Jaina are, therefore, very interested in the entirely opposite idea that is expressed in our Lord’s saying that God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.[109]
It is illuminating also to contrast the Jaina idea of heaven with that of the Hindus: both use the same words, such as mokṣa and nirvāṇa, and both think of the highest state as attained by those who have completely stultified their personality, and who are not perfected characters but perfectly characterless beings [110] who touch life on as few points as possible; both also agree that souls who have attained mokṣa can never again be reborn; but the great ideal of the Hindus, absorption into the Supreme, is alien to Jaina thought. The Jaina Siddha through all eternity will maintain their separate entity.[111]
Though the Christian idea of heaven is so foreign to them, the Jaina through their quick sympathy with idealsm are deeply interested in it as the thought of a fuller life, in which a man, with all his powers perfectly developed, his ideals realized, and his will absolutely attuned to the divine will, moves without let or hindrance to fulfil God’s plan for him. They note a further resemblance in the Christian śloka where the promise is given to him that overcometh (Jina) that he shall go out thence no more.[112]
They feel themselves less in sympathy, however, with the Buddhists, who seem to them to use their common word Nirvana as connoting extinction not only of desire (with which the Jaina would agree) but also of the soul itself, which they would indignantly deny.
With mokṣa, the ninth principle, the category ends. Tedious as it is, its study is essential to the real understanding of Jainism, whose scriptures declare: ‘He who is acquainted with these nine principles, and lays hold of them by faith, is perfect in knowledge. He who is ignorant of them cannot be perfect in knowledge. The word sand doctrine of all the Jain Lords is here, and nowhere else to be found; therefore, he whose mind is instructed in these, possesses true and stable knowledge. He who has had this knowledge impressed on his mind for only an hour, is detained only by half the mental and bodily attraction that he was before.’[113]
- ↑ An analysis of the Nine Categories is given in the Appendix.
- ↑ S.B.E., xlv, p. 154.
- ↑ Bhandarkar, Search for Sanskrit MSS. in 1883–4, p. 106.
- ↑ S.B.E., xxii, p. 3.
- ↑ Much confusion has arisen through not distinguishing the Jaina use of the word prāṇa from the Vedāntist, with whom it means breath, and who say that there are five vital prāṇa or breaths.
- ↑ Cp. S. B. E., xlv, p. 212.
- ↑ With the Jaina, however, these words do not seem to bear quite the usual English connotation. Living things are sometimes considered neuter, and non-living things male or female.
- ↑ A Vedāntist would not use the word devatā to express an evil spirit, and this has sometimes led to confusion.
- ↑ Sanskrit Dvīndriya, Trīndriya, Ċaturindriya, Pañċindriya.
- ↑ It is interesting to compare these divisions with those of Gośāla, which they much resemble.
- ↑ Dr. Jacobi shows how this and the other animistic beliefs of Jainism point to its antiquity. S. B. E., xlv, p. xxxiii.
- ↑ Antarmuhūrtta.
- ↑ Jaina differ from some other schools of thought in believing that it is possible for the jīva inhabiting a man to be so weighed down by evil karma that it may in its very next rebirth have to pass into an Ekendriya Pṛithvīkāya, or earth life. They also differ, of course, from the Vedāntists, who believe in one all-soul, not in numberless individual souls like these.
- ↑ Compare ‘the heroes (of faith), humbly bent, (should retain their belief in) the illustrious road (to final liberation) and in the world (of water bodies)’. Āċārāṅga Sūtra, S. B. E., xxii, p. 5.
- ↑ Some Jaina think it is forty-eight moments.
- ↑ Jaina, like many Hindus, believe that waves are caused by submarine fire in the bed of the ocean.
- ↑ Samaya.
- ↑ In the Uttarādhyayana it is expressly stated that fire lives do exist in lightning. S. B. E., xlv, p. 217.
- ↑ In one potato there are countless bodies, and in each body countless lives exist.
- ↑ Dr. Jacobi points out that plants and animals, being admitted by all to be living beings, were considered a better support of the hylozoistic theory than wind. Āċārāṅga Sūtra, S. B. E., xxii, p. 9.
- ↑ Mr. W. Crooke, for instance, says (Imperial Gazetteer, vol. i, p. 416), ‘They wear a screen of cloth before their mouths, lest they should unwittingly inhale and destroy animal life.’
- ↑ Or Leśā.
- ↑ Jaina divisions are not, unfortunately for the student, mutually exclusive, and even include the whole along with its parts.
- ↑ Sthānakavāsī say pink.
- ↑ Sanskrit manas.
- ↑ It will be remembered that demi-gods were the fourth subdivision of Pañċendriya.
- ↑ The ordinary meaning of Dharma and Adharma is of course merit and demerit, or right conduct and unrighteousness, as Dr. Jacobi[28] and Dr. Bhandarkar[29] translate them; but all the Jaina that I have met in India assure me that these two words are here used in a special technical sense which we shall better understand as we discuss these divisions.
- ↑ Introduction, S. B. E., xlv, p. xxxiv.
- ↑ Dr. Bhandarkar, Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts, p. 96. Dr. Bühler falls into the same trap, Indian Sect of the Jaina, p. 9
- ↑ Sans. Kāla.
- ↑ Pudgaḷa (Sans. pudgala) is roughly translated by Jaina as ‘matter’.
- ↑ Or Vyavahārika Kāḷa.
- ↑ Addhāsamaya.
- ↑ Dr. Griswold draws attention in this connexion to Bergson’s doctrine of Time in his Creative Evolution.
- ↑ In order that the uninitiated may realize this deep truth, the following legend is told. Once a king crossed a stream wherein a dead dog lay, and to avoid the smell held a cloth across his nose. When he asked his prime minister why he did not do likewise, he replied that he knew his Jaina philosophy, and realized that it was of the nature of pudgaḷa to be sometimes sweet and sometimes evil smelling. Seeing his master unconvinced, he secretly drew water from the very place where the corpse of the dog lay, and, having filtered, iced and spiced it, offered it to the king, who drank it with delight. Afterwards learning its source, he learnt also that the same pudgaḷa may sometimes be of a sweet odour and sometimes of an evil one.
- ↑ The Digambara include Puṇya under Āśrava (see p. 139).
- ↑ i. e. destruction of life.
- ↑ We shall find constant examples of the influence Kṛiṣṇa worship has on the Jaina. Many of them read and love the Bhagavadgītā almost as much as the Hindus, though it is not one of their scriptures.
- ↑ They point out the following mistake in the Imperial Gazetteer of India (Oxford, 1907), vol. i, p. 417: ‘The Dhondiyas, who worship their gurus’, by which they complain that their feelings have been wounded.
- ↑ Not from the Siddha, who take no interest in anything earthly.
- ↑ Lecture by Mr. Lāla Benārsi Dāss, Jain Itihās Society, Agra, 1902, pp. 1 ff.
- ↑ Popatlāl K. Shāh, Jaina Dharma Nirūpaṇa, p. 33.
- ↑ This is strangely contradictory of the general aim of the whole system, which is none other than the gradual and complete stultification of character.
- ↑ In another aspect such offences are regarded by the Jaina as a form of stealing.
- ↑ Lāla Benārsi Dāss, loc. cit., p. 75.
- ↑ That even when angry with reason a guru must govern his anger the following legend shows. Once a guru had an impertinent disciple, and as the master sat engaged in his evening Paḍīkamaṇuṁ, thinking over his sins of the day, the disciple reminded him that he had walked on and killed a frog, and must perform prāyaśċitta for this sin. Now the guru had not killed a frog, the one seen by the young man having been hurt by other passers-by; and feeling that at any rate it was not a novice’s part to remind him of it, the guru leapt up from his seat, brush in hand, determined to chastise the cheeky youngster; unfortunately for himself, he rushed against a pillar and dashed his brains out.
The poor guru having died in a fit of anger slipped far down below the human level he had been on, and was reborn not as a man but as a snake, in fact a cobra. He took up his abode in an ant-hill near Waḍhwān and became, sad to say, not only a cobra, but a very bad cobra, who bit everybody who came near him; at last he established a reign of terror, and the road leading past the ant-hill was deserted through fear of him.
At this time Mahāvīra was alive, and his peregrinations happened to bring him to Waḍhwān; despite all his friends’ warnings, he determined to remedy this evil; so he went out and sat down on the snake’s ant-hill and meditated there. The enraged cobra dashed out and bit him over and over again, but Mahāvīra continued his meditations. Suddenly, as he looked at the master, all his former life came back to the snake’s memory, he repented of his wrath, and ever after allowed little boys to chase him and ants to walk over him unmolested, and eventually died in the odour of sanctity. He is now steadily mounting the ladder of higher births.
- ↑ Jaina children are taught to remember these different sorts of conceit in little rhymes much like those of Jane Taylor’s which we children of a Western growth learnt in our childhood. Legends too are told showing the result of each of the eight kinds of conceit. As an example of the evil results brought about by pride, hear the sad story of Mariċī, the son of Bharata, King of India. Bharata was the son of Ṛiṣabhadeva, the first Tīrthaṅkara, and it was revealed to him that his son should become a Tīrthaṅkara in a future life. Overhearing this, Mariċī became very conceited and danced and jumped with joy. As a consequence of showing too much emotion a fetter (ṭāṅkuṁ) was formed, and this bound Mariċī to become a beggar in his next incarnation, though nothing of course could prevent his eventually becoming a Tīrthaṅkara, which he did as Mahāvīra.
- ↑ It is a common complaint amongst the Jaina that so many of their gurus are extraordinarily ignorant of their own religion.
- ↑ Digambara of course do not believe this, as they hold that no woman can ever be a Tīrthaṅkara.
- ↑ It is interesting to compare with this the Christian saying: ‘The love of money is the root of all evil.’
- ↑ Compare again: ‘Let not the sun go down upon your wrath’; for the anger which is kept overnight has grown deadly by the morning.
- ↑ See p. 259.
- ↑ Sanskrit Ċaturmāsī.
- ↑ To Jaina it is of special interest that about a century before this idea had been incorporated into their teaching, the great Hebrew prophet was also reflecting on the discoloration produced on the soul by sin, but declared that there was One who could remove even the crimson stain. ‘Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ Isaiah i. 18.
- ↑ The Jaina pathetically believe that though there is forgiveness for sins against others, there is none for sins against themselves.
- ↑ St. John xx. 28.
- ↑ Āċārāṅga Sūtra, S. B. E., xxii, p. 33.
- ↑ This story is told in The Lives of Sixteen Chaste Women, a famous Jaina classic.
- ↑ All religions outside Jainism are false, but those which do not inculcate compassion are specially unworthy of credence.
- ↑ The intelligent Jaina clearly recognize that Hinduism has a very great influence over the religious ideas and practices of the less instructed members of their community.
- ↑ Otherwise Anabhi grahitva.
- ↑ Or Kālodadhi Khaṇḍa.
- ↑ See pp. 122 ff.
- ↑ Rati and Arati bear various meanings in Jaina philosophy.
- ↑ Āċārāṅga Sūtra, S.B.E., xxii, p. 147.
- ↑ See pp. 122 ff.
- ↑ Or Naisṛiṣṭikī.
- ↑ St. John x. 10.
- ↑ S. B. E., xlv, p. 174.
- ↑ It was this interpretation of the rule which prevented any sādhu from accepting the invitation to speak at the Parliament of Religions in America, or from even deputing any one to go. The difficulty was solved by the lay community—the saṅgha—sending a layman.
- ↑ So particular are the old-fashioned Jaina not to touch intoxicants, that one reason they give for refusing to take European medicine is that it might contain alcohol.
- ↑ Otherwise, Pratisthāpana samiti.
- ↑ Uttarādhyayana, S. B. E., xlv, p. 136.
- ↑ Loc. cit., p. 130.
- ↑ Uttarādhyayana, S. B. E., xlv, p. 186.
- ↑ Uttarādhyayana, S. B. E., xlv, p. 9.
- ↑ Or Parisaha.
- ↑ Uttarādhyayana, S. B. E., xlv, p. 11.
- ↑ Or Aċela p.
- ↑ Or Naiṣedhikī p.
- ↑ Uttarādhyayana, S. B. E., xlv, p. 13.
- ↑ Uttarādhyayana, S.B.E., xlv, p. 14.
- ↑ The writer has known of two sādhus who evaded this rule by keeping their fortune not in coin but in notes tied about their person!
- ↑ A weight of gold equivalent to 130 of an ounce.
- ↑ Sanskrit Tapas.
- ↑ See p. 163.
- ↑ Instead of Śauċa some sects substitute Tyāga, or the renunciation of palatable food, nice furniture and a comfortable house, and Antaratyāga, the renunciation of black thoughts.
- ↑ S. B. E., xlv, pp. 276 ff.
- ↑ See p. 189.
- ↑ Other Jaina deny that the king became an ascetic, and say he was merely convinced of the truth of this bhāvanā.
- ↑ They are sometimes classified into the nine first reflections and the three additional reflections.
- ↑ S. B. E., xlv, p. 330.
- ↑ Or pudgala.
- ↑ A. B. Latthe, M.A., An Introduction to Jainism, Bombay, 1905, pp. 9 ff.
- ↑ A lāḍu is a large round sweetmeat, about the size of a tennis ball, made of wheat, sugar, ghī and spices, of which the Gujarātī is inordinately fond.
- ↑ In order to avoid confusion it should be noted that the Vedāntists use a similar word in a totally different sense to denote God, the Nirjara or undecaying one.
- ↑ One of the writer’s paṇḍits went fifty miles to do darśana to this suffering man, the very sight of him conferring merit and nirjarā.
- ↑ Sanskrit Duḥṣama.
- ↑ Many laymen vow to eat only in their own houses.
- ↑ There is a Gujaratī proverb: ‘He who eats much will sleep much.’
- ↑ Dr. Jacobi (S. B. E., xxii, p. 308, note i) says he is not aware that removing the hair is resorted to in the case of nuns, but the writer knows as a fact that it is regularly done.
- ↑ Sanskrit Pratikramaṇa.
- ↑ Sanskrit Mithyāme duṣkṛitam.
- ↑ A great many Indian gentlemen were being almost unconsciously influenced by the chivalrous way in which they saw Englishmen treat ladies, when the crude militant ‘suffragette’ movement arose. It is impossible to over-estimate the evil that this movement did to the cause of women in the East; for every foolish act of militancy was chronicled in the papers, and men who were formerly anxious to educate their wives grew afraid to do so. Perhaps the Western women in their selfishness scarcely realized the solidarity of the modern world. One might almost say that every window they broke in England shattered the prospect of some Indian woman gaining a wider outlook on life; and every time they chained themselves up, they riveted the fetters more firmly on their suffering Oriental sisters.
- ↑ See p. 160.
- ↑ J. Stevenson, Nava Tatva, London, 1848, p. 127.
- ↑ Some Jaina, however, deny that the space can be increased.
- ↑ That the mere study of the Jaina faith is considered an adequate qualification for Siddhahood may be illustrated by the fact that the present writer has been assured by more than one Jaina that she was bound ultimately to become a Siddha, whether she would or no, simply because she had devoted seven years to the study of this religion.
- ↑ St. John iv. 24.
- ↑ Cp. Rev. H. Haigh, Some Leading Ideas of Hinduism, London, 1903, p. 129.
- ↑ Another great difference we have already incidentally mentioned. In the Jaina mokṣa there is no thought of escape from māyā, for the Jaina have no conception of māyā in the Hindu sense.
- ↑ Rev. iii. 12.
- ↑ J. Stevenson, Nava Tafva, p. 128