Philosophies of India

SR No.: 007309
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell
Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
Publication Year: 1953
Total Pages: 709
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 34 MB

Page 237

JAINISM
invitation; for the Jainas pay profound respect to the statues of their Tirthankaras and recount legends of their miraculous origin. Neverthcless the attitude is not precisely that of worship. The following story, told of the Lord Pārśva in his next to last earthly life, gives the clue to the special character of the Jaina attitude.
The savior's name then, it will be reinembered, was King Anandakumāra.33 When he had defeated the rulers of the surrounding nations and become a Cakravartin, his minister suggested that he should hold a religious celebration in honor of the Tirthankara Aristanemi; but when the king entered the temple to worship he was disturbed by a doubt. "What is the use," he thought, "of bowing before an image, for an image is unconscious?" There was a saint in the temple at the time, however, named Vipulamati, and he removed this doubt. “An image,” he told the king, "affects the mind. If one holds a red flower before a glass the glass will be red; if one holds up a dark blue flower the glass will be dark blue. Just so, the mind is changed by the presence of an image. Contemplating the form of the passionless Lord in a Jaina temple, the mind becomes filled automatically with a sentiment of renunciation; whereas at the sight of a courtcsan it becomes restless. No one can regard the peaceful, absolute form of the Lord without recalling the noble qualities of the Lord; and this influence is the more forceful if one worships. The mind straightway becomes purified. But given purity of mind, one is already on the way to final bliss."
The sage Vipulamati then illustrated his lesson for the king with a metaphor that has many counterparts in the various traditions of India, non-Jaina as well as Jaina. "In a certain town," he said, "there was a beautiful public woman who died, and her body was brought to the cremation ground. A certain licentious man who chanced to be there looked upon her beauty and thought how fortunate he would have deemed himself could 83 Cf. supra, p. 193. See also, p. 181, note 1.
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