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

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JAINISM which do not properly belong to it. All of these karmic difficulties have been afflicting jīva from eternity. The Jaina system requires no explanation of the beginning of it all, since there is no notion of a time when tiine was not: the world has always cxisted. The concern, furthermore, is not the beginning of the muddle, but the determination of its nature and the application of a technique to clear it up.
Bondage consists in the union of jīva with ajīva, salvation in the dissolution of the combination. This problem of conjunclion and disjunction is expressed by the Jainas in a statement of scven taltvas or "principles."
1. Jiva, and 2. Ajīva: these have already been discussed. Ajīva includes categories 2-6 of the Six Constitutents that we have just reviewed.
3. Āsrava: “influx," the pouring of karmic matter into the life-monad. This takes place through forty-two channels, among which are the five recipient sense-faculties, the three activities of mind, speech, physical action, the four passions of wrath, pride, guile, and greed, and the six "non-passions” known as mirth, pleasure, distress, grief, fear, and disgust.97
4. Bandha: "bondage," the fettering and smothering of jiva by karmic matter.
5. Samvara: "stoppage," the checking of the influx.
6. Nirjarā: "shedding," the climination of karmic matter by mcans of cleansing austerities, burning it out with the internal heat of ascetic practices (tapas), as by a sweating cure.
97 These six, togсther with two others--resolution and wonder-are the basic moods or "favors" (rasa) of Hindu poetry, dance, and acting. They are all exhibited by Siva, the Highest God, in the various situations of his mythical manifestations, and thus are sanctified in devotional Hinduism as aspects of the Lord's "cosmic play," revelations of his divine energy under various modes. According to Jainism, on the other hand, they are to be suppressed, since they attract and increase the store of karmic matter and thereby distract one from the perfect indifference that conduces to the purification of the life-monad.
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