Jainism And Its History

SR No.: 032590
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Research Foundation for Jainology
Publication Year: 2018
Total Pages: 328
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 34 MB

Page 195

appa katts vikatta ya, duhana ya suhana ya appa mittamamittam ca, duppattiyasupatthio.
That the self (Atma) is both the doer and the enjoyer of happiness and misery. It is its own friend when it acts righteously and foe when it acts unrighteously. An unconquered self is its own enemy; unconquered passions and sense organs of the self are its own enemy. Oh monk! Having conquered them, I move righteously. In another Jaina text of the early period Aura-Paccakkhanam (c. 3rd A. D.) it is mentioned:
ego me sasado appa, nanadamsanasamjuo
sesa me bahira bhava, savve samjyogalakkhana. Samjogamula jivenam, patta dukkhaparampara. (26/27)
The soul endowed with knowledge and perception alone is permanent, all other objects are alien to self. All the serious miseries, suffered by self, are the result of individual's sense of 'mine' or attachment towards the alien objects and so it is imperative to abandon completely the sense of 'mine' with regard to the external objects. In short, according to Jainism not identifying oneself with the objects not belonging to the soul, is the starting point of spiritual practice (Sadhana). Non-alignment with material object is the pre-requisite for self-realisation, the main objective of early Jainism. According to it, renouncement of attachment is the same as the emergence of a balanced view of even-sightedness (Samdarsita).
The reason, as to why Jainism regards abandonment of 'sense of mine' or of attachment as the only means for selfrealisation, is that so long as there is attachment in a man, his attention is fixed not on self or soul, but on non-self, i.e., material objects. Materialism thrives on this object-oriented attitude or indulgence in the non-self. According to the Jaina
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