is said to be held even more strongly by Buddhists and Jains than
by Hind[=u]s? It is thus explained. Every human being is composed of
certain constituents (called by Buddhists the five Skandhas). These
comprehend body, soul, and mind, with all the organs of feeling and
sensation. They are all dissolved at death, and absolute extinction
would follow, were it not for the inextinguishable, imperishable,
omnipotent force of _Karman_ or Act. No sooner are the constituents
of one stage of existence dissolved than a new set is created by
the force of acts done and character formed in the previous stage.
Soul-transmigration with Buddhists is simply a concatenation of
separate existences connected by the iron chain of act. A man's own
acts generate a force which may be compared to those of chemistry,
magnetism, or electricity--a force which periodically re-creates the
whole man, and perpetuates his personal identity (notwithstanding the
loss of memory) through the whole series of his separate existences,
whether it obliges him to ascend or descend in the scale of being.
It may safely be affirmed that Br[=a]hmans, Buddhists, and Jains all
agree in repudiating the idea of vicarious suffering. All concur in
rejecting the notion of a representative man--whether he be a Manu, a
Rishi, a Buddha, or a Jina--suffering as a substituted victim for the
rest of mankind. Every being brought into the world must suffer in
his own person the consequences of his own deeds committed either in
present or former states of being. It is not sufficient that he be
rewarded in a temporary heaven, or punished in a temporary hell.
Neither heaven nor hell has power to extinguish the accumulated
efficacy of good or bad acts committed by the same person during a
long succession of existences. Such accumulated acts must inevitably
and irresistibly drag him down into other mundane forms, until
at length their potency is destroyed by his attainment of perfect
self-discipline and self-knowledge in some final culminating condition
of being, terminated by complete self-annihilation.
And thus we are brought to a clear understanding of the true character
of a Jina or self-conquering Saint (from the Sanskrit root _ji_, to
conquer). A Jina is with the Jains very nearly what a Buddha is with
the Buddhists.
He represents the perfection of humanity, the typical man, who has
conquered self and attained a condition so perfect that he not only
ceases to act, but is able to extinguish the power of former acts;
a human being who is released from the obligation of further
transmigration, and looks forward to death as the absolute extinction
of personal existence. But he is also more than this. He is a being
who by virtue of the perfection of his self-mortification (_tapas_)
has acquired the perfection of knowledge, and therefore the right
to be a supreme leader and teacher of mankind. He claims far more
complete authority and infallibility than the most arrogant Roman
Pontiff. He is in his own solitary person an absolutely independent
and infallible guide to salvation. Hence he is commonly called a
_T[=i]rthan-kara_, or one who constitutes a T[=i]rtha[8]--that is
to say, a kind of passage or medium through which bliss may be
attained--a kind of ford or bridge leading over the river of life to
the elysium of final emancipation. Other names for him are _Arhat_,
"venerable;" _Sarva-jna_, "omniscient;" _Bhagavat_, "lord."
A Buddha with the Buddhists is a very similar personage. He is a
self-conqueror and self-mortifier (_tapasv[=i]_), like the Jina,
and is besides a supreme guide to salvation; but he has achieved
his position of Buddhahood more by the perfection of his meditation
(_yoga, sam[=a]dhi_) than by the completeness of his self-restraint
and austerities.
Both Jainas and Buddhists--but especially Jainas--believe in the
existence of gods and demons, and spiritual beings of all kinds, whom
they often designate by names similar to those used by the Hind[=u]s.
These may possess vast supernatural and extra-mundane powers in
different degrees and kinds, which they are capable of exerting for
the benefit or injury of mankind; but they are inferior in position to
the Jina or Buddha. They are merely powerful beings--temporary rulers
in temporary heavens and hells.
They may be very formidable and worthy of propitiation, but they are
imperfect. They are liable to pass through other stages of existence,
or even to be born again in mundane forms, until they are finally
extinguished by the same law of dissolution as the rest of the
universe.
Very different is the condition of the perfect saint. He is in a far
higher position, for he has but one step to take before plunging
into the ocean of non-existence. He is on the verge of the bliss of
extinction, and can guide others to it. He can never be dragged down
again to earthly imperfection and sin. He alone is a worthy object of
adoration. All other beings--divine and demoniacal--are to be dreaded,
not worshipped. "There is no god superior to the Arhat," says the
Kalpa-s[=u]tra (Stevenson, p. 10). True worship, indeed, is not
possible with Jainas any more than with Buddhists. They have no
supreme Eternal Being, omniscient and omnipresent, ever at hand to
answer prayer, ever living to be an object of meditation, devotion,
and love to his creatures.
Yet a Jaina who acts up to the principles of his faith is a slave to a
ceaseless round of religious duties.
The late Bishop of Calcutta told me that he once asked a pious Jaina,
whom he happened to meet in the act of leaving a temple after a long
course of devotion, what he had been asking for in prayer, and to whom
he had been praying? He replied, "I have been asking for nothing,
and praying to nobody." The fact was he had been meditating on the
perfections of some extinct Jina, doing homage to his memory, and
using prayer as a mere mechanical act, not directed towards any higher
Power capable of granting requests, but believed to have an efficacy
of its own in determining the character of his subsequent forms of
existence.
It may be said that the Br[=a]hmanical idea of a saint is much the
same as that of Buddhists and Jainas. But with Br[=a]hmans the
perfect saint is not so solitary and independent in his spiritual
pre-eminence. He is one of a numerous band of similar sainted
personages. He has endless names and epithets (such as Rishi, Muni,
Yog[=i], Tapasv[=i], Jitendriya, Yatendriya, Sanny[=a]s[=i]), all of
which indicate that he, like the Buddha and Jina, has attained
the perfection of knowledge and impassiveness, either by abstract
meditation (_yoga_), or self-mortification (_tapas_), or mastery over
his sensual organs (_yama_). He may also combine the functions of a
true teacher and guide to salvation (_T[=i]rtha_). He may even,
like the Buddha and Jina, have acquired such powers that any of the
secondary gods, including Brahm[=a], Vishnu, and S´iva, may be subject
to him. Finally, he may be himself worshipped as a kind of deity. Yet
radically there is an important distinction between the Br[=a]hman
and the Jaina saint, for the Br[=a]hman saint makes no pretence to
absolute finality and supremacy. However lofty his position, he
can never be exalted above the One Supreme Being (Brahma), in whose
existence his own personal existence is destined to become absorbed,
and union with whose essence constitutes the object of all his hopes,
and the aim of all his aspirations.
Nothing, perhaps, better illustrates the difference between
Br[=a]hmanism, Buddhism, and Jainism than the daily prayer used in all
three systems. That of the Br[=a]hmans is in Sanskrit (from Rig-veda
iii. 62. 10), and is addressed to the Supreme Being as giver of
life and illumination. It is a prayer for greater knowledge and
enlightenment: thus, "Let us meditate on that excellent glory of the
divine Vivifier. May He stimulate our understandings." That of
the Jainas, also called by them G[=a]yatr[=i], is in M[=a]gadh[=i]
Pr[=a]krit, and is in five short clauses to the following effect:--"I
venerate the sages who are worthy of honour (_arhat_). I venerate the
saints who have achieved perfection. I venerate those who direct our
religious worship. I venerate spiritual instructors. I venerate holy
men (_s[=a]dhus_) in all parts of the world." This is obviously no
real prayer, but a mere formula, expressive of veneration for human
excellence, like that used by the Buddhists, which is perhaps the
simplest of all,--"Reverence to the incomparable Buddha;" or (as in
Thibet), "Reverence to the jewel in the lotus."[9]
Br[=a]hmans, Jains, and Buddhists all alike aim at the attainment of
perfect knowledge; but the Br[=a]hman, by his G[=a]yatr[=i] prayer,
acknowledges his dependence on a Supreme Being as the source of all
enlightenment; while the formulas of Jains and Buddhists are simply
expressive of their belief in the divinity of humanity--the efficacy
of human example, and the power of unassisted human effort.
It will be evident from the foregoing outline of the first principles
of Jainism, that the whole system hinges on the efficacy of
self-mortification (_tapas_), self-restraint (_yama_), and asceticism.
Only twenty-four supreme saints and T[=i]rthan-karas can appear in
any one cycle of time, but every mortal man may be a self-restrainer
(_yati_). Every one born into the world may be a striver after
sanctity (_s[=a]dhu_), and a practiser of austerities (_tapasv[=i]_).
Doubtless, at first there was no distinction between monks, ascetics,
and ordinary men, just as in the earliest days of Christianity there
was no division into bishops, priests, and laity. All Jainas in
ancient times practised austerities, but among such ascetics an
important difference arose. One party advocated an entire abandonment
of clothing, in token of complete indifference to all worldly ideas
and associations. The other party were in favour of wearing white
garments. The former were called Dig-ambara, sky-clothed, the latter
S´vet[=a]mbara (or, in ancient works, S´veta-pata), white-clothed.[10]
Of these the Dig-ambaras were chronologically the earliest. They were
probably the first to form themselves into a regular society. The
first Jina, Rishaba, as well as the last Jina, Mah[=a]v[=i]ra, are
said to have been Dig-ambaras, and to have gone about absolutely
naked. Their images represent two entirely nude ascetics, whereas the
images of other Jinas, like the Buddhist images, are representations
of a sage, generally seated in a contemplative posture, with a robe
thrown gracefully over one shoulder.
It is not improbable that the S´vet[=a]mbara division of the Jainas
were merely a sect which separated itself from the parent stock in
later times, and became in the end numerically the most important, at
least in Western India. The Dig-ambaras, however, are still the most
numerous faction in Southern India, and at Jaipur in the North.[11]
And, indeed, it need scarcely be pointed out that ascetics,
both wholly naked and partially clothed, are as common under the
Br[=a]hmanical system as among Jainas and Buddhists. The god S´iva
himself is represented as a Dig-ambara, or naked ascetic, whenever he
assumes the character of a Mah[=a]-yog[=i]--that is to say, whenever
he enters on a long course of austerity, with an absolutely nude
body, covered only with a thick coating of dust and ashes, sitting
motionless and wrapped in meditation for thousands of years, that
he may teach men by his own example the power attainable through
self-mortification and abstract contemplation.
It is true that absolute nudity in public is now prohibited by
law, but the Dig-ambara Jainas who take their meals, like orthodox
Hind[=u]s, in strict seclusion, are said to remove their clothes
in the act of eating. Even in the most crowded thoroughfares the
requirements of legal decency are easily satisfied. Any one who
travels in India must accustom himself to the sight of plenty of
unblushing, self-asserting human flesh. Thousands content themselves
with the minimum of clothing represented by a narrow strip of cloth,
three or four inches wide, twisted round their loins. Nor ought it
to excite any feeling of prudish disgust to find poor, hard-working
labourers tilling the ground with a greater area of sun-tanned skin
courting the cooling action of air and wind on the burning plains
of Asia than would be considered decorous in Europe. As to mendicant
devotees, they may still occasionally be seen at great religious
gatherings absolutely innocent of even a rag. Nevertheless, they are
careful to avoid magisterial penalties. In a secluded part of the city
of Patna, I came suddenly on an old female ascetic, who usually sits
quite naked in a large barrel, which constitutes her only abode. When
I passed her, in company with the collector and magistrate of the
district, she rapidly drew a dirty sheet round her body.
In the present day both Dig-ambara and S´vet[=a]mbara Jainas are
divided into two classes, corresponding to clergy and laity. When the
two sects increased in numbers, all, of course, could not be ascetics.
Some were compelled to engage in secular pursuits, and many developed
industrious and business-like habits. Hence it happened that a large
number became prosperous merchants and traders.
All laymen[12] among the Jainas are called S´r[=a]vakas, "hearers or
disciples," while the Yatis,[13] or "self-restraining ascetics,"
who constitute the only other division of both Jaina sects, are the
supposed teachers (_Gurus_). Many of them, of course, never teach at
all. They were formerly called Nirgrantha, "free from worldly ties,"
and are often known by the general name of S[=a]dhu, "holy men."
All are celibates, and most of them are cenobites, not anchorites.
Sometimes four or five hundred live together in one monastery,
which they call an Up[=a]s´raya,[14] "place of retirement," under
a presiding abbot. They dress, like other Hind[=u] ascetics, in
yellowish-pink or salmon-coloured garments.[15] There are also female
ascetics (_S[=a]dhvin[=i]_, or, anciently, _Nirgranth[=i]_), who may
be seen occasionally in public places clothed in dresses of a similar
colour. When these good women draw the ends of their robes over their
heads to conceal their features, and cover the lower part of their
faces with pieces of muslin to prevent animalculæ from entering their
mouths, they look very like hooded Roman Catholic nuns. I saw
several threading their way through the crowded streets of Ahmedabad,
apparently bent, like sisters of mercy, on charitable errands.
Of course, in Jainism anything like a Br[=a]hmanical priesthood would
be an impossibility. Jainas reject the whole body of the Veda, Vedic
sacrifices and ritual, and hold it to be a heinous sin to kill an
animal of any kind, even for religious purposes. They have, however,
a Veda of their own, consisting of a series of forty-five sacred
writings, collectively called [=A]gamas. They are all in the Jaina
form of the M[=a]gadh[=i] dialect (differing from, yet related to,
the P[=a]l[=i] of the Buddhists, the M[=a]gadh[=i] Pr[=a]krit of
Vararuchi, and the Pr[=a]krit of the plays), and are classed under
the different heads of Anga, Up[=a]nga, P[=a]inna (Sanskrit,
_Prak[=i]rnaka_), M[=u]la, Chheda, Anuyoga, and Nandi. Of these the
eleven Angas are the most esteemed, but the whole series is equally
regarded as S´ruti, or divine revelation. The M[=a]gadh[=i] text
is sometimes explained by Sanskrit commentaries, and sometimes by
commentaries in the M[=a]rw[=a]r[=i] dialect, very common among
merchants in the West of India. Some of the best known Angas and
Up[=a]ngas were procured by me when I was last at Bombay, through the
kind assistance of Dr. Bühler; but it appears doubtful whether
they would repay the trouble which a complete perusal and thorough
examination of such voluminous writings would entail. It may safely be
affirmed that their teaching, like that of the Pur[=a]nas, is anything
but consistent or uniform, and that they deal with subjects--such as
the formation of the universe, history, geography, and chronology--of
which their authors are profoundly ignorant.
The Indian commentator, M[=a]dhav[=a]ch[=a]rya, in his well-known
summary of Hind[=u] sects (called Sarva-dars´ana-sangraha) has given
an interesting sketch of the Jainas from his own investigation
of their sacred writings. Their philosophers are sometimes called
Sy[=a]d-v[=a]dins, "asserters of possibility," because their
system propounds seven modes of reconciling opposite views
(_sapta-bhanga-naya_) as to the possibility of anything existing
or not existing. All visible objects--all the phenomena of the
universe--are distributed under the two principles (_tattva_) or
categories of animate (_j[=i]va_), and inanimate (_a-j[=i]va_). Again,
all living beings comprised under the former are divided into three
classes: (1) eternally perfect, as the Jina; (2) emancipated from the
power of acts; (3) bound by acts and worldly associations. Or, again,
nine principles are enumerated--namely, life, absence of life, merit
(_punya_), demerit, passion, helps to restraint, helps to freedom
from worldly attachments, bondage, emancipation. Inanimate matter is
sometimes referred to a principle (_tattva_) called Pudgala, which it
is easier for Jaina philosophers to talk about than to explain.
When we come to the Jaina moral code, we find ourselves transported
from the mists of fanciful ideas and arbitrary speculation to a
clearer atmosphere and firmer ground. The three gems which every Jaina
is required to seek after with earnestness and diligence, are right
intuition, right knowledge, and right conduct. The nature of the first
two may be inferred from the explanations already given. Right
conduct consists in the observance of five duties (_vratas_), and the
avoidance of five sins implied in five prohibitions. The five duties
are:--Be merciful to all living things; practise almsgiving and
liberality; venerate the perfect sages while living, and worship their
images after their decease; confess your sins annually, and mutually
forgive each other; observe fasting. The five prohibitions are:--Kill
not; lie not; steal not; commit not adultery or impurity; love not the
world or worldly honour.
If equal practical importance were attached to these ten precepts,
the Jaina system could not fail to conduce in a high degree to the
happiness and well-being of its adherents, however perverted their
religious sense may be. Unfortunately, undue stress is laid on the
first duty and first prohibition, to the comparative neglect of
some of the others. In former days, when Buddhism and Jainism were
prevalent everywhere, "Kill not" was required to be proclaimed by
sound of trumpet in every city daily.[16]
And, indeed, with all Hind[=u]s respect for life has always been
regarded as a supreme obligation. Ahins[=a], or avoidance of injury
to others in thought, word, and deed, is declared by Manu to be the
highest virtue, and its opposite the greatest crime. Not the smallest
insect ought to be killed, lest the soul of some relation should be
there embodied. Yet all Hind[=u]s admit that life may be taken for
religious or sacrificial purposes. Not so Buddhists and Jainas. With
them the sacrifice of any kind of life, even for the most sacred
purpose, is a heinous crime. In fact, the belief in transmission
of personal identity at death through an infinite series of animal
existences is so intense that they live in perpetual dread of
destroying some beloved relative or friend. The most deadly serpents
or venomous scorpions may enshrine the spirits of their fathers or
mothers, and are therefore left unharmed. The Jainas far outdo every
other Indian sect in carrying the prohibition, "not to kill," to the
most preposterous extremes. They strain water before drinking, sweep
the ground with a silken brush before sitting down, never eat or drink
in the dark, and often wear muslin before their mouths to prevent the
risk of swallowing minute insects. They even object to eating figs,
or any fruit containing seed, and would consider themselves eternally
defiled by simply touching flesh-meat with their hands.
One of the most curious sights in Bombay is the Panjara-pol, or
hospital for diseased, crippled, and worn-out animals, established by
rich Jaina merchants and benevolent Vaishnava Hind[=u]s in a street
outside the Fort. The institution covers several acres of ground, and
is richly endowed. Both Jainas and Vaishnavas think it a work of the
highest religious merit to contribute liberally towards its support.
The animals are well fed and well tended, though it certainly seemed
to me, when I visited the place, that the great majority would be more
mercifully provided for by the application of a loaded pistol to their
heads. I found, as might have been expected, that a large proportion
of space was allotted to stalls for sick and infirm oxen, some with
bandaged eyes, some with crippled legs, some wrapped up in blankets
and lying on straw beds. One huge, bloated, broken-down old bull in
the last stage of decrepitude and disease was a pitiable object
to behold. Then I noticed in other parts of the building singular
specimens of emaciated buffaloes, limping horses, mangy dogs,
apoplectic pigs, paralytic donkeys, featherless vultures, melancholy
monkeys, comatose tortoises, besides a strange medley of cats, rats
and mice, small birds, reptiles, and even insects, in every stage of
suffering and disease. In one corner a crane, with a kind of wooden
leg, appeared to have spirit enough left to strut in a stately manner
amongst a number of dolorous-looking ducks and depressed fowls. The
most spiteful animals seemed to be tamed by their sufferings and the
care they received. All were being tended, nursed, physicked, and fed,
as if it were a sacred duty to prolong the existence of every living
creature to the utmost possible limit. It is even said that men are
paid to sleep on dirty wooden beds in different parts of the building,
that the loathsome vermin with which they are infested may be supplied
with their nightly meal of human blood.
Yet I observed on other occasions that both Jainas and Hind[=u]s are
sometimes very cruel to animals used for domestic purposes, believing
that the harshest treatment involves no sin provided it stops short of
destroying life. The following story, which I have paraphrased freely,
from the Jaina Kalpa-s[=u]tra (Stevenson, p. 11) may be taken as an
illustration:[17]--
"There was a certain Br[=a]hman in the city of Pushpavat[=i]
whose father and mother died. In process of time both parents
were born again in their own son's house, the father as
a bullock, the mother as a female dog. By-and-by the
S´r[=a]ddha, or festive-day for the worship of deceased
parents and forefathers, came round. In the morning the son
set the bullock to labour hard, that a supply of rice and milk
might be ready for the priests invited to the festival. When
they were about to begin eating, the female dog, in which was
the mother's soul, seeing something poisonous fall into the
milk, snatched it away with her mouth. Upon that her son, not
understanding the dog's action, flew into a passion and almost
broke her back with a stick. In the evening the bullock was
tied up in a cowhouse, but no food given to him after his
day's toil. Both animals had become conscious of their
previous state of existence, and the bullock, looking at the
female dog, exclaimed, 'Alas! what have we both suffered this
day through the cruelty of our wicked son!'"
As to the other precepts of the Jaina moral code, it is noteworthy
that the practice of confessing sins to a priestly order of men
probably existed in full force among the Jainas long before its
introduction into the Christian system. A pious Jaina ought to confess
at least once a year, or if his conscience happens to be burdened by
the weight of any recent crime--such, for example, as the accidental
killing of a noxious insect--he is bound to betake himself to the
confessional without delay. The stated observance of this duty is
called Pratikramana, because on a particular day the penitent repairs
solemnly to a priestly Yati, who hears his confession, pronounces
absolution, and imposes a penance.