Mahavira and other unorthodox teachers of
his age were primarily interested in seeking liberation from the wheel of
rebirth.
The Universe
Jain philosophy differs in important
respects from the systems of Buddhism and Hinduism. Jainism upholds the
existence of an infinite number of animate and inanimate substances -
Jivas or Souls, and Ajivas or non-souls, representing the mind / matter
dichotomy - each of which possesses an infinite number of individual
characteristics of its own. Moreover, all substances exist independently
of our perceptions or awareness of them. Thus Jain philosophy is realist.
But because the number of souls inhabiting
the universe is infinite, most of them will be compelled to transmigrate
eternally in samsara, the world of birth, death and rebirth. And this
world is itself subject to a process of growth and decline. It is part of
a universe which, without begining and without end, passes through an
infinite number of cosmic cycles, each divided into phases of ascent and
descent during which civilization rises and falls. At present we are in
the fifth period of a phase of descent.
The apparent fatalism and determinism or the
system is opposed by Jain philosophers by means of the distinctive theory
of `many-sidedness’ (Anekantvada). This relates the truth of any
proposition to the point of view from which it is made. The rise and fall
of civilizations is rigidly determined from the universal point of view,
but from the individual viewpoint a man is free to work out his own
salvation. Only the liberated soul knows the full and absolute truth. A
popular illustration of this is the parable of the six blind men and the
elephant. Each, having grasped a part of the great beast, was asked what
it was like. One said a wall, another a rope, another a snake, another a
fan, and so on. Only the soul in nirvana has complete and perfect
knowledge.
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Philosophy
