- Most of the ancient Jain texts are written in Prakrta (an early form of Sanskrit).
The general outline of the canon is as follows.
It is divided into six sections and contains either forty-five or forty-six books.
- The twelve Angas or limbs.
- The twelve Upangas, or secondary limbs
- The ten Painnas, or ‘Scattered pieces’
- The six Cheya-Suttas
- Individual texts (two)
- The four Mula-Suttas
THE CONCEPT OF GOD
- Jainism does not believe in a personal God or a creator God. According to the Jaina philosophical works, the definition of God is as follows: God is that soul who has completely removed all the Karmas.
- The defining characteristic of Godhood is identical with that of liberation itself. To attain liberation is to attain Godhood.
- The term ‘Isvara’ can very well apply to the soul that has become powerful by attaining its perfectly pure nature constituted of four characteristics, which are , infinite knowledge, infinite vision, infinite power, and infinite bliss.
- By constant practice of spiritual discipline, spiritually right knowledge, and right conduct, the means of liberation gradually develop and ultimately attain perfection.
- And when they attain perfection, all the coverings get removed and all the bondages are cut off. As a result, the soul’s natural qualities get fully manifested.
- To attain this state is to attain Godhood. Though the Jains reject God as the creator of the world, they think it is necessary to meditate on and worship the liberated, perfect souls. Prayers are offered to them for guidance and inspiration.
- According to the Jain religion, worship is not for seeking mercy and pardon. Inspite of the absence of a creator-God, the religious spirit of the Jaina lacks neither in internal fervour nor in external ceremonial expressions. As the lay community increased in Jainism, there evolved also rituals and religious practices.
THE CONCEPT OF SOUL
- The Jaina holds that every living and non-living being is gifted with souls. All souls are not equally conscious, but every soul has the potential to attain infinite consciousness, power, and happiness. The soul is inherently perfect. These qualities are inherent in the very nature of the soul.
- Each Jiva (soul) is eternally associated with Ajiva (non-sentient or non-conscious being) because of Karman. They are obstructed by karma, just as the natural light of the sun is hindered by clouds.
- By removing the karmas, a soul can remove bondage and regain its natural perfections. The limitations that we find in any individual’s soul are due to the material body with which the soul has identified itself.
- The Karma or the sum of the past life of a soul – its past thought, speech, and activity – generates in it certain blind cravings and passions that seek satisfaction.
- Those cravings in a soul attract to it particular sorts of matter-particles and organize them into the body unconsciously desired. Jaina writers point out that bondage or the fall of the soul begins in thought.
- They therefore speak of two kinds of bondage:
(1) internal or ideal bondage, that is to say, the soul’s bondage to bad disposition (bhava-bandha), and
(2) its effect, which is material bondage, that is to say, the soul’s actual association with matter (dravya-bandha).