Philosophy In Jain Agams: 01 ►INTRODUCTION

Jain āgamas are inscribed with highly valuable philosophical concepts that they have their own distinction in the world of philosophy. These concepts cannot be adequately comprehended only through the study of Jain literature as they were authored during the medieval period and often utilise logic to enumerate the concepts.

It is true that we do not find a systematic presentation of the subjects in āgamic literature. Because the facts derived through the realization of truth have been composed in āgamas in a unique style.

However, Tattvārtha sūtra and other texts which were authored during medieval period were mainly focused on the categorisation of the subjects available in āgamic literature. While systematizing, it is also possible that many subjects could not be included. Āgamas have always emphasised importance on 'realization' through the search of truth whereas the texts of philosophical age (medieval period) have tried to establish the truth propounded in the āgamas through 'logic'.

In fact, Tattvārtha Sūtra, Samayasāra, Sanmati Tarka Prakaraṇa, Tattvārtha-Bhaṣyānusāriṇi, Viśeṣāvaśyaka Bhaṣya, Tattvārtha Rājavārtika and many other philosophical treatises, which were authored during the medieval period, had close connection with the āgamas and these texts provide important information regarding the Jain philosophy contained in the Jain āgamas. These treatises have given a new dimension to the Jain philosophy by providing a systematic presentation of the āgamic concept of philosophy. Just as, even after the study of śānkara vedāṅta, the significance of the study of original Upaniṣads remains intact, similarly, even after the study of these logic-based treatises, the importance of the study of āgamas remains intact in order to understand philosophical exposition and evaluation.

The original source of Jain philosophy is āgama. Tradition holds that the subtle truths that Lord Mahavira had realized during his prolonged spiritual practices have been inscribed in the āgamas. For e.g.

1. Acceptance of existence of life in earth, water, fire, air, vegetation kingdom and the division of all living beings in Saḍjīvanikāya (six classes of living beings).
2. Acceptance of medium of motion and medium of rest, cosmos and trans-cosmos.
3. Acceptance of homogeneity of atoms, which gives rise to different species like earth, air, etc. on account of manifestation and cessation of qualities as opposed to Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika's concept of distinct atoms for different entities like earth, water, fire and air etc. Lord Mahavira propounded that similar kinds of atoms possessing one kind of taste, one kind of smell, one kind of colour and two kinds of touch are the basic cause of all material aggregates. There is no distinct difference amongst the groups of atoms.
4. Acceptance of five states or transformative modes as the inherent nature of the soul.
5. Concepts like natural creation and creation with conscious exertion and many other such doctrines have been propounded during the āgamic age. These concepts elucidate the uniqueness and significance of Jain philosophy.

In the post āgamic philosophical age, various branches of knowledge developed independently. Two prominent branches emerged among them, valid cognition (Pramāṇa) and object of knowledge (Prameya). Among these two, more attention was given to pramāṇa, and prameya became secondary or auxiliary to it. Naturally, as a result of this approach in discussion, the important philosophical aspects found in āgamas were either lost or neglected.

A proficient commentator of āgamas of the present age, Acharya Mahapragya has expressed his critical thoughts upon this subject as follows -
'Some western scholars, however, are of the view that the Jain philosophy has no independent existence of its own, because it is only a compendium of the philosophical ideas of various schools of thought. Though we do not consider their contention as entirely baseless, it nonetheless does have logical basis. It is true that the Jain Acharyas of medieval period had written treatises based on Jain logic or Nyāya by compiling the views of Naiyāyikas, Buddhists and the like. It would not be illogical to reach the above conclusion after studying the treatises belonging to the logic age but the true form of Jain philosophy can be found in āgamic texts. The most authentic form of Jain philosophy is found in them. On the other hand, the medieval treatises are only the works of polemics. In my view, they are not representative texts of Jainism. Thus, the misconception about the Jain philosophy that 'it is not an original philosophy is due to the following two misunderstandings:

1. The logical treatises have been deemed to be the authentic sources of Jainism.
2. The Jain philosophy is merely a conglomeration of the ideas of other philosophies. This mistaken belief is based on the first one.

Unless the former misconstruction is resolved, the latter would prevail. One must know that the most fundamental and the original versions of the Jain philosophy are āgamic texts. Only they reflect its real form. Any scholar, who deeply studies them, would never accept above such elaborated misconceptions.^[1]

This above statement of Acharya Mahapragya inspired me to work on this subject. From historical perspective, it is very clear that the most ancient form of Jain philosophy is found only in Jain āgamas. Hence, in order to understand the post āgamic philosophical treatises in correct historical perspective, it is essential to keep in view the philosophical concepts available in the period of āgamas.

Jain tradition believes that, a substantial part of the Jain āgama literature has been lost. But in spite of that whatever is available in the present times is nevertheless very vast. Hence, it is not possible to include the study of all available literature within a single research study. Therefore in this dissertation, the basic concepts of Jain philosophy as found in first five aṅgas (out of the twelve) have been brought to discussion as much as was possible. However, depending on the context, other āgamic and philosophical texts have also been referred to.

During this research work, I profoundly experienced that Jain āgamas possess valuable philosophical concepts. The depth of these concepts cannot be known just by the study of logic-based Jain treatises authored in the medieval period. Hence the philosophical exposition of Jain āgamas has its own significance. For example, the Jain philosophy of philosophical age begins with the quest for the path of liberation, whereas the Ṛṣi of Ācārāṅga, desires to know about his own genesis or origin in the very beginning. This quest for the origin of the self is much more significant than the quest for the path of liberation. If birth is my beginning and death is the final end, then the question of liberation does not arise at all. Here, Cārvāka philosophy would be proved true for it says 'maraṇameva apavargah'. (Death itself is liberation). The belief that 'I existed before birth and even after death I will exist' determines the goal of liberation. In the philosophical world, the concept of rebirth was well established, when the Tattvārtha Sūtra was authored. That is why the philosophers had opened the scriptures with the quest for the path of liberation.

Around 5th century BCE. (The age of Mahavira and the starting point of the āgamic period), the concept of rebirth had already emerged. However, by then it was not a self established concept. In post-Mahavira period, philosophers tried to prove the existence of rebirth on the basis of logic, whereas Mahavira considered the memory of past life (jātismṛti) more appropriate to prove rebirth, because this process of experience was based on direct cognition and not on inference. Mahavira inspired the spiritual practitioners to go through this process. Ṛṣies of āgamic literature centralized all their energy on direct realization of the truth. On the contrary, this practise was replaced by the logical thinking in the treatises of philosophical age. In āgamic age, Ṛṣies (seers) who had achieved self-realization were present but in philosophical age, there were no such realized Ṛṣies. Hence it turned out to be a logic-predominant age.

Through the above description, two conclusions can be derived -firstly, outlook of āgamas is much deeper than that of treatises of the philosophical age. It holds that before the quest for liberation, faith in rebirth is essential. Secondly, philosophical treatises give preference to analysis through logical thinking, whereas āgamas, trust upon the knowledge based upon direct perception or cognition and therefore, logical thinking is only a tributary. The prime importance is given to the direct experience of truth through spiritual upliftment. This distinction of āgamic age from philosophical age can be found at many places in Jain literature. This text is divided into seven chapters:

1. Introduction
2. An Outline of Āgamic Literature
3. Jain Metaphysics - A Critical Probe
4. Concept of Soul - A Critical Probe
5. Concept of Karma - A Critical Probe
6. Ethics - A Critical Probe
7. Exposition of Other Philosophies in Āgamas.