Death in Jainism Is One Term Paper

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However, from time immemorial, each soul has been obliged to repeatedly live and die in countless embodied forms: as a human being; an animal; a plant; a tiny unseen creature which lives only for an instant in air, water, fire, or earth; as an inhabitant of one of many terrible hells; or, as one of many classes of deity in an elaborate hierarchy of heavens. Overall, therefore, this universe of circulating souls is overwhelmingly characterized by pain, sickness, loss, want, and wickedness. Any pleasure is merely transitory. Even the gods will go through the agonies of death, then those of birth, and resume their life of suffering in another body (Laidlaw, p. 2).

Therefore, the religion advocates that the only way to break the cycle and obtain release from this samsar of endless suffering is through disciplined ascetic practice and by carefully abstaining from any sinful action such as the violent act of taking another life, even if it is only a tiny, unseen bacteria in water or a root vegetable (Laidlaw, p. 153-157). for, this can be the only route to progressively extricating the soul from entanglement with ajiva matter or karma. Even this will take many, many lives, and it is not until the last particle of karma falls away, and the last of its bodies dies, that the soul will achieve enlightenment and moksh or release from samsar (Laidlaw, p. 3).

When the soul is freed from karma and receives moksh, it rises through the universe to inhabit the siddha loka or isat pragbharabhumi, the resting place of emancipated souls. This is where Jainism differs from, for example, Hindu schools of thought, which either do not view all souls (of humans, gods, animals, demons) as interchangeable, or else perceive the universe as an expression of some higher being.

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for, in doctrinal Jainism, there is no distinction between the mundane and the transcendental. In fact, this is the source and center of Jain "atheism," namely, there is no supreme transcendent being in the universe, nor any means of divinely assisted salvation. Even the tirthankaras (and other liberated souls), once emancipated, are unable to intervene in the affairs of humans and the universe because it would involve action and re-entanglement with karma (Banks, p. 17). Thus, the belief that the individual soul alone is responsible for all that is good or bad in his or her life leads to the doctrine of non-attachment and non-action. However, since Jainism also believes that it is sinful to harm others, the practitioners of the doctrine accept partial responsibility for other jives through observing ahimsa (Spiegelberg, p. 221).

Indeed, this view is precisely why Jain monks and nuns are seen carrying a special broom with which to brush insects from their way without harming them, and why all Jains drink only filtered water. In fact, the ideal of the religion, and in some cases the actual culmination of the renouncer's life, is a fast unto death (Laidlaw, p. 1, 156). Known as the sallekhana or "ritual death by fasting," this is a strictly controlled form of austerity and is only meritorious, in the sense of achieving liberation within very few rebirths, when properly initiated and directed. In fact, the person wishing to perform the sallekhana has to first obtain the permission of an ascetic. Jainism considers this extreme form of austerity as an act of honor since it is perceived as the soul conquering its karma (Banks, p. 88).

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