Death in Jainism Is One

¶ … Death in Jainism

Jainism is one of the oldest religions of India and, indeed, the world, having survived through twenty-five long centuries (Archer, p. 224). Jainism is often clubbed with Hinduism and Buddhism since the philosophy of all three Asian religions is grounded in the notion of reincarnation. However, Jainism is a very distinctive religious system even though it advocates, like Hinduism and Buddhism, that human salvation lies in achieving enlightenment or nirvana. In fact, it is important to note that, at the most abstract level, Jainism differs from Hinduism and Buddhism on two counts: in its conceptions of the universe and soul (Banks, p. 16). This distinctiveness implies that the Jain religion conceives of life and death very differently. Indeed, ahimsa or non-violence, which is the central doctrine of Jainism, functions neither to minimize death, nor, in the normal sense, to save life (Laidlaw, p. 159). Instead, as this paper will explain, Jainism's focus is on avoiding both life and death through non-violence, non-attachment, and non-action.

Jainism essentially takes the stance that this world, samsar, consists of millions of souls constantly being born, suffering, committing violence, and dying. This is a countless cycle in which each soul does this countless number of times. This worldview or samyak darshan, as the Jains call it, stems from the religion's conception of the universe and soul, and explains why ahimsa or non-violence functions neither to minimize death nor to save life (Laidlaw, p. 157-158).

According to Jain doctrine, souls are discrete, pure entities, without weight or size but conforming to the shape of the body they inhabit. Thus, the soul is fundamentally immutable. All souls, barring those that have achieved emancipation, are, however, contaminated by their karma, which ties them to the cycle of life and death. This cycle can be broken only by the neutralization of all karmas through the practice of austerities that lead to enlightenment (kevalajnana). Jainism makes a fundamental distinction between soul and non-soul, between the living and the dead (jiva and ajiva). All souls are eternal like the universe they inhabit, which is a physical structure composed of non-living or ajiva matter (Banks, p. 15-16).

Principally, Jainism differs from Hinduism and Buddhism in its belief that the human being, too, is composed of jiva and ajiva, namely, spirit and matter. The jiva is fettered by the ajiva or non-soul matter that its own activity, karma, has gathered about it. This occurs because the soul has enveloped itself in numerous sheaths spun from false knowledge and evil deeds, and by defiling itself by unwholesome contacts. Therefore, it must extricate itself and purify itself by true knowledge and strict isolation (Archer, p. 235).

This conception of the soul and the universe as jiva and ajiva explains the central Jainism tenet of ahimsa or non-violence. for, in Jainism's view, the jiva contains ajiva elements, and the ajiva, jiva elements. It is only human consciousness that conceives the two as disparate. Further, the soul does not inhabit only the human body but may reside in all living matter as well as dead or ajiva matter such as mineral bodies, water, fire, earth, and even the vegetable kingdom. Indeed, it is this view that has led to the Jain practice of strict vegetarianism. In fact, Jainism does not permit the consumption of any food that may involve the killing of jiva or living things (Spiegelberg, p. 221).

This is because Jainism believes that every soul, irrespective of the matter it inhabits, has the innate qualities of insight, knowledge, energy, and bliss. Unimpeded, the soul could rise to the summit of the universe and subsist forever in tranquil enjoyment of these qualities, as a pure and perfect consciousness. 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).