Samkit: Faith-Practice-Liberation
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Tilburg University Samkit Bhansali, A.B. Publication date: 2015 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Bhansali, A. B. (2015). Samkit: Faith-Practice-Liberation. [s.n.]. 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Bhansali SAMKIT Faith - Practice - Liberation 1 2 Samkit: Faith - Practice - Liberation “Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan Tilburg University op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. E.H.L. Aarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de aula van de Universiteit op dinsdag 1 september 2015 om 16.15 uur door Amit Bhanuchandra Bhansali, geboren op 9 december 1962 te Bombay, India.” 3 Promotor: Prof.dr. J.B. Rijsman Copromotor: Dr. A. Nugteren Overige leden van de promotiecommissie: Prof.dr. S. McNamee Prof.dr. J.M. Day Prof.dr. P. Kenis Prof.dr. D. Sharma 4 CONTENTS pages General introduction 7-13 A reader’s key to the text on Samyaktva 14-14 Section 1: From Faith to Liberation Introduction to Section 1 16-18 1.1. Samyaktva: Preliminary Understanding 1.1.1 Mangalaacharana 19-32 1.1.2 The Meaning and Definition of Samyaktva 33-46 1.1.3 Samyaktva: Definition and Attributes 47-79 1.2. Samyaktva: Advanced Study 1.2.1 Three Gems of Enlightenment as Means of Liberation 80-83 1.2.2 Nature of Mithyaatva 84-96 1.2.3 Origin and Attainment of Samyaktva 97-100 1.2.4 Attainment of Samyaktva: Easy or Difficult? 101-110 1.2.5 From the Darkness of Mithyaatva to the Light of Samyaktva 111-154 1.2.6 Samyaktva from the Nishchaya and Vyavahaara Viewpoints 155-181 1.2.7 Eight Limbs of Samyaktva 182-197 1.2.8 Sixty-seven Proclamations of Vyavahaara Samyaktva 198-217 1.2.9 Who can Attain Samyaktva? 218-222 1.2.10 Conduct of one who has Attained Samyaktva 223-231 1.2.11 Samyaktva: The Incomparable Art of Living 232-242 1.2.12 Impact of Samyaktva and the Changes It Brings About 243-256 1.2.13 Central Pre-eminence of Samyaktva 257-289 1.2.14 Samyaktva: Firmness, Protection and Purity 290-300 1.2.15 Liberation through Samyaktva 301-324 1.3. Some tentative conclusions 325-326 1.4. Samyaktva: relevant passages in the canonical texts 1.4.1 Samyaktva in Shvetaambara Aagamas 327-331 1.4.2 Samyaktva in Digambara texts 332-340 1.4.3 Samyaktva in Philosophical texts 341-343 References Section 1 344-353 5 Section 2: A Dialogical Interlude 2.1. Dialogical triangulation as a method 355-356 2.2. Faith and practice in religion 357-373 2.3. The religion dialogue 374-390 2.4. Ideology and practice in business 391-392 2.5. The business dialogue 393-398 2.6. Some tentative conclusions 399-399 References Section 2 400-402 Section 3: Corporate Social Responsibility: Ideals and Practice 3.1. Corporate Responsibility: an introduction 404-406 3.2. The social constructionist approach: an introduction 407-408 3.3. CSR in Rosy Blue 3.3.1 About Rosy Blue 409-414 3.3.2 Our Vision of Sustainability 415-417 3.3.3 Defining Materiality 418-421 3.3.4 Our commitments 422-425 3.3.5 Evolving in our Sustainability Roadmap 426-428 3.4. Children’s Rights 429-438 3.5. CSR: some tentative conclusions 439-440 References Section 3 441-441 6 General Introduction 1. Intended content and perspective Leadership plays a crucial role in the success story of any organization. In order to be an effective manager, one must have specific leadership qualities. For the leader of a nation, a company, or any other organization, there may be various sources of inspiration. For a company based primarily on Jain principles some of the fundamental guidelines are derived from ancient Jain scriptures. In those texts we find theories, concepts, ideologies, ordering mechanisms, and worldviews that had evolved over time, through ages of reflection and lived experiences. Jainism, however modest in the number of its adherents, has been a treasure trove for the finer points of accountable behaviour. Its system of ethics has no parallel in other value systems as to its lofty ideals and logical consistency. Basic virtues all cohere in a worldview of dazzling clarity: causality, karma. Jain teachings insist on this coherence: right behaviour is intrinsically linked with right perception and right knowledge. On the work floor and in domestic life the seemingly endless inhibitions, restrictions and self-reflections that govern behaviour may be the most conspicuous of the three domains, but it is important to state at the very outset that Jain ethics (the prescriptive domain) are fundamentally intertwined with the other two domains, the perceptive and the cognitive. The present work is not written from the standpoint of a traditional scholar, just looking at the object and talking about it with other scholars, without further commitment to the substance of what is said. On the contrary, the work is written from the standpoint of engaged practice, in which what is talked about must be evidenced in what is done. For a Jain businessman in particular, practice is never divorced from philosophy, causality, soteriology, teleology and the ultimate order of things. In this vein, the author becomes what is called ‘reflective practitioner’, who reflects on the ideals, which drive good practice. Good practice, i.e. ethically determined enlightened behaviour, should be constantly questioned and thus related back to that inner balancing act that every deeply religious person needs to return to. One of the ubiquitous tensions that adherents of such a profoundly causal system face, and thus also the present author, is the discrepancy between crystal-clear but almost unattainably high standards for right conduct, on the one hand, and the messy, entangled, multidirectional and multivocal * According to M. Monier Williams, Sanskṛit-English Dictionary (edition 1974, p. 1181), samy-añc = going along with or together, turned together or in one direction, combined, united (…), entire, whole, complete, all (…), turned towards each other, facing one another, lying in one direction, forming one line (as footsteps), correct, accurate, proper, true, right; on the same page of the dictionary samyaktva (often short for samyagdarśana; see also the variant samkit on the title page) is glossed as right perception or insight, with a reference to ratna-traya, the same three gems or jewels often referred to in this dissertation. 7 ways of the world, on the other hand. This arena of conflicting interests is especially evident in business life. By constantly going back to ancient prescriptions (‘prescribed religion’), and by regularly reflecting mindfully on one’s present status, even a businessman should, in theory, be able to navigate the opposed currents between the whirl of worldly existence (saṃsāra) and ultimate enlightenment or liberation (mokṣa). The approach, in this dissertation, follows a path that is quite unusual in the current Western academic climate. By focusing on samyaktva (translated here as ‘enlightened perception’) it wants to reveal the author’s sources of inspiration, the tradition he belongs to, and the lofty ideals on which he models his own behaviour. This is done in an extensive first section, the author’s basic demonstration of mastery if you wish, nearly three hundred pages long, and divided into four chapters. The first chapter describes how the author himself tries to come to his own understanding of samyaktva, using his own words and associative reasoning, but explicitly from within the Jain belief system. The patient reader, provided that he/she is not deterred by the often enumerative and maybe for outsiders apparently pedantic character of Jain religious discourse, is invited to take, as it were, an intimate look into the ‘kitchen’ of Jain reasoning, oral didactics and internalized tenets. The second chapter of the first section continuous in the same vein, albeit more directed to the topic of ultimate liberation from worldly existence. This movement is crucial for the underlying research question of the present thesis: how are the worldly ways (vyavahāra) reconciled with the ultimate goal and perspective (niścaya)? The answer is not directly expressed on the lines, but more between the lines: by constantly interrelating the three ‘gems’: right perception, right knowledge and right conduct. By the constant textual reiteration that final liberation should be one’s only goal, today’s readers (let alone non-Jain business partners) may be overwhelmed by the utterly wary world-negating view as formulated by Jain teachers, be they ascetics or householders: mundane life seems to be filled to the brim with mithyātva (error, falseness, thus ‘false belief’) necessitating endless rounds of rebirth. The law of karma may be fair, but it is also merciless, even more so when karma is understood to include all mental acts as well, thus exposing all mental ‘flaws’ such as hidden intentions, double agendas, secret desires etcetera, as being karmically detrimental and binding.