Me and My Words of Hiralal Jain Shastri of Sadumar.Pdf

0000 Me and My words of Hiralal Jain Shastri of Sadumar – BEGIN HERE Me and My Words Collected writings (published & unpublished) of Pandit Hira Lal Jain Nyaytirth Siddhant-Shastri (of Sadumar) Hira Ashram Hira Publication Forward This is a compilation of the published and unpublished works of our father Hira Lal Jain (1904-1981), whom we call Kakka. Photocopies of the original articles are divided in eight (A-H) themes. Articles in each theme are in chronological order. In A-F he writes about personal and social issues with autobiographical tid-bits. His major works published as essays (G) and books (H) are about the content of ancient manuscripts. * Origins of the Jain thought are attributed to Rishabhnath (ca. 2700 BC). His insight that the net reality is a sum total of inputs and outputs binds all subsequent developments in Jain thought, including those of the next 23 Tirthankars. As a conservation principle for the reality based objects and happenings it can be interpreted for book-keeping of material reality. Since logic and mathematics track reality (sat), this principle also holds for all logical relations and transformations about the content and context of word constructs. Such reasoning (nay) about perceived reality builds on observed and measured attributes (margana) interpreted with generalizations (anuyogdwar), and the resulting inferences are affirmed with independent evidence. Mahaveer (599-527BC) reorganized and revitalized the tradition of reasoning (Nay) corroborated with independent evidence (praman). Knowledge of methods and arguments to address issues of his time has come down to us through several stages: I. Indrabhuti Gautam and Sudharm, the first two Gandhars (group- leaders of Mahaveer), organized the available knowledge in 14 parts. This material was orally transmitted by the next six Gandhars. By 350 BC at least 12 parts survived in their entirety, but the tradition could not be sustained. During the period this material was probably organized in the form of Gathas to maintain integrity and ease of transmission. Understanding content of each gatha in the context of entire body of work required years of training and active interactions between teacher, student, and lay people. This tradition thrived in Patalipur. With signs of impending turmoil, the eighth Gandhar Bhadrabahu I took a decision in 350 BC to move the original group (Mool Sangh) to West and South India. II. With the development of technology for writing on palm leaves, during 100BC to 600 AD fragments of the original work, possibly in the form of scattered gathas, were collected, compiled, interpreted and rendered suitable for written form suitable for the use of monks and lay people. Original works were also created. All the Agam works that we have are from this period, notably by Pushpadant, Bhutbali, Umaswami, Kundkund, Samantbhadra, Siddhasen Divakar, Pujyapad and Akalank. These efforts revitalized the tradition started by Jin among the people scattered in all parts of India. The followers of Jin (Jin-anuyayi) went separate way as Digambar or Shvetambar. This schism happened sometimes in 6th century, but both call themselves as Jain, a term first used in 11th century for the followers of Jin. III. During 600 to 1400 AD both the groups produced extensive commentaries, interpretations and translations to seek relevance of ancient beliefs in different contexts. Much of this work has come down to us in written form because their copies were made and placed in distant corners. It facilitated interpretations and translations for self-study by a wider cross-section of lay public. IV. Proliferation of copies, and copies of copies of written materials, to distant regions was the single most important factor in preserving safety and integrity the ancient material. Participation of lay public assured continuity of the thought process and beliefs through interpretations for ritual works during 1400 to 1900. V. With arrival of printing press at the beginning of the twentieth century, a new awareness developed about urgency to bring the ancient material in modern printed forms. It required comparison of as many available copies to correct mistakes that inevitably creep in the copies which were generally made by people who did not understand the content, its traditional meaning, and its linguistic context. Several thousand works are now available in printed form for which standards of scholarship were set by scores of scholars including Singhavi, Bechardas, Naturam Premi, Jugalkishore Mukhtar, Mahendra Kumar Jain, and Hiralal Jain Shastri of Sadumar (Kakka whose work is compiled here). VI. Looking in terms of such standards, it is clear that much of the recent published works on Jain Agam falls short on originality, creativity, integrity and continuity of the original thought and thought process. It falls short of what is needed for meaningful interpretation of relevance of the past for the future. Exploration of relevance of ideas requires uncovering the content and context to discover underlying reality. The task of outlining meaningful boundaries of such reality is well beyond the resolving power of linguistic methods. It should encourage the future generations to bring other experiences to the task. Viable ideas are timeless as they provide continuity with which the past remains relevant for the future. Only poor memory works backwards to rationalize past in terms of the present. Viable ideas flourish if they remain relevant to the way of life and address emerging concerns. Irrelevant ideas are lost. Relevance is not found through linguistic nit-picking or polarized dialectic of meaningless revisionism. Ethos of Jain thought is that shared knowledge from the past remains relevant only if meaningfully interpreted in the light of emerging inputs and contexts. Role of non-violence is one of the most celebrated ideas of the Jin tradition. Not as well recognized but equally important is the need for an individual to internalize experience and knowledge to mold perceptions (itthi) for a qualitative change (gunasthan) to develop personal (antar-), social (bahir-) and universal (param-) identities (atm). Both of these insights are at the root of key ideas about personal growth and environmental awareness for social change and equitable social contract for a civil society. Learning from trials and errors of experience supported by independent evidence (praman) is the basis of empirical shared knowledge of how the world works. Unlike ad hoc of idealized make-belief, empirical knowledge does not contradict reality nor does it suffer from dead- end and paradoxes of self-reference. Successes of biological evolution, as well as of modern science and technology, are based on learning from trials and errors. As the basis for shared knowledge supported by independent evidence it establishes what works. It also defines boundaries that make us aware of what we do not know, which may require exploring a dark space for an object that may or may not exist. Gadgets and products developed during the last century from empirical shared knowledge have improved life expectancy and quality of life of billions of people. Since no solution is perfect at all places for all times, evaluation of consequences of products, as well as of misplaced beliefs and lack of knowledge, requires due diligence for choices and decisions. * Kakka’s mind saw his calling in itthivay, the 12th Ang of Mahaveer. There is no suitable Sanskrit or Hindi word for itthi (Prakrit). It is best translated as perception as commonly used in now English. It is the sum total of the past and present sense experience that may guide action or behavior response. Itthi is the basis for the qualitative growth of an individual through the fourteen stages of gunasthan as developed in Jeevasthan (Shatkhandagam). At the foundation of the Jain vangmay is the ethos of qualitative change (gunasthan) in perception (itthi) for valid thought processes for Nay (reasoning), tatvarth (material reality and causality), karm (action and consequence), and achar (code of conduct, meditation, and devotion). It appears that Pujyapad (ca. 5th century AD) (mis)-interpreted itthi as ditthi or drashti as in mithya-ditthi, mithya-drashti, or drashti-vad. Drashti in Sanskrit and Hindi is used for eye-sight, vision, or point of view. There are separate Prakrit words for each of these, and none are equivalent to communicate meaning and nuance of the ancient usage of itthi as perception. English translation of Jeevathan and several Nay(a) (often called Jain Nyay) works by Mahendra Jain is available on www/Hira-pub.org site devoted to Itthivay. He has also identified the crux of the Saptbhangi Syad Nay as the logic of evidence based inference (2011A). Its mathematical form is suitable for the future direction to compute decision making with incomplete information. * It is believed that after the death of Mahaveer in 527 BC his Gandhars compiled the existing body of knowledge in gatha form for oral transmission. After a few hundred years of oral transmission this body of work was fragmented and gathas were scattered. One can only speculate about how much of the ancient material is lost. The most ancient form from which it has come down to us is through technology of writing on tal patr (processed palm leaf). In the Jain tradition it was used after 50 AD. Written manuscripts (pandulipis) and their copies (pratilipis) made the content available far and wide. Such written material and interpretations of the last 2000 years have carried forward the words that capture 5000 old continuity of Jain thought (see 2000A). These words are preserved and come to us only because of their copies in written and now in printed and electronic forms. During the last century, about a dozen traditional Jain scholars including Kakka spent their life-time to bring in print the content of known hand-written pratilipis sequestered in the various collections (shastra- bhandar). In these copies the ancient material in the form of gatha is often included as subtext with commentaries (vachanika, vyakhya).

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