8. The Concept of Mind in Jainism

This system of Indian philosophy has a prominent place. Mahāvīr is the Profounder of this system. It was taught by twenty five Tīrtankaras who attained liberation. Ṛṣabha was the first and Vardhamāna was the last Tirtankara. There are two main sects of Jainism, ‘śvetaṃbaras’ and ‘digaṃbaras’. They agree in believing in all the fundamental tenets of Jainism. This philosophy adheres to non-violence. The three tenets or three gems of this philosophy are samyak darśana, samyak jñāna and saṃyak carita. They propose pañcamahāvṛtas, namely, ahiṃsa, satya, asteya, brhmacārya and aparigrāha. The Jainas accept jīva, ajīva, āśrava, bandha, saṃvara, nirjara, puṇya, pāpa, and mokṣa. They do not accept the soul.

According to this philosophy, the sense organs are of two kinds, the physical dravanendrīya [dravanedriya], and the psychical bhāvanendriya [bhāvanedriya]. The physical are protective and there are five, tactual, gustatory, olfactory, visual and auditory. The psychical consists of partial destruction and subsidence of knowledge-obscuring karma and conscious attention of the soul upayoga [upayogaḥ]. Manas is of two kinds, dravyamanas and bhāvamanas. The former is made of karmic matter. The latter is the purity of the soul caused by the subsidence and partial destruction of knowledge resultant of karma. Manas is not regarded as a sense organ in this philosophy.