Traces of Mysticism in Jainism (Study)
by Sadhvi Madhystha Prabha | 2021 | 103,765 words
This page relates ‘Introduction� of the study on the concept of Mysticism in Jainism exploring key concepts such as Jaina metaphysics and Jain ethics. The present research is divided into six chapters, beginning with an introduction to mysticism, examining its characteristics from both Western and Eastern perspectives. Subsequent chapters delve into the mystical aspects of Brahmanic and Shramanic literature, analyzing texts from the Shvetambara and Digambara traditions to unearth traces of Jain mysticism.
1. Introduction
Spiritual development is centre or nucleus of all religions in general and mystical in particular. In spite of difference of language and path something is common in all religious tradition and a common element is spirituality. Jainism as a spiritual religious system has its complete focus on spiritual development or realisation of the self in its pure and perfect state. To realise the pure and perfect divine state of the self, is the ultimate goal of the mystic quest. In spite of imbibing the characteristic of mysticism, Jainism is not mentioned in the list of mysticism of world religions, in some of the encyclopaedia and the text. This chapter attempts to present the direct and indirect views of scholars on Jaina mysticism. The chapter is divided into three parts. In the first section the direct views of Jaina scholar on Jaina mysticism will be discussed, in the second section of direct and indirect views of Indian scholars, and in the last section the direct and indirect views on Jaina mysticism in the theory of western scholars will be discussed.