Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/149

 FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS 121 Mdiia, and of conceit there are eight forms : ^ pride of caste, of family, of strength, of form, of wealth, of reputation, of learning, and last but not least, the pride of being a landed proprietor. A great deal of confusion has arisen over the word viii. Aldyd, which the Jaina use to denote the eighth sin. The ^^y^- Vedantists of course use the word to mean illusion, and a smattering of their philosophy is now so common, that many people loosely read Vedantism into all Indian philo- sophy and suppose maya invariably to have this meaning. The Jaina, however, consider themselves to be nearer to the Saiikhya than the Vedanta school of philosophy, and their properly instructed '^ teachers declare that the word generally means intrigue, cheating, attachment, ignorance, wealth, and only occasionally illusion. In the Jaina scrip- tures it usually connotes intrigue or cheating. A commercial people are naturally prone to this sin, but the sanction it carries with it is very heavy — a man who cheats in this life may be born a woman in the next ! Not only commercial but religious cheating may involve this penalty, as the case of Mallinatha, the nineteenth Tirthan- kara shows. In a previous life he and five friends delighted to perform their religious duties together, and all six fasted and meditated with the utmost regularity and circumspec- tion. Gradually, however, Mallinatha began to long to outdo ^ Jaina children are taught to remember these different sorts of conceit in Httle rhymes much like those of Jane Taylor's which we children of a Western growth learnt in our childhood. Legends too are told showing the result of each of the eight kinds of conceit. As an example of the evil results brought about by pride, hear the sad story of Marici, the son of Bharata, King of India. Bharata was the son of Risabhadeva, the first Tirthahkara, and it was revealed to him that his son should become a Tirthankara in a future life. Over- hearing this, Marici became very conceited and danced and jumped with joy. As a consequence of showing too much emotion a fetter {(dhkwh) was formed, and this bound Marici to become a beggar in his next incarnation, though nothing of course could prevent his eventually becoming a Tirthankara, which he did as Mahavlra. gurus are extraordinarily ignorant of their own religion.
 * It is a common complaint amongst the Jaina that so many of their