Living and dead systems

[nanda chandran]

>For  some  reason  (I  personally  think  it  is  just
>brahminical  brotherhood),  the  vidvat  sadas  is  confined  just  to
>the  paNDit  community  of  the  3  VedAntic  schools.

Even in the ancient days of YAgnavalkya, Janaka and AshtAvakra, debating
seems to be confined only to the higher classes, predominantly brAhmana,
with the occasional kshatriya thrown in.

With the later emergence of the nAstika schools - the ChAravAka, the JainA
and the Bauddha - started by members of the higher classes again, this would
have had a direct effect on Vedic following. This in turn would have roused
the adherents of the Vedic religion, to debate with the nAstikas to protect
their interests in the society. But I'm highly skeptical, if the
traditionalists would have bothered, if such new movements didn't directly
affect their religion. For eg : if Buddhism was started by a foreigner and
became popular only among the commoners and did not try to proselytize the
higher classes, I think it would have been ignored. (This can be seen in the
case of Christianity and Islam in BhArath).

It was the conversion of the higher classes into the new religions, which
made the traditionalists battle the new faiths. And Buddhism being a very
aggressive proselytizing religion, definitely attracted heavier criticism
from the traditionalists, than the JainAs who weren't so aggressive
proselytizers.

And this attitude is reflected in today's India, where the traditionalists
are hardly concerned about protecting their faiths, as 1. most of their
opponents are extinct and 2. since any new revival movements hardly affect
their classes, they just ignore them.

I don't think there will be any philosophical interaction between the
Tibeteans and the traditionalists, unless the Tibeteans actually manage to
convert the upper classes, which would rouse the traditionalists to step in
to protect their interests.

Coming to the second question as to how JainA thought can be modernized :
the effort would have to come from their own following (and I see a lot of
young Jains already showing great interest in their ancient faith). Probably
somebody bright could enhance the classic JainA theory with modern
information and do a major reinterpretation of the JinA's teaching. This
would definitely ruffle quite a few traditional feathers. But if the effort
is earnest and sincere, I'm sure it would at least attract consideration,
appreciation and eventually over a period of time, acceptance.

The same would apply to all the traditional Astika schools too.

With BhArath becoming more prosperous and the citizens now having time to
think about things other than survival, considerable interest is being shown
in the areas of civilization and heritage. The day for such effort -
philosophical revamping, might not actually be very far off.


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