 Now, coming to the third noble truth or in the chain of understanding of the moral life of a human being, the Buddhists have claimed that our life is full of suffering and then we came across the first two noble truths. Now, the third noble truth states almost an ontological claim that if you look at the slide when it says the third noble truth claims that since suffering is caused it can be eliminated by eliminating its causes. Now, this seems to be a fairly obvious simple claim perhaps that when we talk about well life and suffering is caused it can eliminate its causes and eliminate suffering. What is the profoundity of such a claim or what is the need of regarding it as one of the third noble truth or one of a noble or one regarding it as a noble truth? Well, first bringing suffering into the chain of causality that well suffering is no fatalistic accident, suffering is no gift of chance and that there is a way out of suffering and because how do you understand that with the ontological claim as well suffering is in the causality chain. So, if you eliminate its causes you eliminate suffering. Now, in contrast a fatalistic world view would say that well could say that suffering is an inevitable part or is a gift of chance and there is nothing one can do about it and that brings about a sense of randomness in human life. But here the Buddhist claim is very fundamentally very strong that suffering is in the domain of causality and if you do eliminate the causes you eliminate suffering itself. So, it is not that suffering is a gift of chance or that it comes about randomly or it is inevitable. So, it is it can be evaded or taken care of. Now, the fourth noble truth talks about the fourth noble truth and describes the path further to the elimination of suffering or what is in Buddhist terminology called nirvana the path to nirvana and it is called the eight fold path. Now, what about the eight fold path about the eight fold path or it is also known as the astang kamarg. Now, this eight fold path we will talk about well first let me list it down then I will have a brief glimpse over it right speech right action right livelihood right effort mindfulness right concentration followed by right views and finally the eighth nirvana of right resolution. So, the first three either to conduct then to discipline and finally to knowledge and wisdom. So, these are the eight fold paths that the Buddhist suggest one has to follow it is about the right speech right action right livelihood. So, this is about how one conducts oneself through life. Speech action and livelihood about disciplining which is a mental phenomena. So, it is about making the right effort right mindfulness and right concentration it is about right views and right resolution or having the right resolve. Now, this is finally what leads to according to the Buddhists what they have termed as the nirvana. So, that is basically sums up what the Buddhist ethics briefly puts forth. Now we are going to talk about Jain ethics now we have just talked about in the earlier classes about Buddhist ethics and now we are going to talk about Jain ethics. This is in no way an exhaustive or a detailed view of Jain ethics, but just a brief overview of Jain ethics as a part of the Indian ethical tradition. If those who are interested are welcome to go ahead and read more about it, but now most people who have studied in India are familiar with or in the Indians subcontinent or those who have taken interest in history of the world or religions or the orient have come across Jainism both as a religion and as a philosophy. Similarly, Buddhism has been both a religion and a philosophy. Now we have come across the tenets of these religions or philosophies in elementary forms or in basic forms in various books that we might have studied or information that we have come across. Now let us make something for these I am sure many of you must be wondering that these tenets practical why are we talking about it are these do these actually connect to the world out there I mean these are historical tenets and say something like right action truthfulness that well one should always utter the truth perhaps these have become not just out fashion, but these have become difficult to hold practices in the world out there where are we connecting and what are we talking about. Well for one let us have a charitable let us open up our minds let us have an empathetic reading of these philosophies and religion. Let us imagine a time when Buddhists and Jains and the Jain religion and philosophy came up now in that time depending on the context these religions evolved or these philosophies evolved. Now in these ethical code of in these philosophies ethics was not an isolated conduct that took place now in these times religion or a philosophical understanding of religion or the way of living was centered around one's philosophical or metaphysical or religious beliefs contrast it with today. Today we are the center of our life is perhaps for many of us is occupied by the profession they carry forward or the their means of livelihood and religion or other beliefs form to be a part or supplement to the life that they lead. Now this was not perhaps not the case in the times that these religions and philosophies evolved. This was the time when livelihood was perhaps a pursuit necessary and there was affluence enough not to worry about or hold and save for the future but the emphasis was to live the right kind of life and therefore the entire thrust of the intellectuals then was on discerning religion philosophy metaphysics and the fundamental nature of the world and then having a code of a code of living which will ultimately get what one wants to get and which was perhaps liberation in various terms as it is known today we find this difficult today we find this difficult today we are talking about it almost like an object in the museum of what is Jain ethics what is Buddhist ethics now for somebody suppose you will let us imagine has been transposed from that time to this time will be very curious and amused if not hurt or with this deep sense of wronging or maybe a pity for people like me and us who are trying to have a textual understanding of Jain ethics or Buddhist ethics because for them ethics was not something which is to be listed down as a law code and to be followed but it naturally stems from one's metaphysical beliefs religious practices and philosophy of living now in such a situation where trust levels were perhaps so high that uttering the truth was not a miraculous expectation whereas perhaps today if somebody says that well I shall only speak the truth well one would perhaps land into a lot of trouble very soon from the time one makes that resolution of course this is not to disappoint the truth speakers or not to say that all of us are lures but even our etiquettes are wishes also I have a certain level of implicit inaccurateness so like when we say thank you or we when we wish somebody a good morning do we really wish that the person has a good morning or we are really grateful or well that is a question I leave on you to delve so coming back to why we are talking about these things is because we need to understand that these ethics evolve in a time and there are people today and there are places today where they still trying to be practiced with the same spirit as in which it evolved so it was a full package of living it was not a one-hour escape for a capsule course to find out about the way of living this is another way of living this is a way of living which is governed by these metaphysical doctrines and religious practices that came along and other things fade into the background so having putting in that kind of a notice in your minds that I hope to elicit an empathetic understanding or more accurately an accurate more open and understanding or more contextual understanding of the ethics that we talk about now a little bit history about Jain ethics or what they know which is known as Jina or the conqueror Jains are the follower of Jina or the conqueror the victor now what did the conqueror conquer well the conqueror did conquer his lower self and realize the higher self so when we talk about Jina Jina is the one or those who have conquered their lower self and the higher self prevails so this is what is basically the etymological word of the etymological meaning of the word Jina or the one who has been victor or victorious or conquered his lower self Mahavir or Vardhman is perhaps known as the founder of Jainism but which is not historically correct because and Mahavir himself claims that Vardhman is the last of the reformer of the previously existing creed of Persu Vnath in fact Rishabh as is known as the founder of Jainism so Jina was born in 599 BC at Vaishali and he attained liberation at in 526 BC so that is a little bit sketchy history about the Jains now well what are the tenets of Jainism well first it says that well almost every thing is possessed of a soul every and that is how which many of you must have heard we come out to be we see the excessive stress on non-violence in Jains and the Jain philosophy so the claim that Jainists want to make is that we do have so to say a sticky material lower self and our objective is that our higher self conquers our sticky lower self now let me put this in a little bit of perspective for you to perhaps make a little more sense out of this because yes Indian philosophers do talk about self and higher self and lower self and there is a lot of religion also talks about it but well on the other hand we have dominant school of freedom saying that let us be what we want to be and let us not let us not impose morals and religions and philosophy and try to try to take control of people's lives because after almost the scholasticism of the medieval times we find this kind of a rebellion to any established religion or moral practices now let me put this question to you that if any of you have been fond of classical music both in the Indian or the western tradition now how have you been fond of this classical music probably the answer for most of us or most of the people who would be fond of classical music is that well they have been trained in it and perhaps most of those who have not trained in it do not have a liking for it or have not been able to cultivate a liking for it and would prefer more contemporary immediately appealing music but does that mean that classical music does not make any sense here is where is the this is just being presented as an analogy for you to perhaps make sense of it now to experience to give if what we call as freedom is giving oneself no loading of information or moral practices or religion or metaphysical beliefs then what takes over well one has one could say that it is well the fundamental biological drives take over if one is not socialized if one is not moralized well one is free well one is free if one the fundamental drives take over so either way what is this thing called freedom is it just allowing and not loading any information and on to the human agent and then seeing what the human being does or allowing the human being to do what he or she does or what the notion of freedom that these schools of philosophies and religions would say just as classical music that you need a certain amount of training to cultivate or to understand and thereof to like or to be in a position to like or dislike such a system so it is natural a child going to school would not like to study probably most of us did not want to hated the school on the on our first day or it may be now even in our first year and alphabets did not make any sense to us we were just mugging up alphabets without understanding them perhaps there is and then we come to understand then we come across words and then we come across sentences and then we come across meaning and then we are able to appreciate that well the alphabets had to be learnt before one could make sense of its utility. So like classical music like anything in life that requires a little bit of substantial amount of training to understand or even have a chance to appreciate or to dislike it rather than judging it as it comes across to us so we do need to build our vocabulary to appreciate or critique meaning and language. So thus the Jain philosophers or the Buddhist philosophers of this entire Indian philosophical tradition in fact even religious traditions world over would only be it would only be fair in giving them a chance in trying to understand it and then making a judgment on it then fundamentally rejecting it all and therefore maybe many countries in the world do provide some religious exposure to children in school whereas some countries would prefer that children are not exposed to any religion or moral sciences and they develop on their own. So these are two ways of understanding human nature and it differs in the practices that come across. So for Jainism freedom is the radical conversion of the inner man I am here extensively taking the works of Dr. Sarvapali Radhakrishnan in understanding the ethics of the Jains in his classical introduction to Indian philosophy which I think many you must read if you are you would like to know more about Indian philosophy and its various schools. So this conversion of man that well from the lower self we get on to the higher self that we need to conquer our basic desires or we need to move from our basal fundamental selves to a higher self it makes a very crucial assumption and why morality is required it has because it is again intertwined with its metaphysics and ontology. So there is karma or action which is accumulate. So the kind of karma one accumulates karma or action simplistically understood gets brings forth tendencies or fruits in one's own life or next life and one's aim is to nullify the effect of these karmas and attain liberation. So we need to take care of the karmas that we are laden with and try to restrain its effects and then go ahead and attain liberation. So the apparatus of morality is basically required to reform human nature and prevent formation of new karma. So many of us must have heard in school the 3 ratnas or the 3 jewels that Nirvana can be attained through. Now what are these 3 jewels or 3 ratnas these are well for 1 it is right faith, 2 is right knowledge and 3 is right conduct. So what is basically means right faith is that faith in Jina or the leader and the right knowledge is knowledge of his doctrine and right conduct is following the conduct. So following the conduct prescribed in the by the Jina. So there is they also have a mention of 5 fold conduct which is 1 non-violence well the emphasis or non-violence for Jinas is very, very fundamental and many of you must have taken a look or those who are familiar with Jain monks would have seen perhaps a Digambar or a Shwetambar. Digambars are the ones Jain monks who are ascetics who are in the nude and Shwetambars are the ones that are clad in white cloth they seem to have a cloth wrapped around their mouth when they are speaking or breathing also because this supposedly prevents destruction of or killing of or violence of the various microbes that are in the air they have extreme practices to prevent killing as much as or violence as much as possible. So far apart from non-vegetarian food they even try to go about their lives causing minimum damage to life or the world around them. Now that perhaps many people have found difficulty following that well life essentially breeds on life and we do find that well no matter how much effort we make we will or the survival of an organism feeds on another organism or accidentally requires the destruction of another organism. Now to this I would like to say maybe a more empathetic understanding of this Jain way of living is that well no matter perfection cannot be achieved but does that mean do we not even target perfection. So as much as we can let us be the Jainers would say that let us be non-violent that therefore non-violence is refraining from all violence and also being does not mean that just refraining from violence but also acts of positive kindness. Now in the 5 fold conduct the second conduct that we talk about is charity and truth speaking then there is honourable conduct, chastity in word thought and deed and finally renunciation of all worldly desires. And now these are fairly easy to understand but they are perhaps very difficult to follow and that perhaps brings in a sense of difficulty that in the audience and in people who are trying to explore or engage with Jainism is that this becomes very difficult. But well this is the fundamental now if the greater the reward the stiffer the path. So these are conducts fairly simple fairly obvious and fairly postulated by perhaps most of the religions and codes of conduct that and but to follow it is this is the necessary path which will be which will get rid of our bad karma and bring about the absence of any accumulation of future karma and that means the higher self conquering the lower self. So okay I would like to many of you might be thinking that well why this notion of nudity in the gambas now as Rathakrishnan put said that well nudity is getting rid of the final discrimination sense that human beings have of shame that well shame is getting a sense of discrimination possession a sense of discrimination between clothed and the unclothed and therefore we find that even giving up clothes is giving that final sense of shame up and accepting oneself as one is the Jain ethical systems are more rigorous than the Buddhist ethical system but there is a lot of commonalities but there are essential differences about it also in fact there are views that the Buddha and the Jain are two interpretations of the same person we shall not go into it but historically they have been documented as different figures and with clear evidence of the same. Concerning more about Jain ethics we would like to say that well what essentially Jain ethics wants us that well to overcome our desire for the things outside or external to us and this desire for things external to us bewilders us and the whole object of following ethical code of conduct or Jain ethics is to contain this bewilderment by refraining oneself from pursuing objects external to us and meditation is a process that helps us in this. So Jain ethics that way is very clear that well there is a clear cut systematic order of the world in which the harder the Jina has worked or the ascetic has worked he or she deserves the award of the negation of karma and attainment of Nirvana it is not and thereby this denies the notion of blessings or grace or any puranic notion of God intervening to forgive and bring about or give a special boon or a shortcut to the seeker on the spiritual path. So for the Jains it is a very impersonal moral order that we the more dedicated and doggedly the ascetic follows one's path is what naturally begets the rewards of the path and there is no special intervention or X in that case. So considering this so we have had a short talk on Jainism and we would like to invite others who would like to read more or know more about Jainism to go ahead with Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's introduction to Indian philosophy from which the source of this talk has been taken and explore it in its own detail and try to get it try to relate it to what today is the Jaina community has been a rather small community but a tightly knit community and it does survive in its practices. So we see that well Jaina ethics is kind of perhaps one of the most toughest one of the toughest most austere forms of ethical practices subscribed and it does not count upon grace, blessing or any kind of a shortcut or intervention by gods to bring about a special benefit to the seeker. It is simply the effort one puts in the livelihood one follows the dogged sticking to the conduct prescribed that one attains demolishes one's old karma or bad karma and creates none and therefore leads to Nirvana.