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NOTE:It took a lot from me to present this article. The only reason for shareing this article was to unlock the reality.
Why Woman can’t achieve liberation in Jainism – Three reasons?
The sectarian divide
The Digambara Jain sect believes that women cannot achieve liberation without being reborn as men first. The Svetambara sect disagrees.
The below are the three reasons.....
1. Nakedness
Digambara Jains hold this view because they believe that nakedness is an essential element of the road to liberation.
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Mahavira himself, whose life shows Jains the way to liberation, set an example of total nudity that Digambaras believe monks should follow. Since women are not allowed to be naked in public they cannot achieve liberation directly, and so are seen as second-class citizens.
This ban on female nakedness is partly intended to protect both men and women:
If women went around naked it would cause men to experience sexual desire and the desire produced would hinder the man's progress to liberation.
Naked women would feel ashamed of being naked and the feeling of shame would hinder their progress to liberation.
It's also intended to prevent the disruptive consequences of allowing women to walk around naked.
2.Ahimsa and women
Digambaras also believe that women are inherently himsic (which is best translated as harmful). This comes partly from a belief that menstrual blood kills micro-organisms living in the female body.
The killing of the micro-organisms is said to show that a female body is less non-violent than a male body - although that idea doesn't have any scientific support and isn't found in modern Jain thinking.
3. Attachment
Another argument is that because a woman's nature is to care for children and other dependants, she will find it much more difficult to break free from these earthly attachments, and unless she does this, she cannot achieve liberation.
Note: The above stand on the "Liberation" for woman in Jainism is not accepted by swethambar sect. They believe that Woman can also attain moksha. They do justify this fact by stating that, Mallinath(19th thirthankar) was female.
Well, I have got only one reference about female Tirthankars being accepted in Digambars also.
In Shathkhand-agam ( The Agam that DigambarsAccept) it is stated that Mallinath was accepted as female Tirthankar.
But later Acharya Kund-kundacharya wrote Shath-Pahud, and stated in that Granth that as woman cannot sacrifice their clothes ( As it is not possible for them) so they cannot attain Moksh. later he wrote that as they are of very unstable mind, they cannot meditate for long time, which is neccessary for Moksh. And he also stated that as they have less grasping power, they are not supposed to study granthas like Drusthiwad,etc.,And slowly they (Digambars) started believing that ladies cannot Attain Moksh or they cannot become Tirthankars.
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