Harmless Soul

SR No.: 001196
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 372
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Principle
File Size: 20 MB

Page 252

238 Harmless Souls
who meditates upon this again and again acquires selfabsorption, which is Samayasāra'.13 Singh remarks that, in the Samayasara, Kundakunda 'gives instructions how to know the real self (Sva-samaya). This Sva-samaya (Samayasara 2) or the Ego-in- itself is the pure and ultimate reality'.14 This is the self which has realised its oneness, a description which 'very much resembles that of the Upanisadic and Advaitic Brahman or Atman'.15
In so far as these definitions reflect the principal teaching of the text they are indeed correct. For we have seen how the weight of meaning of the term samaya shifts from 'definition', via 'the correct definition of the self, to become synonymous with the self in its true nature, i.e. 'the realised or essential self. However, the crucial nuance in this conflation of epistemology and ontology is the one which makes knowledge of the true nature (definition) of the self instrumental in realising that pure self, i.e. instrumental in, or indeed tantamount to, liberation. (I shall have more to say about this below.)
Referring to Upanisadic doctrine, Gombrich (quoting Malamoud) remarks that, 'The identification of one's ātman and brahman is "at the same time the truth to be discovered and the end to be attained"".16 Rephrasing this formulation to fit Jaina circumstances, we may say that the realisation of the true nature of the self- as totally separate from and untouched by the other (karma, etc.) is at the same time the truth to be discovered and the end to be attained. Consequently, there are passages such as that at Pañcāstikāya 162 17 which state that the realisation of the correct definition of the self is actually the means to liberation. In other words, the definition or description of the soul from the perspective of liberation of the soul as it
13 Commentary on 151 (= 144 Chakravarti's ed.).
14 Singh p. 85.
15
Ibid. P. 89.
16 Gombrich 1988, p. 43.
17 Quoted above, p. 234.
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