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 312

298 Harmless Souls
To expand on this: the essential self (samayasāra) cannot be realised by those who identify with any linga whatsoever (413 = JGM 443), but it is realised by those who devote themselves to darśana, jñāna and cāritra, which constitute the path to liberation (409 = JGM 411). The vocabulary here is that of the orthodox definition of what comprises the mokṣamarga, given by Umāsvāti at the beginning of his Tattvārtha Sūtra .36 The meaning though carries a substantially different weight; for Kundakunda, as we have seen, has redefined the ratnatraya in terms of selfknowledge: in reality there are no such things as faith (insight), knowledge and conduct, there is just the pure knower. 37 So when he enjoins devotion to faith, knowledge and conduct as the means to liberation (409, etc.), it is understood that this means self-devotion, i.e. concentration and meditation on the self (412). As the Atmakhyāti on Sam. 410 (= JGM 440) puts it:
(Attachment to) dravyalinga is not the path to liberation because, in being dependent on the (material) body it is (attachment to) other substance (paradravya). Therefore, it is faith, knowledge and conduct which are the path to liberation, because in being 38 dependent upon the atman they are one's own substance.
What appears to be a punning allusion to vihāra in gāthā 412 (=JGM 442) makes the internalisation clear: it is the self which is the true vihāra, the real monastery, temple and sacrificial enclosure. Prakrit vihara could be either vihāra or vihara (vi hr) in Sanskrit. The allusion may be intentional; Monier-Williams gives vihāra as a word for a Jain monastery or temple, but the term does not seem to have been widely used by the Jains themselves at this
36
samyagdarśanajñānacāritrāṇi mokṣamārgaḥ - TS 1:1
38
na
37 Samayasāra 16 (=18) - see pp. 234-235, above; cf. pp. 279ff. khalu dravyalingam mokṣamārgaḥ śarīrāśritatve sati paradravyatvāt | tasmād darśanajñānacāritrāṇy eva mokṣamārgaḥ ātmāśritatve sati svadravyatvāt - Ātmakhyāti on JGM 440.