Jaina Concept of Omniscience

SR No.: 001547
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ramjee Singh
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 258
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Knowledge
File Size: 17 MB

Page 148

THE PASSAGE FROM NESCIENCE..
135
Besides penances and austerities, meditation has also been regarded as a necessary condition of nirjarā 189 which burns out all karmas, beneficial as well as bane ful. When all the conditions are fulfilled, the intrinsic nature of self shines forth in its original purity, and the individual becomes cll-knowing and all-perceiving and attains the state of infinite, urmixed bliss.140 It is through the acquisition of five-fold attainment (labdhis)141 that the potentially free soul (bhavyātmā) attains the three jewels of right-faith, right-knowledge and rightcouduct.142 Svāmi Vidyānanda argues that right-belief, rightknowledge and right-conduct constitute the path of freedom the antithesis of this trinity i.e., wrong-belief, knowledge and action must lead to bondage. Uttaradhyayana143 also points out that faith, knowledge and conduct are interrelated. By knowledge one cognizes things, by faith he believes in them, by conduct he gets freedom from karman and by austerities he attains purity. By means of purity he proceeds to perfection. There is that close relation between knowledge and action. Conduct is the final fulfillment of knowledge. 144 Knowledge gives enlightenment, faith firmness and conduct makes the whole process meaningful. So the Jainas reject doctrine that wrong knowledge alone is the cause of nescience, or that right-knowledge alone is the condition of omniscience and freedom. It is only the modifications of the soul which cause destruction of all the four obstructive karmas (ghātin-karmas) which lead to bhāva-mokşa. The actual termination of karmas is dravyamokşa.145
139 Ibid., IX. 21-44. 140 Kundakunda, Pancāstikā ya-sāra, 157-158. 141 Nemicandra, Labdhi-sára, 3-8, 33. 142 Umāsvāmi, Ibid., I. 1; Kundakunda, Ibid., 39-41. 143 Uttaradh yana-Sutra, XXVIII. 30, 35-36. 144 Viseșävas yaka-bhāşya, 1126, 1158. 15 Nemicandra, Dravya Samgraha, 37; Labdhl-sāra, 644; Umāsvāmi,
Praśama-rati-Prakrana, 221; Kundakunda, Pancastikaāy-sāra, 160; Vīrnandi, Chandra-pratha- charitam, XVIII. 123; and VardhamanaPurānam, XVI. 72, 73.