Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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The Unknown Pilgrims
community, his acceptance of the siddhānta, the complete and perfect orthodoxy of this community, and a determination to live according to its norms. One grasps immediately the importance of this Jewel, which is emphasised by the fact that it comes last of the three. It is not possible, in fact to stay in the realm of pure abstraction; the most sublime concepts must be incarnated in the whole person. We shall see how the mechanism of karman involves every faculty and it is the entire human person that is engaged in a sustained effort towards purification. This effort, which undergirds the least intention, the slightest action, is directed towards samyak-caritra. However, there can be no right action without a seeing, without belief or knowledge and, reciprocally, unless they are actualised in everyday life, samyakdarśana and samyak-jñāna are mere sterile abstractions.38 We must always keep in mind that we are on the path which leads to nirvāņa, for the attainment of which the ātman must needs be liberated from matter. Now this Liberation concerns the whole of the human personality. 39 This is to say that:
The n ost perfect form of samyak-cārtra taught by the jinas [is] the stoppage by the knower of both external and internal actions, in order to destroy the causes of samsāra 40
A brief analysis of this passage reveals that the one who sets forth on the path of right conduct must have a certain degree of jñāna, which presupposes a like degree of darśana. The aim of samyakcārtra is to transcend saṁsāra, the cycle of successive existences in time, and the means of achieving this is to follow the teaching of the
38 Cf. US XXVIII, 29-30, where samyaktva: perfection probably means samyak-darśana.
39 Cf. AS I, 4, 4 to which Muni Nathamala gives the title: samyak-căritra; cf. Ayaro, pp. 163-167; 171-173.
40 bahirabbhamtarakiriyāroho bhavakāranappaņāsattham
ņāņissa jam jiņuttaṁ tam paramaṁ sammacărittaṁ. DravSam 46; The knower or jñānin is the one who is already on the road towards perfection.