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JAIN HISTORY LITERATURE and SECTS
E02 - Jain Scriptures and Literature
He is said to have been very learned in various Hindu, Vedic, and Buddhist philosophies along with having extensive knowledge of geography, astronomy, philosophy of soul and life, etc. Historians called him the most knowledgeable person in the language of Sanskrit. Jain scholars recognized him to be the first one to write in Sanskrit. There is a story about the origin of Tattvärtha sutra: There was a learned scholar of the scriptures named Siddhaya. He once wrote on a piece of paper "faith, knowledge and conduct is the path to Moksha" and left his house for some reason. By chance that day, Acharya Shri Umäsväti took Ahär (alms) at his house and happened to see that written statement by the scholar Siddhaya and added the word "right" in the beginning of his statement to read "right faith, knowledge, conduct is the path to Moksha". When Siddhaya returned home he asked his mother who wrote this word before his sentence. After learning about Umäsväti from his mother, he went to the Acharya and asked about Moksha and ways to attain it. The answers to his questions were the basis for creation of Tattvärtha Sutra. This text contains 344 or 357 aphorisms, separated into ten chapters of uneven length. The text's content related all major theoretical and practical aspects of the Jain system for the first time. It is a small text but describes all of the fundamental aspects of Jainism Both spiritual and scientific Jain principles have been described in this text. It mentions that the object of a successful life is to attain ultimate, permanent inner happiness or salvation. This goal cannot be reached until we follow a threefold coordinated path of right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct. The path cannot be followed until we have the right knowledge about the realities of the world. The right knowledge could be obtained either by self-intuition or through listening, reading, and analyzing the scriptures with the help of the enlightened souls and spiritual teachers. The criteria could be satisfied only when one critically evaluates our information through different organs of knowledge and viewpoints. This is the same process we apply even today to get useful knowledge. The text not only describes the methods of obtaining knowledge about the outer world, but it also describes how to attain knowledge about the inner world. This requires purification of the body, the mind, and speech through austerities and meditation. The text also gives the details of seven types of verbal and nonverbal viewpoints and the theory of manifold predications. These are the basics for obtaining right knowledge. With the right knowledge comes the right faith. With right faith and right knowledge to start with, the right conduct follows. Umäsväti must be given credit for arranging these elements in a proper order with respect to the process involved and the principles of human psychology. The earlier literature shows numerical and ordinal variations. Umäsväti systematized the Jain system with a logical sequence. There are infinite numbers of living beings in this universe and every living being wants to be happy. However, everyone's approach to attain happiness is not the same. The majority depend on material things to be happy. They try to satisfy their desires by external means. This type is a temporary happiness which is followed by unhappiness and more desires. Self-efforts (Purushärtha)
are used to earn (Artha) to satisfy the desires. Our great Achäryas have labeled these types of living beings as less developed. Then, there are those who depend on spiritual approaches (internal means) to be happy. These approaches are self-dependent and involve self-efforts to practice dharma to attain everlasting happiness (Moksha). These living beings are called more developed living beings Therefore, the subject of this canonical book is everlasting happiness (Moksha) and in the first Sutra (aphorism) of the first chapter - three essential components to attain everlasting happiness (Moksha) are introduced. The first verse of the first chapter is
सम्यग्दर्शनज्ञानचारित्राणिमोक्षमार्गः
drcalett (1-1)
Compendium of Jainism - 2015
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