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RATNATRAYA OR THE THREE JEWELS
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about their authenticity between the Svetāmbaras and the Digambaras. That apart many eminent Ācāryas have contributed immense and invaluable literature to enrich the spiritual heritage
of Jainism. These scriptures cover the entire gamut of Jaina • philosophy couched in a simple style intelligible to the laity.
Jainism posits that with Right Faith, man has to endeavour by austerities and penance to acquire the highest kind of knowledge, omniscience. It can be attained only on the complete destruction of the destructive (ghāti) Karmas. The relation between right faith and right knowledge is just the same as between a lamp and its light. Even though lamp and light go together, there must be lamp which must have oil and wick before it could be lighted. Similarly, before right knowledge can be gained, there must be the nexhaustible piety and urge for knowledge which is the oil; the sources of knowledge like the scriptures, the discourses from preceptors and saints are the wick; the pursuit and study with devotion are like lighting the lamp; then only there can be light in the form of knowledge.
From the practical point of view, continuous efforts to know the fundamental truths are necessary: if doubts haunt the mind, they ought to be dispelled by better understanding, if prversity is there, its root cause must be removed and if vagueness be there, the thoughts and ideas must be clarified by further study and discussion with the learned saints and preceptors.
Amstacandra Ācārya has indicated that we need eight pillars to construct a sound edifice of Right Knowledge. They are : i) grantha or the reading of sacred books. Study of such books with care and faith is the first requisite. ii) artha is meaning; mechanical study without understanding the meaning serves no purpose. Reading becomes fruitful only when the significance of the words, phrases, and their implications are satisfactorily mastered and digested iii) ubhaya. Both reading and understanding of the meaning are essential, they together complete the process and the purport. It is emphasis that mere readiding is not enough. iv) Kāla. The time chosen for study must be
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