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RATNATRAYA OR THE THREE JEWELS
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It requires every one to desist from harmful activities. That is the very breath of Jaina ethics and cream of the message of the Tirthankaras. ii) Chedopasthāpana is initiation of a novice into the essentials of right conduct. This would involve not only acquainting him with all the rules of conduct but also with the objectives behind them. A superficial understanding of the rules or vows hardly elevates the mind; if the practice of the same is beset with ignorance, there can be no illumination of the mind or purgation of the Karmas. il) Parihāraviśuddhikā is purity produced by observance of austerities. As we shall see in the next chapter, there are a number of austere practices prescribed by Jaina ethics for the ascetics and for the house-holders. Their faithful observance will purify the mind and free the soul from inauspicious Karmas. iv) Sūkşma samparāya is reduction of desires and passions which are the root causes of our misery and of transmigration. The various vows and austerities are intended to reduce them either by subjugation or eradication. v) Akşaya yathākhyāta is annihilation of sinfulness according to the precepts of the Arhats. This is an injuction to the ascetics as much as to the beings involved in wordly existence.25
The various vows, the ten virtues, the five fold regulations (samiti), endurance of afflictions (parişahas), the three-fold controls (gupti), the austerities and the penances form in brief the regulatory and purificatory doctrines of Jaina ethics and each one of them needs a separate discussion. It is enough to point out that the importance of Right Conduct in the process of selfrealization consists in that it is only when right knowledge is translated into spiritual discipline that the path of emancipation becomes smooth.
The integrated nature of the ethico-spiritual disciplines leading to liberation has been fully appreciated by the Jaina philosophers and this is evident from the tri-ratna concept. None of these - right faith, right knowledge or right conduct can be pursued meaningfully and effctively in isolation from each other, for the spiritual principle to be realized in life is neither a theoretical abstraction nor an easy thing which could be practised merely.
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