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THE ESSENCE OF JAINA SCRIPTURES
etc. vows, self-regulation (samiti) and restraints of mind, speech and body (gupti)]. Therefore, these activities are considered to have a purifying (vishuddhi) effect, which in turn acts as the cause of attaining pure psychic-attention and the pure self.
Pandit Todarmal categorically states that less intensity or mild passion is better that greater intensity of passion, just as less severity of disease is better than more severity of disease. Only the soul with mild passion is likely to evolve into even more milder state(s) of passion and ultimately become devoid or free of passions, i.e. pure (shuddha). It is for this reason that Acharya Vidyasagara has stated: “One cannot have pure psychic-attention without good psychicattention (bin shubha upayoga ke hot na shuddha upayoga)."
2. There is no difference whatsoever, according to Bharill, between punya (good; virtuous, righteousness) and papa, (evil, sin). A person who thinks that there is a difference between them, he asserts, is a deluded person (mithyadrashti).9 (This is nowhere written in any Jain scripture.] This is a serious mistake, which leads to the inevitable result of nigod (rebirth in the lowest state of development of soul). The avoidance of that mistake leads to an enlightened view of things (samyak darshan) resulting in moksha (liberation). Even if any difference between punya and papa is accepted or acknowledged even from an external, other-referential aspect (vyavahara naya), Bharill adds, one should consider that difference to be secondary (gauna) and negate or deny that difference (gauna karake nishedha karna hai). Thus, this kind of thinking on the part of Kanjipathi is not only patently wrong and misplaced but also dangerous.
Impurity (kalushata or ashuddhi) primarily consists in the intensity of anger, etc. passions, and evil impulses. The natural result of good (shubha) psychic-attention (upayoga) or the operationalization of virtuous (punya) deeds leads to the subsidence of passions reflecting calmness of mind (prasham bhava), commendable attachment (prashasta raga), which is oriented towards sanity and purification (vishuddhi or akalushata), compassion (anukampa) and psychic energy geared or disposed towards righteousness (samvega). They are said to be necessary prerequisites of an enlightened world-view (samyakdarshan). Therefore, to equate them with evil (papa) or consider them to be the cause of delusion (mithyatva) is a gross distortion of facts and what is written in Jain scriptures, including the works of Acharya
