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ETHICAL DOCTRINES IN JAINISM
can only issue if he, after assimilating the nature of Niscaya-naya and Vyavahāra-naya, adopts the attitude of indifference towards both of these, i.e., if he transcends these intellectual points of view. Thus according to this interpretation the Aparā Vidyā corresponds to these points of view, and the Parā Vidyā, to spiritual experience. In other words, Niscaya-naya may be understood to mean mystical experience as well as the knowledge of the pure self, or both the intuitional and intellectual ideals, and Vyavahāra-naya may be understood to mean a lapse from the superb heights as well as the knowledge of the impure self. Considered from the view-point of spiritual experience or the knowledge of the pure self, Vyavahār-naya includes a lapse from superb heights and the knowledge of the impure self. In the present context of Parā Vidyā and Aparā Vidyā, Suddhanaya in the sense of intuitional experience represents the former, and Vyavahāra-naya in point of inte llectual knowledge of any sort expresses the latter. Hence the ParaVidyā or Suddhanaya may be legitimately said to denote the moral ideal in contrast to the Aparā Vidyā or Vyavahāra-naya.
Fifthly, the consummation of human pursuits has been conceived to be the attainment of a state of life beyond good and bad, virtue and vice. The Mundakopanişad represents that he who has realised the Brahman, the lord and governor of all, has shaken off merit and demerit, and has attained perfect equanimity. In a similar vein, the Kathopanişad points out that Paramātman is beyond duty and non-duty, action and nonaction, past and future. According to the Gitā, the attainment of supreme status exceeds the fruits of meritorious deeds resulting from the study of the Vedas, the performance of sacrifices, pursuance of austerities, and charitable gifts. Again, the realisation of Brahman will liberate one from good and evil results which constitute the bonds of action. This spirit of transcendence is also expressed in the Gitā in another form. When the embodied soul rises above the three Gunas, (sattva, rajas and tamas) which cause the bodily existence, he is freed from the subjection to birth and death, old age and suffering, and thus attains the life eternal. Thus to go beyond the spell of the three Guņas is the ideal. In other words, one is required to be possessed of the self, to be free from the dualities, to be fixed in the true being, to be away from the triple modes,
1 Puru. 8. 4 B. G. VIII. 28.
2 Mu. Up. III. 1. 3. 5 Ibid. IX. 28; II. 50.
3 Ka. Up. I. 2. 14. Ibid. XIV. 20.
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