Ethical Doctrines in Jainism

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

Page 85

m. SAMYAGDARSANA AND THE SEVEN TATTVAS
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Dravyas, five Astikāyas, seven Tattvas, nine Padārthas, Pramāna, Naya, Anekāntavāda and Syādvāda, which have occurred in the various views of Samyagdarśana. We shall presently explain the eight essentials of right belief. We, first, proceed to dwell-upon the characteristics of the Apta, the scriptures and the Guru.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE APTA, THE SCRIPTURES AND THE GURU: 1) To be free from the eighteen kinds of defects and blemishes; namely, hunger, thirst, fear, anger, attachment, delusion, old age, disease, anxiety, death, conceit, perspiration, surprise, sleep, birth, restlessness, perturbation, and love, 1 to be endowed with omniscience, to be adorable, to be uncontaminated with human infirmities, to be immaculate and outright pure, to be devoid of any desire whatsoever, to be devoid of the beginning, the end, and the middle, and lastly to be uniquely benevolent--all these are the characteristics of the Apta. Besides, without any selfish design, he preaches for the benefit of the unemancipated and suffering beings. 2) That alone is true scripture which flows spontaneously out of the Āpta, is irrefutable, is salutary for the well-being of all kinds of beings, is capable of undermining the perverse path and, lastly, reveals the objective nature of things. 3) He who refrains himself from servility to sensual indulgence, renounces worldly occupations and possessions, and is enormously occupied with the acquisition of spiritual knowledge, and undergoes austerities and meditation deserves to be called Sadguru.
Thus we have surveyed the nature of right belief as expounded by the Jaina Ācāryas of eminence. They seem to have divergent views at the outset. But we may point out here that all the afore-mentioned characteristics of Samyagdarśana are justifiable from the Vyavahāra point of view.
BELIEF IN THE SEVEN TATTVAS AS THE CENTRAL OF ALL THE CHARACTERISTICS MENTIONED: Notwithstanding the validity of all these features of Samyagdarśana from the Vyavahāra point of view, the most salient and central of all these is the belief in the seven Tattvas. This is due to the fact that unflinching conviction in these Tattvas evidently manifests the whole process of the attainment of liberation, which may be understood even by the unsophisticated intellects. Jaina Ācāryas
1 Niyama. 6. 2 Ratna. Śrāva. 7. 3 Ibid. 8. Ratna. Srāva. 9; Niyama. 8. 5 Ratna. Śrūva. 10.