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The mechanism of liberation according to
the Pravacanasāra
6.1 Cāritra
It is a commonplace of Jaina doctrine that liberation (mokşa) cannot be achieved through samyag-jñāna - 'right knowledge' (and samyag-darśana, 'right faith') - alone: samyak-cāritra - 'right conduct', the third 'jewel' of the triad, is also required. As the very first sūtra of the Tattvārtha Sūtra puts it: samyagdarśanajñānacăritrāņi mokşamārgaḥ: 'Right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct are the path to liberation'. (Or to invert the formulation, the condition of bondage is threefold, consisting of mithyā-(wrong)-darśana, mithyā-jñāna, and mithyā-căritra.)These three together constitute a single path to liberation.2 Right conduct, moreover, is defined (by the Sarvārthasiddhi on Tattvārtha Sūtral.1) as 'the cessation of activity leading to the taking in of karmas'.3 Consequently, as Tatia explains, the attainment of perfect knowledge does not result in immediate liberation, since the latter requires perfect conduct too, and that is only attained when all activity (yoga) ceases (i.e. in the last moment before death).4
Prima facie, this would seem to act as a check on any tendency, such as Kundakunda's emphasis on jñāna, to undermine the rationale of physical, external discipline through the internalisation of practice. However, this only
See Tatia p. 151.
2 See SS on TS 1.1: märga iti caikavacananirdeśaḥ samastasya mārgabhāvajñāpanārthaḥ - 'The singular "path" is used in order to indicate that all the three together constitute the path to liberation'.
3 S.A. Jain's trans., p. 3, of karmādānanimittakriyoparamah. 4 Tatia p. 153.
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