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Kundakunda: The Pravacanasāra
217
To summarise, one becomes such a knower by rehearsing in meditation this attitude of detachment - which springs from knowledge of the true relation between self and other towards everything not-self (ajiva / para). The understanding that the self is a knower rather than a possessor leads to the abandonment of a possessive relationship with anything not-self - indeed, from the niścaya point of view, such a relationship is an impossibility, i.e. a delusion, anyway. For, in reality, there is nothing the pure self can do except be itself. In other words, kevalajñāna points to the isolation and inactivity of the self; the atman is co-extensive with and yet not of the world; it is rather than does. To such an entity, karman and the fruit of karman are, in the final analysis, irrelevant; they do not bind what, in reality, cannot be bound. Selfknowledge is the sole key to liberation.
6.5 The rationale for external, ascetic practice, according to the Pravacanasāra
In the light of this stress on self-knowledge, or selfrealisation, and meditation, the question arises of what rationale can be offered for continuing with external practices, i.e. with the identity-defining practices of the Jaina ascetic. Perhaps because his works were composed primarily for those who were already habitually ascetic in their practice, Kundakunda does not address this problem directly. However, in the Pravacanas āra and its commentaries there are a small number of significant references which indicate a recognition albeit a philosophically unsatisfying one - that some kind of answer is required.
In gāthās 3:5-6, Kundakunda lists some characteristics or 'emblems' (linga) of the Jaina ascetic. First, he states that:
The mark (of a Jaina ascetic) consists in possessing the form in which one is born, in pulling out hair and beard, in being pure, in
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