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228 Harmless Souls and householder / layman. Perhaps the Hindu idea (most famously expressed in the Bhagavadgitā), that the route to salvation is through the conscientious performance of one's svadharma, is at work here; more precisely, it may be a concession to expectations within the Jaina lay community which have been aroused by the realisation that, ultimately, their Hindu neighbours expected to be rewarded simply through pursuing their dharma as householders.
This interpretation relies, of course, upon taking param sokkham to mean complete liberation and not some less final state. The Tattvadīpikā on 3:54 has no doubt: it explains that good conduct, which is the form of śubhaupayoga, is secondary (gauna) for śramaņas, but for the laity it is primary (mukhya), and even though there is still the existence of passion (rāga), the pure self (suddhātman) can be experienced like the sun's heat experienced through the medium of crystal. Such conduct 'gradually brings about the highest happiness of nirvāṇa'.136 In other words, for Amộtacandra, there is apparently a quick (but difficult) and a gradual (but easier) route to liberation, although it is not clear how gradual the latter is - i.e. whether or not it stretches over many re-births. Whatever the answer, this gāthā clearly reflects a different and more positive attitude to the laity than that evidenced in Book 1 of the Pravacanasāra. This suggests that the material in Books 1 and 2, on the one hand, and that in Book 3, on the other, may have been collated under different social circumstances and with a different audience in mind (not to mention by a different hand).137.
136 Faddegon's trans., p. 190, of kramataḥ paramanirvāņasaukhyakāranatvāt.
137 Note 2:97 - cited above, p. 134, - where the teaching of the niścaya view (i.e., the view which deals with the real nature of t is directed exclusively at śramanas and yatis. See also Pravac. 2:102 and TD, and Faddegon's trans., p. 147, fn. 1. Jayasena's commentary
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