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Kundakunda: The Samayasara 241
The knowers of reality say that other substance is 'mine' in conventional parlance, but they know that, from the niscaya point of view, not even an atom is 'mine' [324]. Just as when a man says that 'the village, country, town, kingdom are mine' when they are not [really] his, it is his self speaking out of delusion [325], so the knower who takes other substance to be his and makes it his own certainly becomes a wrong-believer [326].
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In other words, there is no simple progression from the vyavahāra view to the niscaya view an understanding of the former does not automatically lead to an understanding of the latter; on the contrary, if Amṛtacandra is to be believed, it actually prevents it.21 This seems to conflict directly with the idea that the vyavahāra in itself is a means to perfecting the self. (And it should be remembered that the elements of standard Jaina metaphysics - the doctrines concerning the various tattvas, padarthas, etc. included under the vyavahāra rubric.) Rather, the crucial step seems to be the recognition that there are two views, and that one of them entails delusion and wrong belief. That is to say, you have to realise that the vyavahāra view is a lower view, that it is just a way of talking about the self for 'practical' or pedagogical purposes, before it can become a means to the higher view. Indeed, it is the recognition of that fact, rather than the doctrinal content of the lower view, which is the real means to achieving the higher, liberating view. It is not surprising, therefore, that the predominant attitude towards the vyavahāra viewpoint in these texts ascribed to Kundakunda should be negative. Gāthās such as Samayasara 8 (see p. 239, above) are rare. More typical is Samayasāra 156:
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Wise people do not operate in vyavahāra, leaving aside the real object (niccayaṭṭham); the destruction of karma is ordained [only] for those ascetics whose refuge is the highest object [i.e. the pure
21 See Atmakhyāti on 413, quoted above.
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