Jain Journal 1970 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 41

JULY, 1970
modal varieties, 65 and there is no question of its being hotch-potch in any way.
The How
Now the question is : as to how does the process of salvation start ? Kunda Kunda emphatically replies, that it is effected through reason (prajñā).66 Reason is the most native attribute of the soul, which is divinely begotten to the human being through the automatic nirjarā of knowledge and intuition-obscuring karmas (jñānāvaraṇīya and darsanāvaraniya). It is through it, that one clearly judges and perceives the natural perspective of the real, and thence through right conduct the salvation results.67
The salvation is, therefore, a state of soul's purest conduct accompanied by the perfect knowledge and intuition, bliss and power. It is the attainment of paramātman through the mediacy of antarātman renouncing the totality of inconsistent dehātman.68 These are the three poises of spiritual progression, through which the self-realization augments. The dehātman is the mode of self-experiencing self on the sensual level, while the antarātman on the mental level and the paramātman on the level of spirit.69 The first level is material-spiritual, for it pertains to the gross body and neural-experiences and animal passions subjugating the reason (prajñā) far underneath. In the second level the process is reversed as spiritual-material, for here the reason comes over the sensuality of self-experience. But in the last resort when the reason succeeds fully, the whole of the self-experiencingness turns to be spiritual-spiritual. It is the last stage of the spiritual progress of siddhahood, which is a final death from the side of sensual and mental levels. It is the gradual progression from the region of diversity towards the unity of the self, thus realizing the purest thought-activities of the being. This purest state of the soul is termed in Jaina philosophy as complete annihilative knowledge (kṣāyika-jñāna) relatively, and perfect knowledge (kevala-jñāna) absolutely. Both of the above terms refer to the same position, but differ in their respective contexts. The former refers to the context of the karmas, that have fully been annihilated so far. In this way, from the angle of karman the jñāna reaches the point of infinity, while karman itself on zero, and an equation is derived as “. But
65. Panc., 2-220. 66 Ssr., 294. 67 Ibid., 290. 68 M. Pd., 7, S. S., 4. * S. s., 5.