Jain Journal 1972 04

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

Page 25

162
perception, infinite power, infinite bliss, and infinite light, and ascending the crest of the loka, remains there immersed in the termless beatitude of its unconditioned existence-it never return again into the wheel of material existence made up of birth, decay and death. Ascent is the natural movement of the soul. Stripped of the covering karma, the pure soul wings straight upwards and settles upon the highest region of the loka, that is to say upon the farthest frontiers of dharmastikāya and adharmastikāya. This state of the soul is the liberated or perfected state-this is nirvāṇa. As a lamp lit in a house irradiates the whole house with its light, and if other lamps are lit, their lights too mingle with each other and remain there, so the liberated souls, which are each an effulgence, mingle with each other and remain on the crest of the loka for ever. For them there is no return, to the agony of mortal existence.
Triratna (Three Gems):
We have dwelt in brief upon the nine essential principles including the last principle of liberation. Now, we will give an idea as to how liberation is attained. A simultaneous practice of samyak darśana or right faith, samyak jñāna or right knowledge and samyak cāritra or right character and conduct leads to liberation. These are three gems of Jainism.
Samyak Darsana (Right Faith):
Samyak darśana is also called samyaktva. It is a faith in the nine essential principles (navatatvas) and an attitude of unbiased approach to the real nature of things. It can also be called viveka drşți or discriminating perception. Deluded by ignorance, the jiva ordinarily takes falsehood for truth and truth for falsehood. The faith-directed attitude of consciousness that can perceive truth as truth and falsehood as falsehood is samyak darśana or samyaktva. The spiritual life of the jiva begins only when samyaktva emerges out of the darkness of its ignorance. The jiva then, develops an aspiration to know the truth in its essential principles, to renounce what is unwholesome and impure, and to accept all that is high and noble and conducive to its spiritual progress.
Samyak Jñana (Right Knowledge) :
There is some form of knowledge in every jīva, but so long as samyak darsana has not evolved in it, that knowledge can only be a wrong or false knowledge, which is only a form of ignorance. It is only after the
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