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Samatva for its rightness. The three-fold path is only an application of Samatva in the three aspects of our conscious activities, i.e., the knowing, the feeling and the willing. According to the Jaina ethics Samatva should be a directive principle of the activities of knowing, feeling and willing.
Organic Basis of Samatva
What is the justification in saying that our essential nature and our aim of life is 'Samatva' or that Samatva should be the directive principle of our life? And what is the ground for its justification? To answer these questions first of all we must have to understand the human nature. By human nature I mean his organic and psychological make-up What we mean by a living organism? What is the difference between a living and non-living organism? By living organism, we mean an organism that has the power to maintain its physiological equilibrium. In Biology, this process has been known as homeostasis, which is considered as an important quality of living organism. Second essential quality of a living organism is its capacity of adjustment with its environment. Whenever a living organism fails to maintain its physiological equilibrium and to adjust itself with its environment it tends towards death. Death is nothing but an utter failure of this process. In this way we can say that where there is life there are efforts to avoid unequilibrium and to maintain equilibrium.
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Psychological Basis of Samatva
Nobody wants to live in a state of mental tension. We like no tension but relaxation, not anxiety but satisfaction, this shows that our psychological nature is working in us for a mental peace or a mental equilibrium. Though Freud accepts that there is a conflict between our Id (Vāśanamaya-aham) and super Ego (Adarsa-ātmā) but at the same time he agrees that our Ego or conscious level is always working to maintain an equilibrium or for the adjustment between these two poles of our personality. It is a fact that there are mental states such as emotional excitements, passions, anxieties and frustrations but we cannot say that they form our essential nature; because, they do not exist for their own sake. They exist for staisfaction or expression. Secondly, they are resultant, i.e., created by some other external factors. An important process of our personality is the process of adjustment and adjustment is nothing but a process of restoring peace, harmony and integration. In this way we can say that the concept of Samatva has a sound ground for its justification in our organic and psychological nature.
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