Jain Journal 1983 04

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

Page 19

APRIL, 1983
123
necessary here to state that Jaina metaphysics recognizes three kinds of Self Bahirātmā, Antarātma and Paramātma--the outer Self, the inner Self, and the transcendental Self respectively. The outer Self indentifies itself with the body and other external objects due to ignorance. The inner Self recognizes its nature as quite different from body and other material objects, and also it concentrates upon its own nature. This discriminative knowledge leads to the further investigation. The transcendental Self is the perfect Self. This state is the result of self-realization through tapas or yoga. It is neither bound nor free. It transcends them both. It is beyond the region of good or evil. Of course, to talk of pratikramaņa etc. about pure Self is to drag it down to the empirical level and to postulate the possibility of occurrence of impure emotions (kasāyas) which ought to be disciplined and controlled.
Now, we turn to discuss the nature and cause of bondage and liberation. Both the Philosophers agree at the point that the root cause of the bondage is ignorance or ajñāna. Kundakunda asserts that the pure consciousness and impure emotions (kasāyas etc.) get identified with each other by association due to ignorance. This misidentification of Self with impure emotions constitutes the foundation of empirical self in the world (sarsāra). It is called bondage. But the question remains : What is the effective media to cut these two apart ? According to Jaina metaphysics of Kundakunda it is discriminative wisdom only which can fully realize the pure nature of the Self and its intrinsic difference from impure emotions and aids the Self to reject the latter and to extricate itself. So, the isolation of Self from impure karmic emotions is mokşa or liberation. In order to achieve this end, one has to renounce both kinds of nescient consciousness or ajñāna cetana, all karmas or actions and all karma-phalas or the fruits of his actions. In this way one can realize his own divine nature of pure-consciousness-knowledge or suddha-jñāna-cetana which will be his permanent heritage.
It is worthmentioning here that though right faith (samyak darśana), right knowledge (samyak jñāna) and right conduct (samyak cāritra) are the three jewels (tri-ratna) of Jainsm which are jointly taken as cause ör means to liberation (mokşa), yet Jainacarya Amrtacandrasuri takes knowledge as the only means or cause of liberation. He argues that if ignorance (ajñāna) is the cause of bondage, knowledge (jñāna) should be the only cause of liberation because in absence of knowledge there remains the absence of liberation though except knowledge all the other means, conduct etc. are present there in ignorant (ajñāni).' But, in this
*samyak darsana jnana caritrani moksa margah, Tattvarthadhigama-Sutra, 1.2.3. Samayasara Tika, 153.