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Jaina Ethics
Right Conduct Right faith precedes right conduct. No conduct or knowledge without right faith can be said to be right.2 Transcendental conduct
From transcendental point of view, right conduct consists in self-absorption. We have spoken of this conception in the foregoing chapter. From this point of view conduct has only one variety viz., self-absorption. Conduct is dharma, dharma , is equanimity (sāmya), and equanimity means that condition of ātman which is free from delusion and agitation.3
Conduct from practial point of view
It is only in the background of this transcendental conception of conduct that all religious conduct is to be justified.4 Persons are purified by the purification of mind, all austerities are mere torturing of body without that. A person who is inwardly detached, is detached in the real sense of the term; he who is detached only outwardly does not get emancipation. Right conduct is something spontaneous, it is not forced. The vows, the three-fold path of self-discipline and the five-fold path of vigilance are the constituents of practical conduct. Without conduct all knowledge is futile.? I. तत्र सम्यक्त्वस्यादौ वचनं तत्पूर्वकत्वाच्चारित्रस्य।
-Pūjyapāda on Tattvārthas ātra, 2.3. 2. यत्पुनद्रव्यचारित्रं श्रुतं ज्ञानं विनापि दृक् । न तज्ज्ञानं न चारित्रमस्ति चेत्कर्मबन्धकृत् ।।
--Pañcādhyāyi, 2.771. 3. aiferiam qH, EFH) TT A F# færforçaII मोहक्खोहविहीणो परिणामो अप्पणो हु समो ।
-Pravacanasāra, 1.7. Also Pañcâdhyāyi, 2.764. 4. Amstacandra on Samayasära, 307. 5. मनःशुयैव शुद्धिः स्याद्देहिनां नात्र संशयः। वृथा तद्व्यतिरेकेण कायस्यैव कदर्थनम् ॥
-Jħānārņava, Bombay, 1907, 22.14. 6. Byhaddravyasamgraha, Bombay, Vir. Nir. Sam. 2433, 45. 7. Arādhanāsāra, Bombay, Vik, Sam. 1973, 54.
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