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Secondly, there is a different expression of the religious goal. Sva-samaya is the sublime religious ideal to be aimed at. The self which is absorbed in the 'other' is para-samaya and the self which is established in one's own consciousness is svasamaya. In other words, sva-samaya is the state of parama samādhi in which all the conceptual leanings caused by our mind are replaced by non-conceptual spiritual existence, 34 beyond righteousness and unrighteousness. Kundakunda observes-that just as a shackle, whether of gold or of iron indiscriminately ties a man. so also the righteous (śubha) and unrighteous (aśubha) conduct bind the self to mundane miseries.35 The wise men shun both śubha and aśubha. Rare are such persons who are disposed to discard śubha as worthless. Pujyapāda tells us that vowlessness causes vice and the observance of vows engenders virtues; but deliverance is the destruction of both.36 The aspirant should adhere to śubha after renouncing aśubha, but after establishing himself in sva-samaya, the former is automatically abandoned.37 Thus both śubha and aśubha prevent the self from having spiritual experience, hence they are equally condemned as unwholesome for the healthiest development of the spirit. But if the empirical self finds that it is difficult to rise to the state of sva-samaya, it should continue to perform śubha actions, but with the clear knowledge that these actions, however, devotedly performed will in no way enable the self to relish parama samādhi.
Thirdly, the religious goal may also be expressed in terms of maraņa (death). Every empirical self is subject to repeated births and deaths. Though death is inevitable, yet that type of death can become our religious goal after which there is no birth. The occurrence of such a death is a matter of great achievement. In this world many types of human deaths can be witnessed. All these need no dilation. These are all empirical deaths, since they are pregnant with the future possibility of birth and in all birthshuman, celestial, hellish and sub-human the empirical self is involved in great anguish and affliction of diverse nature. Consequently, none of these forms of existence can afford interminable happiness. The death of the transcendent type is exemplified in the lives of omniscient beings when they part with
Jaina Mysticism and other essays
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