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The Jaina Philosophy The third is Avadhi, or the psychic faculty, through which finer and more subtle things are known. The fourth is mind-knowing, by which the mental processes of others are known and understood. The fifth is Absolute Knowledge, in which all limitations of body and brain are removed. This state is not a loss, but rather the acme of consciousness.
All these stages come to the ego not of themselves but through persistent effort and exercise of free will, or rather by making the will freer and freer. Personality is the mere physical but subtle gathering of excretions through which the individuality becomes unfolded. Personality is therefore changing every moment; the individuality is for every moment the particular stage of unfoldment of the ego itself, and is consequently the bearer of the sins and sorrows, pleasures and enjoyments, of mundane life. In absolute perfection this bearing nature is thrown off like a husk, and the ego dwells in divine and eternal bliss. It is not destroyed, nor is it merged into another ego or in a Supreme Being; and if the question be asked whether in this state of Mukti (deliverance) there is one ego or a plurality of egos, I would answer in the words of the Jaina Master? “That Atman by which experienced myself and my essence through self-realization - that I am: neither masculine, feminine, nor neuter; neither one, two, nor many."
Now I come back to the quotation with which I began this article. The Vedanta metaphysics teaches that salvation comes through knowledge (of Brahman). It is not the potential that through effort and conquest becomes the actual; and we are further taught that which is real now. On the other hand, Jainism teaches that from the ideal and transcendental standpoint you are Brahman; but its eternality, the real Mukti, comes from work and knowledge together, not from one alone. Through work and knowledge, Jainism says, the individual develops and unfolds
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