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96
Lord Mahavira and His Times
Dharma, Adharma, space, time, matter, and souls are the six kinds of substances. Insofar as Dharma, Adharma, and space are concerned, each of them is a substance, but time, matter, and souls form an infinite number of substances. The distinctive feature of Dharma is motion, that of Adharma is immobility, and that of space (Ākāśa) is room. The distinguishing mark of time is duration, that of the soul the realization of knowledge, faith, conduct, austerities, energy and its manifestations. The characteristic mark of matter is sound, dark-. ness, lustre, etc., that of development is singleness.
Right conduct, which destroys Karma, is the avoidance of everything sinful (Sāmāyika), the initiation of the novice (Khedopasthāpana), purity produced by peculiar austerities (Parihāravisuddhika), reduction of desire (Sūkshma samparāya), and annihilation of sinfulness (Akashāya yathākhyāta).
Virtue consists in right conduct. But there is no right conduct without right belief, and no right belief without the right perception of truth.3 Right conduct is achieved by threefold restraint, the restraint of the body, the restraint of speech and the restraint of mind.4 The first step towards virtue lies in the avoidance of sins. There are various ways of committing sins, directly and indirectly, through physical acts or through spoken words or even through thoughts.5 Thus to avoid sins, one must guard oneself by the Samitis and Guptis.
Not to kill anything, to live according to the rules of conduct and without greed, to take care of the highest good, to control oneself always while walking, sitting and lying down, and in the matter of food and drink, to shake off pride, wrath, deceit and greed, to possess the Samitis, to be protected by the five Samvaras, and to attain perfection by remaining unsettered among the fettered-these, in short, are the cardinal principles of Cāritra as taught by Mahāvíra...
1. Uttarā, XXVIII, 5-12. 2. Ibid, 32-33. 3. Ibid, 28-29. 4. Sutra, 1, 1, 2, 27. õ. Ibid, I, 1, 2, 26. 6. Ibid, 1, 1, 4, 10-13.
