Mahavira His Life and Teachings

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Luzac and Co UK

Page 92

85
TEACHINGS
ties from outside, illustrated by the simile of a piece of cloth dyed blue, red, yellow, or the like1 would seem to have some bearing on the Jaina doctrine of six lesyās which is merely hinted at, here and there, in the Sūtrakṛtānga, and fully explained in the Uttaradhyayana. The Jaina religious efforts are directed towards the acquisition of pure lesyā.“
3. Jñana, Darsana, Charitra -Knowledge, Faith, and Virtue are the three terms that signify the comprehensiveness of Jainism as taught by Mahāvira The Uttaradhyayana-Sūtra adds Austerities as a fourth to the usual earlier list of three terms 5 Knowledge is characterized as right knowledge, Faith, as right faith, and Virtue, as right conduct. These three constitute the path to beatitude, to liberation, to Nirvāņa.
The Uttaradhyayana-Sūtra speaks of five kinds of knowledge (1) śruta, or that which is derived from the study of sacred books; (2) abhinibodhika, or that which is derived from one's experience,
1 Barua, Cittaviśuddhiprakaraṇa and its Pāli Basis, in Indian Culture
2 Sūtrakṛtānga, I, 4. 21, where a Jaina saint is described as
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a person whose soul is in a pure condition (leśyā)'
* Uttaradhyayana, XXXIV
Jaina-Sutras, II, 152.
Sūtrakṛtānga, I, 10. 15.