Mahavira His Life and Teachings

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

Page 96

TEACHINGS
89 ance of sins. There are various ways of committing sins, directly and indirectly, by bodily acts, by the word of mouth and even by thoughts.? 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 in walking, in sitting and lying down, and in the matter of food and drink, to leave off pride, wrath, deceit, and greed, to possess the samitis, to be protected by the five samvaras, and to reach perfection by remaining unfettered among the fettered, these are, in short, the cardinal principles of chārtra as taught by Mahāyira.
4. Doctrine of nine terms --Right knowledge, faith, and conduct, the three essential points in Mahāvīra's teachings, constitute the path of Jainism which leads to the destruction of karma and to perfection. Destruction means, on the one hand, the exhaustion of accumulated effects of action in the past, and it means, on the other, the stoppage of the future rise of such effects. Perfection (siddhi) consists in the consciousness of one's
1 Sūtrakıtānga, I, 1 2. 26. Three ways of committing sins: by one's own activity, by commission; by approval of the deed.
2 Ibrd., I, 1 4. 10-13. Ibid., I, 2. I. 21, 22.