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CHAPTER VI
THE PATH
The term 'path' implies destination. If there is a path, there must be some definite and specific destination which the path is intended to lead to; and if there is a goal, there must be ways and means to reach and achieve that goal. According to Jainism, the term dharma, in its dual implication, means both the destination as well as the path. As we have seen earlier, dharma' originally means the ‘nature of substance', hence the nature of the soul, and the aim is to reveal and realise that real and permanent nature of the soul. For this, it is necessary not only to have a knowledge of the nature of the pure soul, but also to comprehend fully how it behaves when it is impure and imperfect, and why. The answers to these questions have already been given in the preceding ontological and epistemological discussions. The 'dharma', or real and eternal nature of the pure soul, is perfect and unalloyed bliss, that state of everlasting beatitude which is accompanied by omniscience and omnipotence, and becomes manifest in its liberated state, the mokşa. This liberation and salvation of the soul, which is its spiritual dharma, is the avowed goal and destination of a religious aspirant in Jainism.
Identifying the effect with the cause, the ways and means that enable one to reach and attain that goal also constitute the
