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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
dharma. In its other derivative but more or less connected meanings, 'dharma' is that which places a being in the state of highest happiness by freeing it from the misery of mundane existence, that which sustains the being or the soul, and that which can be adopted, followed and practised. Thus, for practical purpose, the terms dharma and 'path' are synonymous, implying one and the same thing. In other words, practical dharma is the path that leads to salvation and liberation of the soul. The Three Jewels
This path connotes the cultivation, development and happy blending of ratna-traya, the trio of spiritual jewels: samyagdarśana (right faith) samyag-jñāna (right knowledge), and samyak-cāritra (right conduct). Most of the other major religious systems have their own concepts of trinity: Brahma, the creator, Vişnu, the preserver, and Mahesa, the destroyer in purāņic Brāhmanism (the so-called Hindusim): the Buddha, the order. and the law in Buddhism; the eather, the son and the holy ghost in Christianity; God, the Prophet, and the Quran in Islam; and so on. But the members of these various trinities are generally corporeal, whereas those of the Jaina trinity are abstract spiritual qualities, representing the dharma or nature of the soul, and the end as well as the means to attain that end. The conception nearest to the Jaina trinity is that of bhaktiyoga, Jñāna-yoga and karma-yoga of the Brāhmaṇical philosophical systems, the Bhāgavata, Vedānta and Mimāṁsā, respectively. But, whereas each of these systems advocates its own path as the only one and true path of salvation, Jainism holds that all the three (right faith, right knowledge and right conduct) must co-exist in a person if he is to make any progress on the path to liberation. If any one of the three-elements is wanting, the other two, though each valuable in itself, would be useless. In order to illustrate the idea, the analogy of a
