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THE PATH
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person suffering from a malady is used: he must have faith in the efficacy of the medicine administered to him, he must have proper knowledge of its use, and he must actually take the medicine prescribed—it is only then that the cure can be effected. Similarly, the universal malady of worldly misery, which every mundane soul is suffering from, can be cured by this triple panacea of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct.
The most important of this trio is the right faith or right belief. In its absence, no knowledge, however much wide and varied, or objectively correct, can be called right knowledge, and no conduct, however noble and moral, can be described as right conduct. In the presence of right belief, however, whatever knowledge there is becomes right knowledge, and whatever conduct there is becomes right conduct. Again, since no living being, is without knowledge of some sort, as soon as he acquires Right Faith he comes to possess right knowledge as well though it may be very little in quantity. In fact, the requisite type of comprehension or knowledge precedes and is generally the basis of right faith, but it acquires the name right knowledge only after the birth of right faith, not otherwise. The emergence of the first two of the trio in a person's soul is thus simultaneous, but it is not necessary that he must have the third also. There may be many who possess or happen to possess right faith and right knowledge, but no right conduct, and so long as they do not acquire and develop it, they cannot make any headway on the path to liberation.
To a mystically minded yogin, who looks at things from the 'pure point of view, ratna-traya means the realisation and comprehension of and the abiding concentration in his spiritual Self, viewed and mediated upon in its pure and perfect state. His entire emphasis is on the transcendental experience of the Self, by the Self, through concentrated spiritual meditation. This is what may be described as the mystical idealism of the Jaina yogins.
