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THE PATH
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Many important treatises, drawn upon the original knowledge were also written by pre-eminent teachers. Voluminous exegetical works, elaborations of important topics, and works on many other connected subjects, followed. This vast and varied literature constitutes the Jaina religious lore, and is, for the purposes of the present context, the source and repository of right knowledge; but it is objective knowledge. One has no imbibe as much of it as is required for his own purposes and make it subjective. Then, and then alone, the knowledge becomes samyag-jñāna, of course, to the accompaniment of samyag-darśana. If there is no samag-darśana, however deep, detailed and correct knowledge of even the agāma and the information contained therein one may come to possess, it cannot be called samyag-jñāna or right knowledge. One has to comprehend and realise the truth and make it part of his own being. Again, it differs from individual to individual what and how much knowledge is sufficient to convince a person of the truth and to help him gain truth and make it part of his own being. Again, it differs from individual to individual what and how much knowledge is sufficient to convince a person of the truth and to help him gain samyag-darśana. A very little but correct comprehension of the fundamentals may suffice in the case of one person, and even a very deep, detailed and prolonged study may lead another nowhere. There is no doubt that the more and the deeper you study, the better, in general, are the chances of your grasping and realising the truth. Moreover, even after the emergence of samyag-darśana, constant and deeper studies, as well as meditating upon the subjects studied, help in sharpening the grasp, in stabilising samyag-darśana, and in the spiritual evolution of the person concerned, generally. Right knowledge, to deserve its name, must be free from three main defects, doubt, perversity, and indefiniteness, and it must be capable of revealing the complete and precise nature of things, just as it is. It is the valid knowledge. This, the second
