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The interaction of Sanskrit through Jainism
139 ethics Before dealing with what right conduct is and how this is explained in the Co., we shall describe how right faith and right knowledge have been discussed in the Cc.
When the poet describes Civakan, who has attained knowledge from his teacher, he describes bis condition through an allegorica] expression.
katci nan nilaiyin ñānak katir manik katavu certtip pūļci cal olukkam ennum va yirat tål koļuvip polla māțciy il katikal ellām ațaitta pin varampil inpatt ağci il ulakam erat tirantanan alarnta tarani
(After having locked the door against the bad courses of actions which do not destroy birth, by fixing the jewelled door of right knowledge on the door step of right faith and bolting it with the lock of right conduct, he, the one who wears the full-bloomed flower garland, opened the ways to climb into the bound lessly happy world which is not ruled by anyone.)
Here the poet describes the right faith as the door-step, the right knowledge as the jewelled door, and the right conduct as the lock. He says that Civakan has acquired all these after receiving instruction from his teacher.
In Kēmacariyār ilampakam, Civakan explains what is right faith, right knowledge and right conduct to the brabmin ascetics in the following verse :
mey vakai terital ñanam viļankiya poruļka ļammaip poy vakaiy inrit tëral kāciy aim poriyum vátti uy vakai uyirait teyat olukutal olukka münrum
iv vakai nirainta poltey iru vinai kuliyum enrān?
(He said that (right) faith is to know the truth, (right) knowledge is to know the right things without false ideas and the (right) conduct is to prevent the soul from getting destroyed by torturing the five senses. When the soul is filled with these three, the two karmas 3 will be destroyed.)
In Muttiyilampakam, the right faith is taught to Civakan by the Cáranab Mapi. vannan when the former requests to be instructed. Before teaching the right faith, the Caranan preaches to him about the rare acquisition of the human body, 4 its uncertainty, and its perishing nature.5 He also explains the misery of the four gatis, hell, animal, human and deva. 8 Carañan explains about these miseries first and then about the right faith, for one can only avoid these miseries by having the right faith. To have the right faith as explained earlier, faith in a true ideal is important. To stress this aspect the
1 2 3 4 5 6
Cc. v. 381. Cc. v. 1436 The two karmas are the ghātiya and aghātiya karmas. Cc. vv. 2749-2753 Ibid, vv. 2754-2761 Ibid, vv. 2762-2811
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