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SVASTI – Essays in Honour of Prof. Hampa Nagarajaiah
In the canonical age Jaina Sadhanā centered around the threefold or fourfold path of emancipation i.e. right faith, right knowledge, right conduct and right austerity. Because they considered right conduct and right austerity as one, Umāsvāti and some other Jaina teachers prescribed the threefold path of emancipation. This threefold path of emancipation is generally acceptable in Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism it is also acceptable as bhakti-yoga, jñāna-yoga and karma-yoga, and in Buddhism as sīla, samādhi and prajñā. We can compare right knowledge with jñāna-yoga of the Gītā and prajñā of Buddhism Buddhism, similarly right faith with bhakti-yoga of the Gītā and samyak-samādhi of Buddhism and right conduct with karma-yoga of Gītā and śīla of Buddhism.14
But here we must be aware of the fact that whereas some Hindu thinkers hold that the cultivation of any one of these three constituents is sufficient to attain emancipation, Jaina thinkers do not agree with them. They hold that the absence of any one of these makes emancipation impossible. Thus Jainism believes in the synthesis of these three Yogas.
Here it is to be noted that this threefold path of Jainism can be summed up in the practice of Sāmāyika or Samatva Yoga. For Jainas, Samatva Yoga is the excellent blend of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. The Uttarādhyayanasūtra says:
nādamsanissa nānam, nānena viņā na honti caranagunä agunissa natthi mokkho, natthi amukkassa nivvānam (28.30)
Knowledge is impossible without a right view-point or faith and without right knowledge, right conduct is not possible, without right conduct, liberation remains unattainable. Thus all the three are needed for the attainment of emancipation. Samatva Yoga the fundamental Yoga of Jainism
Sāmāyika or Samatva Yoga is the principal concept of Jainism. It is the first and foremost among the six essential duties of a monk as well as of a house-holder. Pkt. sāmāiya is translated into English in various ways such as observance of equanimity, viewing all the living beings as one's own self, conception of equality, harmonious state of one's behavior, integration of personality as well as righteousness of the activities of mind, body and speech. Ac. Kundakunda also used the term samāhi, in the sense of sāmāyika where it means a tensionless state of consciousness or state of selfabsorption. In general sense the word sāmāyika means a particular religious practice through which one can attain equanimity of mind. It is an end as well as a means in itself. As a means it is a practice for attaining equanimity while as end it is the state in which the self is completely free from the flickering of alternative desires and wishes, excitements and emotional disorders. It is the state of self-absorption or resting in one's own self. In the Āvasyakaniryukti it is said that sāmāyika is nothing but one's
14 Sagarmal Jain, Jaina, Bauddha, Aura Gītā ke ācāradarśanom kā tulanātmaka adhyayan, Vol. II page 1.
