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The Path Leading to Nirvāņa
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261
ascetics who have fully realised the atman reach nirvāņa, which signifies both the extinction of all that is foreign to the nature of the atman and also the infinite beatitude of the siddha, the perfect one.
Through the labyrinthine maze of curves and bends in the doctrine, its philosophical intricacies, its myriad rules and complicated casuistry we must neither go astray nor lose sight of the one direction so clearly indicated by Kundakunda in this and many other verses.
2. The voice of the sādhvis
The sādhvis , from the very day they receive dikṣā, pledge. themselves to journey towards Liberation.2 Their voice, all along the way is an existential yoice, that is to say, it is the expression of their life of faith in the dharma, it is the voice of disciples of the arhats who commit themselves to a life in conformity with the ideal; it is also the voice of pilgrims who study and meditate upon the Agamas and the works of the Masters and are capable in their turn of guiding others.
Faith in the dharma, the śruta and the teaching of the Sages is strengthened by knowledge
Among the sādhvis , faith is generally something that is inherited in a family setting and supported in the group to which they belong by a certain knowledge of Scripture and doctrine. On the whole this faith finds expression in a sincere belief such as adheres closely to doctrinal formulations, with, almost always, an element of bhakti, of veneration for Mahāvira and daughterly submission to his teaching as well as to the teaching of the ganadharas and the ācāryas. This fidelity to the teaching as it is distilled in the śruta and in the major doctrinal treatises, or in other words right belief, is the first condition necessary for an engagement on the path towards Liberation. This belief must always be accompanied by right knowledge, condition number two.3 A high proportion of the sādhvis , on account of the way the samgha is
2 The above-mentioned question of the Liberation of women among the Digambaras (P 63; 140) will be discussed later.
3 Cf. P 269 ff.
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