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A Vista of the Path
275
This is a reference to the different degrees of knowledge. One can easily grasp the importance of śruta-jñāna for ascetics, because by means of it they "see", it constitutes their faculty of right and penetrating insight. Nevertheless, adds Ācārya Kundakunda - and here one observe the close connection between darśana and cānitra, the third Jewel - the study of the Agamas is not enough: if one does not have faith in the Reality, if one has not renounced all, one will not attain nirvāņa.35 This is made clear also in the following passages of which the essential is voiced by the mystics of all religious traditions:
Again, the one (who has) the slightest attachment to his own body or to anything else, even if he knows all the Āgamas, cannot attain Liberation.36
And with regard to the attainment of this goal:
That man has only the outward appearance of a śramana, (even though] he has self-mastery, perform penitence and knows the Sūtras, if he has no faith in the doctrine taught by the jinas, of which the ātman (is the most important category.37
The practice of asceticism and extensive and profound knowledge are nothing if, above all else, one does not have faith in the reality of the atman.
iii) Samyak-căritra
This third Jewel, right conduct, takes for granted certain factors: the existence of the human person, his freedom of action and of decision, his insertion in society, his membership of the Jaina
35 Cf. PSa III, 37.
36 paramāņupamāṇam và mucchā dehādiesu jassa puņo
vijjadi jadi so siddhiṁ na lahadi savvāgamadharo vi. PSa III, 39.
37 na havadi samņo tti mado samjamatavasuttasampajutto vi
jadi saddahadi ņa atthe adapadhāṇe jiņakkhāde. PSa III, 64.
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