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284
The Unknown Pilgrims
Before addressing the task of defining the various aspects appertaining to each of these categories we must not lose sight of the fact that we have here a very ancient tradition, one of the most ancient that has been preserved without major alteration to our own day. This fundamentally cosmic concept of the universe and of beings, these continuous debates on the part of the sages concerning the struggle between spirit and matter, this consciousness of the extraordinary vitality which invests all things, of the connaturality of man with innumerable jivas both visible and invisible, of the capacity for purity and absolute perfection within each of them, are so many component parts of the teaching and reveal its origins. In them we have an inheritance, a unique and inestimably valuable "gist", the more so in that, despite the dust-covered manuscripts in the bhandāras and unidentified ruins and inscriptions, this heritage is in our own day and age a still lively and living tradition.
All the notions that we are going to study are indissociable from the life of the sādhvis and āryikās. Let us recall darśana-jñāna-căritra, that these notions must not only be believed and known, but also lived out in all their practical and direct implications. We shall understand the better the meaning of the ascetic life and all it comprises and shall comprehend the better the depth and subtleties of the daily recited texts in proportion to our grasp of the concepts underlying the doctrine. Now the first pre-requisite for an inner grasp of the essence of this doctrine is to lay aside from the start every other category, concept and way of thought and to plunge forthwith into the Jaina context.
A - Jiva (Ātman): Living, conscious substance
There is inherently no essential difference between these two words; some texts use now the one, now the other, sometimes within the same verse, other texts use only one of the two, but
3 Cf. e.g. SamSa I, which is consecrated in its entirety to jiva, but where ātman is just as much the object of reflection. It appears that jiva has been a specifically Jaina term, the one in general use, but ātman (ayā) is already found in AS I; cf. e.g. AS I, 1, 3-5; 1, 5,5,5. It is possible that åtman was borrowed from the other systems. There is also to be found, but in rather late
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