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The Unknown Pilgrims
Jiva - "the potential siddha with ability to proceed naturally towards the heights"
Each jiva is "on the way" towards being a siddha and when it attains this state everything is very simple. Liberared as it is from all its karmas, it is deterred no longer from realising to the full its four capacities; relieved of the weight of matter, it leaps upwards to the summit of the universe 23
The nine properties of the jiva having been described in some detail, certain facts need still to be given concerning the different gatis or states of existence. These number four: infernal existence, infrahuman existence (of being of the animal and vegetable worlds), human existence, celestial existence.24 How, according to vyavahāra, may one acquire a knowledge of the jiva and the other categories? The Tattvartha-sútra in reply gives several discursive methods, each of which have their own approach and validity. The choice of the one or the other depends on the point of view of the one studying the question. The most popular method makes use of pramāna and naya. Etymologically, pramāņa means evidence, proof, a notion which is based on certainty; naya means method, conduct. In the context that concerns us, it is declared that pramāņa is a comprehension or knowledge that includes all the elements of a particular substance, while naya considers one aspect of a particular feature of this
23 Cf. DravSam 14; TS X, 6-7; P 401.
24 Cf. TS II, 6; III-IV where these states and the cosmography of each of these worlds are described in detail. On the whole it seems that there is more preoccupation with describing the world below than the world of the gods, probably with a view to instilling in the faithful the fear of sin, to removing their ignorance, keeping them on the right path and inculcating in them a lively appreciation of the virtues; cf. e.g. SkrS I, 5; US XIX, 47-74. This tendency is still present. Certain sādhvis showed me pictures of the pains of hell drawn or painted by themselves for use in the villages in the course of their teaching sessions with an audience composed for the main part of illiterate persons. These pictures depict in crude detail the penalties awaiting those who eat meat, drink alcohol, are unfaithful spouses, etc.
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