________________
Tattva, Reality
substance.25 According to niscaya, one knows that the knower of the jiva (ätman) is the atman itself and that the way par excellence to know the ätman is dhyāna. 26
To conclude this short explanation, we shall quote certain texts that speak of the atman. The Acaränga-sūtra transmits to us the concern of the first sages. It starts by an affirmation of the existence of the ätman27 then, further on, says concisely that
The atman [is] the knower [and] the knower [is] the atman; that through which one knows [is] the atman.28
The Uttaradhyayana-sūtra contains a passage that is both concrete and profound:
My atman [is] the river Vaitarani, my atman [is] the thorny Śalmali, my atman [is] the cow Kamadugha, my ātman [is] the Forest of Joy.29
291
25 Cf. TS I, 6; cf. 7-8 where other methods leading to knowledge of the substance are indicated, e.g.: description, consideration of place, duration,
etc.
26 Cf. P 373 ff.
27 Cf. AS I, 1, 1-5.
28
je āyā se viņņāyā, je veņṇāyā se āyā
jeņa vijäṇati se āyā. AS I, 5,5,5; Muni Nathamala has described very well in his commentaries the profundity of this passage and the preceding one; cf. Ayaro pp. 222-223; 52-55.
29
appå nadi veyaraņi appă me kūḍaśāmali
appå kåmaduha dheņū appā me naṁdaṇaṁ vaṇam. US XX, 36. The śälmali: "silk-cotton tree', any of various tropical trees (family Bombacacea, the silk-cotton family) with palmate leaves and large fruits with the seeds enveloped by silk-cotton." Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, it is described in US XIX, 52 as being covered with very sharp thorns. Nandanavana is the 2nd forest near Mt Meru (the intermediate world), where are to be found, at the four cardinal points: the abodes of the gods, guardians of the universe (Soma, Yama, Varuna, Kubera), where the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
