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394
The Unknown Pilgrims
that embodiment of it to which a person may finally attain, even if this attainment is not possible for ourselves. Furthermore, in our epoch, in the Videha-kşetras of Jambūdvipa, there are some tirtharkaras and mokṣa is always possible.? Even if mokṣa occurs outside our kşetra, it is good and helpful to make enquiries as to its meaning. 4
Let us now enter into this new realm in a spirit of reverence and recollection, as one enters a sanctuary, where everything speaks to us of a state of transcending our own, a state in which there is no fissure, no cleavage; nevertheless, in order to grasp and apprehend it better, one must needs introduce some distinctions. These distinctions simply serve as necessary pointers for our mind, that we may endeavour to open ourselves to the experience of plenitude.
A - Kevala-jñāna: Omniscience
We know, on the one hand, that kevala-jñāna is the fifth, final and highest form of knowledge5 and, on the other, that each degree of jñāna depends on the greater or lesser degree of karmic dust that has accumulated. Kevala-jñāna corresponds with the disappearance of injurious karmic dust, thanks to saṁvara and nirjarā; in effect, by the stoppage of the karmic influx and by its elimination, the jiva is completely purified from all that which beclouded the anantacatuștayas, its capacities for infinity: infinite knowledge, infinite intuitive powers (or vision), infinite power and infinite bliss. The four types of destructive karman are annihilated: mohaniya, that of deceitfulness; jñānāvaraṇa, that of the obscuration of knowlege;
3 Cf. TS III, 10; 31; 37; P 76; 80 n.36; 676.
4 Leaving to one side the doctrinal interpretations put forward by the several traditions and the commentators, we give here simply what the doctrine teaches and the sadhvis believe and live out.
5 Cf. Nandis 1; SthS 463; US XXVIII, 4; and TS I, 9.
6 Cf. Sths 464; TS VIII, 6.
7ņaţthacadughāikammo daṁsaņa-suha-ņāņa-viriyamaio...DravSam 50.
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