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The Path Becomes a Non-path
395
darśanāvarana, that of the obscuration of vision; antarāya, that which blocks and impedes generosity. 8 Only the four other types of karman remain: āyu, which determines the span of life; năma, which determines the name and milieu; gotra, which determines the social rank; vedaniya, which is the source of feelings of pleasure and pain." The jiva, now liberated from the four destructive karmas is a kevalin, an arhat. Within him, after a longer or shorter period of time, the four non-destructive forms of karman will mature and disappear, and this disappearance will signalise mokşa.10 Let us attempt now to grasp in its essentials the nature of kevala-jñāna and of the characteristics of the kevalin.
a) The nature of kevala-jñāna
No word can fully express its infinitude, fulness and perfection. The word omniscience conveys only a very approximate idea of it, since we are here in a realm that defies the intellect. The word kevala has various connotations: alone, isolated, complete, total, unconditioned, absolute, pure. Now, kevala-jñāna is all that, but to a degree that is beyond the limits of the intelligible. Not only is it that knowledge which is all-embracing and untainted, direct, unthwarted by any obstacle, unsullied by any imperfection, but also - and on account of this plenitude and purity - alone, isolated, self-supportive. This mode of knowledge is always accompanied by kevala-darśana, clarity of vision, intuition, perfect perception, which belongs to the same transcendental plane. Many texts couple together the two, 11 and even when kevala-darśana is not explicitly named, it is implicit every time when kevala-jñāna is under consideration, the two together
8 Cf. P 307-308.
9 Cf. TS VIII, 4.
10 Cf. TS X, 2.
11 Cf. DS IV, 23, 21; KS 1; DravSam 44.
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