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The Path Becomes a Non-path
kevalin has made them his own. Without introducing divisions and sub-divisions or following a pre-established order, but rather bearing always in mind the essential unity which informs the state of the kevalin, we can, if not explain, at least indicate his characteristics.
In him sensory knowledge is entirely transcended; he retains all his sense-powers, but they are purified, impervious to any sort of attachment. Hence his plenitude of knowledge, of happiness, strength and vigour, a plenitude which is manifested in the palpable radiance of his person:
The destructive forms of karman having been reduced to nothingness, his sense-powers transcended, [he manifests] a strength that is unlimited and perfect, a plenitude of radiance an is transformed into [sheer] knowledge and happiness.17
397
He still experiences joy or pain, but they are no longer mediated through the imperfect senses, they are no longer felt.18 Those karmas that he has not yet eliminated follow the normal process leading to their maturations, but although he is aware of this, he does not experience it sensorally. He is as it were a passive spectator, detached from the process.
19
He knows all in a direct way, he grasps in their entirety both the general and the particular; he passes beyond the limits of sensory
17 pakkhiṇaghādikammo aṇaṁtavaravirio ahiyatejo
jado animdio so ṇāṇaṁ sokkhaṁ ca pariṇamadi. PSa I, 19. SamSa X is devoted entirely to the subject of pure knowledge; cf. US XXIX, 71.
18 sokkham vā puṇa dukkham kevalaṇāṇissa ṇatthi dehagadam
jamhā adimdiyattaṁ jādaṁ tamhā du taṁ ņeyaṁ. PSa I, 20; karman vedaniya, which gives rise to sensations, continues, but in an extremely sublte way, devoid of all passion.
19 Cf. SamSa 315.
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