Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 3

Author(s): R P Poddar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 51

VAISHALI RESEARCH BULLETIN NO.3
capability into actuality. According to the Jain tradition, if samatva is not our real potential nature, we cannot achieve it by means of sadhana , because sãdhana is nothing but a practice of samat va. The threefold path of right knowledge, right belief and right conduct depends entirely on the concept of samatua for its rightness. The threefold path is only an application of samal va to the three aspects of our conscious activities, i.e. knowing, feeling and willing. According to the Jain Ethics, samal va should be a directive principle of the activities of knowing, feeling and willing.
Concept of Samatva in Gita
It may be said that the ethics of Gita also is solely based on the concept of samatva. The words sam and samatva and their various forms have been used in Gita more than hundred times. In Gita there are many references which show that the real nature of God is sam समोऽहम्, समं ब्रह्म and so on. The Gitä equates sam with Brahman, the ultimate reality. Acharya Shankara explained this by showing an identity between sam and Brahman, while Ramanuja and others interpret that the sam is the quality of Brahman. But for our present purpose it hardly makes any difference. In the Gita it is also mentioned that the God, who is ainsi ( BizTt) and we are aisa ( 372 ) exists in the heart of every individual as a quality of samat va. Not only this but the way through which we can realise that ultimate reality of God is also samat va-yoga. In this way the three basic presuppositions of the Ethics of Gitā, the moral agent, the ultimate end and the path through which this ultimate end can be achieved are also equated with the term samatva.
Gita as a treatise of samatva yoga
A question may be asked why samat va-yoga is to be considered as a fundamental concept of Gita. Among thc commentators of Gita there is a serious controversy; whether it is a treatise of jñana-yoga or Bhakti-yoga or karma yoga. Among these commentators, Shankar is the supporter of jñana-yoga. He says that knowledge alone can lead us to the realization of ultimate reality, the Brahman. While Rumānuja and others held the view that it is only Bhakti through which we can realise God. Tilak and Gandhi supported a third view that fundamental teaching of Gita is, neither jñana-yoga nor Bhaktia-yoga but Karma-yoga. Dr. Radhakrishnan and some others have tried to bring into harmony these divergent views. But I think the basis on which we can reconcile these views is still missing. How can we reconcile the views of jñana-yoga, karma-yoga and bhakti-yoga without any common element ? My humble suggestion is that only with the concept of samat va we can reconcile these different view. points, because samat va is a common reconciling factor. Though the