INTRODUCTION

It is necessary to emphasise and clearly realise that there are two distoinct categories: Perfect and Imperfect. The Pure Disembodied Soul alone is Perfect. The mundane, matter-clad Soul is Imperfect. By Perfectinhere is meant a condition than which nothing is better forever. One may want £100. For him nothing is better at present than to get £100. But there is no guarantee that he will want nothing, if he gets the £100. Perfection is where there is no want, no need, no desire, no room for further improvement or betterment. Perfect desirelessness, complete non-attachment, imperturbable Vit-rag-ta are connotations of Perfection. Thus it is that Jainism does not believe God, an Almighty, Perfect, Conscious Soul, to be a Creator. Creation means bringing about something which was not before. The mundane soul when it becomes a Perfect Pure Soul, at the end of the `14the Spiritual Stage certainly creates its won perfect condition of Infinite Perception, Knowledge, Power-and Bliss. In this sense, and in this sense alone, God or Sioddha may be said to be the Creator of all the Universe, present, past and future, for the Siddha is Omniscient; and all the Universe, with all its substances, with all their attributes and modifications, in all times and places, becomes subject to this All-Seeing Omniscience, and thus it may be said to create the Universe. Here Creation means the attainment of Perfection, of Omniscience, of Omnipotence of Godhood, of Siddhahood. In no other sense, creation is possible in Jainism. F creation means the making or bringing into existence of something which was not before, (excepting that booming Perfect means bringing into existence the condition of Self-perfection and Omniscience, which was not before), it implies the conscious Creation of something necessary and useful, or of something unnecessary and useless. If the former, why was a useful thing not made before; if the latter, the Creator is a frivolous wastrel, or smiley puerile in making, and then breaking the Universe.

If the Universe is created by God as an absolutely new thing, it msut follow that before its creation God was not Krita Kritya, one so perfect that nothing remained to be done by him. If he only recreates a destroyed Universe. Then the jaina explanation (that the Universe s uncreated and passes through a sort of birth and death at the junction of Avasarpini and Utsarpini semi-cycles o time) is simple and sufficient. F it be said that there must be some creator (as distinct from some Cause or Co-existence or Sequence) of everything, then there must be some Creator of God, and so on ad infinitum.

Further, like crease like. God as Pure Soul can create only Living Soul. How then can he create non-living unconscious matter out of himself?

The Jaina doctrine is that the lifeless, non-living, unconscious Universe is eternal and uncreated, and it evolves and revolves within its won countless attributes and modifications for ever, and that it undergoes even radical, catastrophic changes in Space and Time, which the history of all nations records as the Deluge, the mahabharata, the Great War, the Pralaya, etc., etc., etc. is this doctrine not more soul-satisfying, simple and stamped with cogency and Truth than an attempt to explain things by the doctrine of creation? Creation thus being only the creation of its perfect condition by the pure Soul, it is easy to see that all else in the Universe, from the point of view of conscious, living, knowing Soul, is Imperfect.

Obviously Imperfection is only tolerated because and so long as we cannot get rid of it. Therefore all worldly endeavor, being the child of the living Soul’s union with non-living matter, is to be merely tolerated; to be shunned; to be renounced. When renunciation is impossible or impracticable, it has to be merely tolerated and controlled and regulated so as to keep it within the limits of the most minimum harm to Perfection.

A clear intellectual perception and a persistent, practical pursuit of this in our daily life is essential to keep us true to the Center of Truth. No verbal jugglery, any pious deception of self or others will. Save one from error and harm if this Central Truth is lost sight of. All Politics, ethics, Laws and Economics will be engulfed in stygian, chaotic darkness, if once the human mind, the soul, loses or loosens grip of this First Fact of life.

On the other hand, if this beacon-light is kept in view, nothing in the world can delude us long or deep. Our joys and sorrows, our successes and failures, our illness and health, births and deaths of relations and friends, victory and defeat, prosperity or adversity,—all these will be easily and instinctively referred o the Central Guide, and dealt with in their own proper perspective. All our worldly valuations depend upon our angle o vision. Ugliness is Beauty in the wrong place, or seen from the wrong angle. High treason is Patriotism from the wrong viewpoint. The State and Politics create chaos in an attempt to save the country and citizens from disorder and disruption. Marriage sanctifies apparent monogamy and note seldom becomes an effective cloak for mental and even physical polygamy. Trade and Commerce meant for natural and equal distribution of things of Necessity and use often result in extravagant waste or stagnation of such thins in the hands of the rich few, to the agonisin misery of the poverty-stricken many. Even Religion, the sign and mantle of God, has cloaked Satan more than the Light-ever-lasting against whom Satan rebelled forever. Indeed there is nothing good or desirable in the world, which to some extent or other is not locked up in the arms of its contributory. Verily, the extremes meet literally. Life means Death. Death breeds Life. The extremely rich are extremely poor. The possessionless are the richest. The crown of thorns is ever the real, ultimate adornment. The cup of misery is the only joy-giving nectar. Prussia and Prakriti and inextricable interlocked. Brahma and Maya lie mingled together; non-cans say which is which. There is only one way out o the den of this Duessa. It is to recognise the reality this den and also of the flowerful glade of real roses outside. Till the rose lade is gained, the dry den must be tolerated and regulated.

In fine, there is no aspec or detail of practical life where he teachings of Shri Kunda Kunda will not be of immense utility. Every where they will lay bare the deepest truth about the question inland, and give the most lucid and lam guidance in the handling and solution thereof. Obviously the touchstone of the eternal Truth as laid down in the book is to be applied by every man or woman according to the point in hand and in the light of surrounding irumtances of Substance, Place, Time, and the object in view. In this sense, Jainism may be said to be he apotheosis of Relativity with with Eastern has made the Western World familiar.

Dravya, Kshetra, Kala and bhava from the eternal quaternary for our particle guidance. The same questions and be and even must be answered differently according to the differences in substance, place, time and circumstances. This gives a knockout blow to rigid consistency, and conservative orthodoxy, social or political, and perhaps indicates the wonderful essential sameness of religion and true conduct in different forms in different countries and ags.

Great is the power of Purity and Truth. Therein aspect of religion—Supreme Foreignness, Hunmiliy, Straihforwardness, Truth, contentment, Self-control, Austerity, Renunciation, Possessionlessness and chastity or Self-absorption, are of eternal value, guidance and inspiration. They are God-given and God giving. We reach God through them. They negate the sins and passions of Anger, Pride, Deceit, Greed, etc. Sin and sorrow also are as eternal and infinite and indestructible as soul and salvation. You cross the ocean of samaras. You never destroy it.

The Bhavyas or Liberals only attempt ot follow the path laid down by the arhantas. But mundane misery must ever remain unlikable in its extent and length.

The motion and movements of mater are not necessarily the signs of life. Matter may be moved by soul. Then also it is moved by the non-soul partner of soul in its embodied condition. For Pure Soul has no desire or need to move mater of any kind. Thus in a way mater is moved by matter only. In other words, soul is not the Faust of any motion, except when the soul is impure, soiled with its connection with matter an then it becomes he cause of motion. Even Love and art an the noblest and highest forms of endeavor in life are material an renounceable. A beautiful form is mater born a result o the physical body made of assimilative molecules (Aharaka Vargana). Love is only an effect upon the mind produced by this form of Beauty. The soul may also be affected by deep, devoted Love win to this Love reinforcing a pure kind of Delusion which again is Karmic matter. Similarly Art. The Artist’s unity with his all-absorbing aim in Painting, Poetry, Melody, Sculpture or Architecture is only a child of mater, which is subtle, pure, non-harmin, but all the same mater, which soils the soul and stands between it and is full realisation. Similarly, religious practices, worship, postures of asceticism, etc., all the ladders to spirituality are material and mater-born. They fall into the category of non-soul. They are obviously not the soul in its entire fullness, in its perfect purity. Hy are helps for the soul to achieve self-realisation. But they are not the soul. As pneumatic belts or upturned floating pitchers are helps o a swimmer in water, but are no the swimmer, the practices of religion, even the hides of them, the sinecures and most earnest pursuit of right belief, right knowledge and right conduct are all mundane matters. They have no place in the region of pure souls. They are material, mundane, is-liberation. As long as the soul is fascinated by or dependent upon or even in association with any them, its connection with matter, with Karma, with Samaras is not severed, and the mundane soul does not achieve the dignity and status of selfhood, of being its own pure self, of being a liberated soul, pure for ever.

Latest science has begun to perceive the existence of millions of atoms in a pinhead, revolving in a terribly continuous fashion. This is a great help to understand Jainism. Jainsim posits the existence of an infinity of matter, i.e., of infinit atoms and molecules. If a pin-head has millions of atoms, how many atoms must a hut or a palace or a street or a city have‘ How many atoms must there be in a whole country or continent, inan ocean? How many in our Earth, in the Moon, in the Sun? In our solar system? In all the solar systems in the starrysky? How many in the whole Universe? Certainly, infinite.

Again, it is clear that a pin-head has no life, when by life we mean a manifestation of soul or consciousness or attention bemoans of the 5 senses, respiration, etc. the presence of millions of atoms in a pin-head or in a speck of dirt on the paper or the pen or on the chair does not prove that the pin or paper or pen or chair are alive or have a soul. The multitudinous movements of attar and its uncountable variations and transfigurations do not demolish the eternal wall of distinction between soul and non-soul, between the living and the non-living. The living now, as ever, has consciousness and attention. It alone has this. None else can be or is conscious (chetana) or capable of attention (Upayoga). The non-living never possessed this sourness; never can and never shall possess consciousness. It shall never have the capacity of attending to anything; it shall never have knowledge of anything. It can not know. Janna is not its forte and never can be.

This is the one primary distinction between Living and non-Living, the ignorance of which is the fertile mother of may pitfalls in Philosophy and Metaphysics. The reat teachers of Jainism insist upon this distinction in very lucid, persistent and unmistakable language. They emphasise with easel’s repetition that the Pupil, the Disciple, the earnest Seeker after Truth must have a firm, un-falterin, un-loseable grasp of this basic FACT of the Universe, that the Living and thereon-Living substances quite exhaust the Universe, and make up a perfect division of it by dichotomy, and that the Living is the Living and never anything else, and the Non-Living is itself and never Living.

This lesson was taught in the great, soul-purifying Gathas of Samaya-Saraji by Shri Kunda Acharya in the first century B. C.

Samayasara is full of the one idea of one concentrated divine unity. It is and persistent and emphatic about the soul’s Identity wih Itself being the only living Conscious Reality as pure Mahomedanism is about the vahdaniyata of God or Monistic Vedantism about Para-Brahma. This is the only one Idea, which counts. All Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Reality, Morality, Freedom is in this The Self and It alone is true, good, lovely, real, moral. The non-Self is error, myth, mithyatva, ugly, deluding, detractor from and obscurer of reality, immoral,’ worthy o shunning and renunciation, as bondage and as anti-Liberation. This Almighty, all-Comprehensive, claim of SELF-ABSORPTION must be perfectly and completely grasped for any measure of success in understanding Shri Kunda Kunda Acharya’s works, indeed for the true understanding of Jainism. Few are the works, if any, extant of Jainism as digested of old by the Apostles and Omniscient after Lord Mahavira; and with the doubtful exception of Swami Kartikeya’s Anupreksha none is older than Shri Kunda Kunda’s. The tradition is much older. It is unbroken, continuous. Indeed it is claimed to be Eternal. But in its written form, no work is older than the Soul-analysing, Soul-clarifying, Soul-illuminating stanzas of Shri Kunda. They sparkle with one life and shed one white lustre, namely, the Divine, Limitless nature of Soul when absorbed in it self. Sva-Samaya or self-absorption is the key-note, the purpose, the lesson, the object, the goal and the center of Sri Kunda Kunda’s all words and teachings. The Pure, All-conscious, Self-absorbed Soul is God and never less or more. Any connection, Causal or Effectual, with the non-Self is a delusion, limitation, imperfection, and bondage. To obtain Liberation or Deification this connection must be destroyed. Thus and then the “bound” soul, bandah, becomes the Liberated Soul. Khuda, “Self come to self, Zat-e-paka, “Pure Enity.” The man becomes Man. The Son of man returns ot His father in heaven. Man becomes HIMSELF. Man becomes GOD.

To guard against any misunderstanding of Jainism, this Central Teaching, this clear golden goal must ever be kept in mind and in view.

It may well and legitimately be asked: what is the practical use of this Jaina idea of self-absorption?

The answer is: The mere insight into and knowledge of this Real Reality, is of everyday use in the conduct of our individual and collective lives. It is a true and the only panacea for all our ills. Its rigour may be hard. Its preliminary demand may occasion a wrench from our cherished habit, customs, and fashions of thought and action. But its result—which is immediate, instantaneous and unmistakable,—justifies the hardship and the demand. The relief and service, the sure uplift of ourselves, the showering of lam balm, by the practice of self-realisation, upon the sore souls of our brethren and sisters justify the price paid. Indeed it is merely the temporary yielding of a hollow, fleeting pleasure for the attainment of a real, permanent happiness and Peace, which once gained, can never be lost. Once the soul has had its first dip into its own milk white nectar ocean of SELF; in Christian phrase, once the Soul has seen the Presence of God, it can never go away form it for ever. It must come back to the Presence sooner or later, and oftener; till in the end it is always THERE and nowhere else.

To this an obvious criticism would be directed that thus is making man angels or at least faultless supermen, whereas humanity consists at best of frail, feeble, faulty human mortals. This is quite true. Humanity can never become a community of angels. Our passiontossed hearts must keep us generally deluded, weak, imperfect. But the practice of Self-Realisation makes us less deluded, less weak and less imperfect, and it brings us one or many steps nearer that condition of our purified and strengthened consciousness which is free from delusion, weakness and imperfection. Self-discipline and self-respect regulate the others into a self-guided harmony, which is a helpful reflection of God Himself.

Once you sit on th rock of Self-realisation, the whole world goes round and round You like a crazy rushing something, which has lost its hold upon you and is mad to get you again in this grip, but cannot. The All-conquering smile of the Victor (Jina) is on your lips. The vanquished, deluding world lies dead and impotent at your feet.

INDORE:

April 20, 1927. J.L. JAINI.

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SAMAYASARA.

SAMAYAPRABHARITAM.

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CHAPTER I.

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1. Having bowed to all the Siddhas (Perfect Souls) who have attained a condition of existence indestructible, purified (of all Karmic matter), unparalleled, I shall speak of this Samayabhritam, O (listeners), (as) spoken by the knowers of all scriptural knowledge.

Commentary.

The author Shri Kunda Kunda Acharya hows in devotion to all the Liberated Pure Souls, because he is desirous of attaining the same condition, which is unparalleled and full of eternal happiness. Samaya Prabhrita- “Samaya” means “soul”, “Prabhrita” “a gift”; and “Samaya Prabhrita” means “the gift of the soul,” the Discourse delivered by the Highest Soul, the Omniscient; or the discourse which gives a knowledge of the Highest Soul. The Samskrit commentator, Jaya-Sena-Acharya has taken the word “Prabhrita” to mean “Sara.” Essence, and has called this treatise, Samaya Sara, the essence of Soul. This work describes the pure nature of the Soul. The Author treats in detail of the essence of Soul, so that the listeners (Shravakas, laymen) may understand it and try to realise it in order to reach the perfect condition of Liberation. He also says that his preaching will be quite in conformity with what has been realised and taught by the five Srute-Kevalis or saints with full scriptural knowledge, who flourished from 464 to 364, B. C. Lord Mahavira (599-466 B. C), the last Arhat and Liberated Soul in this fifth seon of the semi-cycle (Avasarpini) of time in this Bharata Kshetra. The last of the 5 Shruta-Kevalis was Shri Bhadrabahu, the Teacher and Initiator of the great Mauryan Emperor Chandra Gupta who was a contemporary of Alexander the Great,. And flourished in the 4th century B. C. and who met a clam and peaceful death at the Chandra Hill in Shravana Belgola in Hassan District, Mysore State, in South India.

The name “Samayasara” may also be derived from, and is certainly justified by the use of the word “Samaya,” so frequently made by the author, in the sense of absorption or realisation. Sva-samaya opr Self-absorption is the central Goal to be aimed at by the Soul struggling to be free from the fetters of the mundane bondage of Karmas.

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2. Know the Soul (Which is) concentrated in (right) conduct, belief and knowledge, to be self-absorption. And know that (which) stands in (the condition) determined by (the operation) of Karmic matter (to be) non-self absorption.

Commentary.

Although the Soul in its essence and nature is all purity, perfect knowledge, happiness etc., yet the mundane Soul in association with Karmic matter from beginingless time has got so intimately attached to matter and impure thought-activities, due to the operation of Deluding Karmas, that it is oblivious of its reality and is absorbed in mundane pleasures. Thus it is that Souls are divided into two classes: - Souls who are absorbed in right belief, knowledge and realisation of their true nature or self-absorbed, “Sva-samaya,” and those who are absorbed in Karmic effect “Para-samaya” or no-absorbed in the self, or rather non-selfaborbed i.e., absorbed in the non-self.

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3. Absorbed in oncess, the Soul (is) everywhere admirable in the Universe, The predication of bondage (as being) one with it is censurable.

Commentry.

The self-absorption of a soul is the condition of its own real self and is synonymous with “imperturbable bliss”. It would therefore be admirable so long as it adheres to circumstances native to its bright nature. A soul having capabilities so high should remain true to its real nature. To because subject to Karmic bondage and the miseries which it brings is against the Soul’s nature. The Author desires to stress the point that we should not banker after the miserable unreality of our sinful, mundane life, when we can aspire to attain the purity of our Highest status.

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4. The discourse relating to sense-enjoyments and Karmic bondage is heard understood, and experienced by all the (mundane Souls). But realisation of absolute oneness (with its own nature) free from (attachment, etc.) is not easy of attainment.

Commentary.

All the mundane souls have one or more of the senses in the outer bodies, whether physical or fluid, and are endowed with sensedesires. To the last they aim at their fulfilment. They have all known sense-enjoyments. Many souls have often heard and understood the discourses regarding bondage of soul with karmic matter, and regarding its merits or demerits, and felt the truth in their heart of bearts. This is an experience common to all persons. But it is difficult to translate the precept into practice, especially as the details of the scheme of Self-Absorption must be closely followed. The author here impresses upon the reader the necessity of paying a concentreated attantion to the subject matter of this book, for its being fully understood.

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5. I describe that obsolete oneness of the soul on the strength of my (own self-realisation) What I describe should be accepted (after verification by your own experience). If I err, (it) should not be considered a deception.

Commentary.

The author says that his description of the absolute oneness of the soul is based on the strength of his own self-realisation, and should be accepted in the light of individual experience which builds up on (1) the Scriptures, (2) Discourses from “the preceptors,” (3) analysis and test by logical standpoints, and (4) constant meditabe tempted to call errors are not errors in the accepted sense of the term, but mere different aspects of the spiritual vision vouchsafed to the author.

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6. But that knowing substance (pure soul) does not become of perfect vows (or of any higher spiritual stage). Nor of Imperfect vows (or of any lower Spiritual Stage). The say the pure (from the standpoint of pure soul). And indeed that which is the known is even the same (as knower, i.e., itself, in self-absorption).

Commentary.

The fourteen spiritual stages which trace the progress of the soul from delusion to a condition of perfection are useful as a practical preliminary. In its highest essence the soul neither needs nor is capable of any divisions or stages, it is always itself infinite. The soul gest rid of delusion in the 12th stage; while in the 13th and 14th it attains to the perfection emanating from perfect and permanent freedom from delusion.

In the first, and lowest stage, the soul is subject to right-conduct deluding and right-belief deluding karmas. The 25 kinds of right conduct-deluding karmas, and wrong-belief the 3 kinds of right belief-deluding karmas all these 28 causes of delusion may be present in this stage. From here the soul always goes to the fourth, and may go to the 5th or even the 7th stage. The soul, having fallen from the 4th may go up to the third on the operation of mixed right-belief –deluding karmas.

In the second stage, the 3 kinds of right-belief-deluding karmas are existent, but in an inoperative condition. The remaining twenty-five are operative. The duration of this stage is the shortest, viz., at the most 6 Avalis, or winks or twinklings of an eye. This is a stage, which is never touched by the soul in its progress. It is only one of the possible 3 stages, which the soul occupies if it suffers a downfall from the 4th stage. These 3 downward stages are the lst, 2nd and 3rd. If the soul’s rightbelief of the 4th stage gets mixed up with wrong-belief, by the operation of the mixed-wrong-and-right-belief-deluding karmas, the soul falls down to the 3rd stage. From the 3rd, it may come down straight to the 1st or rise to the 4th stage. But the operation of the error-feeding passions without operation of wrong-belief brings about the downfall of the soul from the 4th to the 2nd stage, Hence also, it falls back into the first stage, the universal pit of Delusion and wrong-belief, in which rests the bottom rung of the ladder of Progress, and from which the soul once more rises to the 4th stage, to try to rise higher, if possible.

In the third stage, only 22 causes of delusion are operative namely, 21, i.e., all except the 4 error-feeding passions of right-conduct-deluding karma, and only one, i.e., mixed-right and wrong-belief of the right-belief deluding karma.

In the fourth stage, only 21 are operative. There is no right-belief-deluding karma, except in the condition of destruction-subsidential-right-belief, where there is operation of the 3rd kind of right-belief-deluding karma, I,e,., when the right-belief is clouded by slight wrong-belief.

In the 5th stage, only 17 are operative. Four more, i.s., the partial-vow-preventing passions become quiescent. From here the soul never goes to the 6th; but always to the 7th stage.

In the 6th stage, only 13 operate. The 4 total-vow-preventing passions become quiescent. The 6th stage is also a retrogressive one. It is reached by a soul which is going down from the 7th stage. But such a downfallen soul may regain the 7th stage from the 6th. Indeed this ca go on for a long, long time.

In the 7th and 8th stages 13 operate. But their operation is mild.

In the 9th stage, 7 operate, 6 slight passions of risibility, indulgence, ennui, sorrow, fear and disgust subside or are destroyed.

In the 10th stage, only the slightest greed remains.

In the 11th stage all the 28 causes of delusion subside. Here the soul can stay at the most for one antar-muhurta. From here the soul must fall down gradually to any of the lower stages up to 7th, so that from the 7th it can go up the destructive ladder to the 8th and higher stages, skipping the 1st or the highest point of the subsidential ladder on its way from the 10th to the 12th stage, the highest point of the destrucrtive ladder, where delusion does not subside but in entirely destroyed.

In the 13th, the soul is subject to mundane vibratory activity due to body-making karma.

In the 14th there is no vibration at all. It is perfectly steady.

Thus, it will be seen that all these fourteen spiritual stages are due to wrong belief, vowlessness, carelessness, passions and vibratory activity. Carelessness (Pramada) in intensity or mildness lasts from the first to the sixth stage of imperfect-vow. Therefore the first six stages are referred to by the word “Pramatta.” All the other eight stages are meditative and free from carelessness in pursuing the path of self-realisation and are described by the author as “Apramatta.” The stages are indices of degrees of progressing thought-activities. They are mere steps of a ladder to reach the abode of Liberation. When the top is reached, the ladder is left behind. Thus the soul in its essence is devoid of any distinction of stages. It is the pure Soul substance full of the infinite attributes of Omniscience, Omnipotence, etc. In one word, the soul is itself GOD. For further details of stages consult Gommatasara Jiva Kada, - S. B. J., Vol. V, pp. 8-51.

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7. From the practical (point of view) (right) conduct, belief, and knowledge are predicated of the knowing soul. But (from non-differential point of view there is) neither knowledge nor conduct nor belief. The knower (is) pure (knower itself).

Commentary.

For practical purposes, we speak of the attributes of the soul, its right-belief, knowledge and conduct. But it is an indivisible unity. All attributes are implicit in its nature and merely mainfest themselves in different aspects of the activity. Every individual substance is an inter-mixed, one inseparable group of an infinity of all-pervading attributes. The Soul is also such a group of infinite attributes, of which the most important are the sacred trinity of right-belief, right-knowledge and right-conduct. He who realises this, does not lose himself in distinctions, but becomes absorbed in his own self and enjoys the nectar of his own eternal essence. For the not-knowing pupil, the wise teacher (Achraya) selects some of the special qualities, and describes the substance by them, so that the pupil may properly understand that substance as distinct from others. Thus it is possible only for this practical purpose to make divisions of its qualities. The substance is really an indivisible whole, and can be known truly only by the realisation of the entire wholeness.

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8. But as a non-Aryan (is) never capable of understanding without a non-Aryan tongue, so without practical standpoint, an exposition of reality is impossible.

Commentary.

Here the author points out that the practical point of view is nothing but a mode of representing the reality. An Arab or an Englishman, ignorant of Samskrit, cannot understand the truth in that language. So the unadvanced seeker after truth cannot understand the language of Reality, unless it is translated into the language of practice and outer comparison and realisation, which alone can be properly grasped by worldly people. Thus the practical standpoint (Vyavahara Naya) is essential for the exposition of the inner reality (Nishchaya Naya) of things. The Absolute Reality transcends all our experiences of matter; hene the inadequacy of language for explaining it; but language and a distinct phraseology has to be adopted as of necessity.

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9. The saints, (who are) the expounders of the Universe, all him a knower of scripture, who in reality, from knowledge of the scriptures, knows this very soul (to be) absolutely pure.

Commentary.

The author points out that although a shruta-kevali has full knowledge of all the scriptures, yet from real standpoint he can only be terned shruta-kevali, when he realises the absolute and pure soul. It is so because the object of scriptural knowledge is to procure self-realisation, which alone is the cause of internal and eternal peace and happiness and of shedding off of the karmas, which binder soul from attaining its full and perfect status.

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10. The Conquerors call him a knower opf scriptural knowledge who has all scriptural knowledge; because the soul (is) all knowledge, therefore (it is also) the knower of scriptural knowledge (Shruta-Kevali).

Commentary.

This Gatha gives an illustration of the practical point of view, which has been said to be a means for explaining the real point of view. It is only with reference to his being possessed of all scriptural knowledge that a Shruta-Kevali is called as such from the practical point of view; and in view of his realisation of the self, he is termed so from the real point of view. As knowledge of scriptures is not distinct from all-knowledge, the attribute of the pure soul, this description from practical standpoint merely indicates that a Shruta-Kevali is really the knower of the self in its reality.

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11. Meditation verily must be performed in (right) belief, knowledge and conduct. But they all three (are) the soul, therefore perform meditation in the (pure) soul (itself).

Commentary.

This is another example of both the standpoints. The practical standpoint explains in detail that the path of liberation is a combination of right belief, knowledge and conduct, while the real standpoint insists upon meditation of the self only, because self-realisation without any detailed and wavering consideration of belief, etc., it the only ultimate path to liberation.

As belief, knowledge and conduct are inseparable qualities of the self, so the practical point of view has served the same purpose of pointing out the self. This view is presented for one who does not know that these jewels of right belief, knowledge and conduct are only three facets of the one full, perfect soul.

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12. The saint, who (is) always attentive to this soul meditation, follows (true) right conduct. He attains liberation from all troubles in a short time.

Commentary.

Here self-meditation is said to be the only way for freedom from all wordly miseries. It is the real path of liberation. If any saint follows all practical rules of sainthood without defect, but is not attentive to self-meditation and self-realization, he cannot destroy the Karmic fetters of the soul and free himself from mundane bondage and miseries. It is only in the furnace of self-absorption that Karmic dirt is consumed, and the inflow of Karmic molecules prevented, and the old Karmas prematurely shed off, The person, who realises his own pure self, enjoys true happines and freedom from the cares of this life and sows seeds of pure future salvation.

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13. The practical standpoint does not yield the real meaning. But the pure (or real) standpoint has been said to give the real meaning. The soul dependent on the real standpoint verily is a right-believer.

Commentary.

Practical standpoint is a manner of describing a substance in a way which is not literally true of its reality. To call a soul a man is true only from the practical point of view. Really the soul as such is quite free from matter. It is neither human nor sub-human; neither hellish nor celestial. Taking into consideration the present condition of the soul in a body of manlike form and in manlike actions, the soul is termed a man.

One who does not realise this distinction clearly cannot know the soul rightly, and therefore he cannot be a right-believer. He alone is a right believer who knows and believes that soul is soul and nothing but soul, and that it is perfectly pure, full of its own real attributes of knowledge, peacefulness and happiness, etc. Although for exchange of knowledge in our mundane life, the practical point of view is necessary, yet knowledge from this view merely without knowledge of the real standpoint cannot reveal the truth. It is belief in real truth only which. Can make a man a right-believer.

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14. The real standpoint expounds pure substance. It should be meditated upon by the seers of real substance. But the practical standpoint is said (to be of use for) those who (are) fixed in the lower thought-activity.

Commentary.

Those who have mastered the real standpoint and are able to keep their attention fixed upon self-meditation do not require any help from the practical standpoint; but when their attention is diverted from the self and is on the point of falling into other thought activities (as also for those who are not fit enough to master the real standpoint), this practical standpoint is a great support. Reading the scriptures, preaching the truth, writing spiritual books, worship of Arhats, feeding the poor, comforting the afraid, educating the ignorant, serving the needy, relieving the afflicted, etc., etc., are said to be the duties (Dharma) of a right-believing layman from the practical point of view. They should be adopted, when the mind is unable to fix itself on self-Meditation. Just as when one wants pure gold, and it is not procurable, it is better to have impure gold than not to have any at all; so one who aims to real standpoint may take support from religious practices from a practical standpoint. The practical is an auxiliary cause for the real point.

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15. The ascertainment, from the real standpoint, of soul, non-soul, merit and demerit, inflow, stoppage, shedding, bondage and liberation is right-belief.

Commentary.

These 9 Padarthas or categories are only phenomena of the same noumenon. The real standpoint establishes the essential identity of the self-absorbed soul, round which the other eight group themselves. Speaking, therefore, from the real stadpoint self-absorption alone is right-belief. There are two fundamental categories of the universe, soul and non-soul, each independent of the other in its real essence. Right-belief points to the pure soul as the great reality. The other eight only help us to see the accidents, which hinder the self-realization of the soul. It is merely; to emphasizes caution that these distinctions are made. The man pursuing the path of self-realization is absorbed in his real quest. He ignores things, which do not concern his aim.

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16. Know that (person to be one of) real standpoint who sees the soul unbound and untouched (by Karmic and physical matter, like a lotus-leaf by water), not other than itself (in all its mundane existences, like gold in its various forms, as ring, brecelet, necklace, etc.), steadfast in itself (even as the sea at rest), inseparable (from its attributes, as a dismond from its brilliance, etc.), and not united with impure thoughts (which are non-self, as water is not united with hest or solidity both of which are non-water).

Commentary.

The author here describes the person who has gained the real standpoint. It is he who realizes the soul as one whole individuality without any distinctions at all.

In common parlance, we speak of the soul as bound and touched by Karmas, as embodied in the various conditions of existence- celestial, human, sub-human or hellish, But the aim of the real standpoint is to see to divested of all bondage, as a really dis-em-bodied entity, free from the accidents and circumstances of its visible embodiment. Again, we speak of the soul in the different modifications of its attributes, changeful and inconstant, as differing in its attributes and affected by passions and thought activities. Here too the real standpoint differs. The soul is unchanging and constant, as one substance, all peaceful and free from all thought activities. It is like the lotus-leaf, gone down in water, touched by it but only superfically. It can never be other than its real self, whatever the transmutations it suffers in the course of its mundane existence. Like gold, changing outward, forms-yet essentially one substance-the soul is ever itself, unchanging like an ocean under a spell of peaceful calm. As to its attributes they are no separate phenomena. They are implicit in it, even as the briliance which is in, and has no existence apart implicit in it, even as the brilliance which is in, and has no existence part from the diamond to which it belongs in its relation to activities, whether of thought or action. It has a character fundamentally opposed to impure thought. There is no, and can never be, any real union between the soul and these non-soul, matter born thought-activities, etc.

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17. (He), who sees (I. E, believes, understands and experiences) the soul unbound and untouched (by Karmic and physical matter), not other than itself (in all its mundane existences), inseparable (from its attributes), knows the whole doctrine of the Conqueror (Jina), in the body of the scriptures.

Commentary.

Here the author emphasises the importance of the real point of view. It is through this alone that a right believer looks at his soul as quite pure, shorn of all defects, and the soul, as it is in its true nature and essence.

This knowledge i.e., the self-realization of the soul,. As it is, is the sum and substance of the teaching of Tirthamkeras and is laid down in the Jaina scriptures. Every one, aspiring after liberation and studying Jainism for this purpose, should try to understand the real with the practical point of view. It is the former alone, which can procure one the gift of self-anlysis, which is a key to open the storehouse of omniscience and perfection (Bheda Vijnana).

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18. Verily the soul is in my (right) knowledge. In my (right) belief, and in my (right) conduct, the soul is. In my renunciation, in the (thought-activity which produces) stoppage (of inflow of Karnic matter into the soul, and in my) selfconcentration, (there is) soul.

Commentary.

In this Gatha, soul is considered as an All-pervasive Reality; for though knowledge belief, conduct, renunciation, and the subjective stoppage of inflow (Bhiva samsara) and concentration are known by different names from the practical point of view and in consideration of the differences in point of their subject-matter, all are, from the real standpoint, present in their real, supreme, pure form only in a soul absorbed in itself.

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19. (Right) belief, knowledge and conduct should always be pursued by a saint from the practical standpoint know all these three, again, (to be) the soul itself from the real standpoint.

Commentary.

From the real point of view, we cannot make any distinction between right belief, right knowledge and right conduct. They all are co-existent and one with the individuality of the soul. Whoa-ever rightly medittes upon his own self obtains the clue to the three-fold path of liberation, which from the practical point of view may be considered on three aspects.

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20-21. As any man whosoever, knowing a king, believes (him as such) and then, being desirous of wealth, serves him by all efforts; so in reality the (pure) soul (as) king should be known, similarly should be believed, and then that same indeed should be realised by one desirous of liberation.

Commentary.

This Gatha propounds illustration-the illustration of a man seeking wealth, who renders service to the king and is paid wages therefor. The point of the example is that in self-realisation, too, we require the belief in the real soul and the fullest concentration of mind thereon. This Gatha forms the keynote to this book. The soul can be made perfect only by contemplation of and concentration on, the real nature of the soul itself.

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22. I am in Karmic matter (and thought activity produced by it) and in physical matter; or I (am) the Karmie and quasi-Karmic matter. So long as this understanding (goes on), indeed (the soul) till then is of perverse knowledge.

Commentary.

Ignorance is ever inherent in a mundane soul, and will last so long as it does not recognise himself, and know that this body, bondage of Karmas, anger, pride, deceft, and greed, etc., all impure thought-activities are all foreign to the real nature of soul. They are all material, because their main cause is matter. When a soul rightly believes in his pure indivldjalita as a store of all-knowledge, all-happiness and all-peace, it becomes a right believer and then it is able to tread on the path of liberation. “Know thyself,” Gnathe season of the Greeks, is really a summary of Shri Kunda-kunda Achrya’s teaching.

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23. In (One’s pure) soul or in non-soul, in whichever (of the two, the soul) is observed for the time being, in that same liberation or bondage results (respectively). So (it) is briefly described (by the Conquerors).

Commentary.

The aim of all Jain doctrine is that concentration of the mind on the soul in its real essence shorn of all connection with matter and its concerns, leads to liberation-the goal of all religious discipline, When, however, matter is the object of attachment, or when there is the slightest inclination therto, the soul is led into bondage which negates liberation.

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24. Whatever thought-activity the soul produces, the same (soul) is the doer of that thought-activity, from the real standpoint. From the practical standpoint (it is) the doer of material Karmas.

Commentary.

The mundane soul is not an active agent in the bondage of Karmic molecules, which themselves possess the inherent capacity of combining with the soul; the vibrations and impure thought-activity of the soul form the auxiliary causes therefor. The soul is however, the author of its own conscious thought, pure of impure. All conscious thought activities are modifications of the attribute of consciousness in the soul. In impure thought-activity, such an anger the root cause is the soul itself, but the auxiliary cause is the operation of passion Karma and the like. In Karmic bondage, the root cause is molecular Karmic matter, and the auxiliary cause is the soul’s impure thought-activity, This impure thought-activity is attributed to the soul from the impure real standpoint (Ashuddha Nischaya Naya). From the pure real standpoint (Shuddha Nischaya Naya), the soul is the doer only of its own pure modifications. If any person wants to be saved from karmic bondage, he must try to purify his thoughts, at their source, and this is accomplished by acquiring the true knowledge of the self, which is self-realization.

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25. Other foreign substance, living non-living or mixed is I, I am it. I am of them; and they are mine.

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26. It was mine formerly, I (was) its in the past time, (it) will again be mine; I also will be it.

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27. Thus the wrong-believer indulges in such perverse thought-activity of soul. But a right believer, knowing the real standpoint, does not so indulge.

Commentary.

Gathas 25-27 tell us that the slight identification of the self with the non-self, of the soul with the material accidents of physical existence, is the sure mark of wrong belief. This leads to delusion which oweverpowers meditation and takes it into wrong channels. I, ‘Me’, ‘Mind’ ‘Soul’ that is the real entity, and the consciousness of it in its pure essence, its chief object. Delusion leads to wrong belief in things of past, present and future. A right-believer is ever conscious that nothing other than his self can ever be he, or his mind, and that he can never be other than his real nature.

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28. The soul whose intellect is deluded by wrong knowledge and (which is) with many kinds of though-activity, says of the matter-substance (whether it is) bound or not bound (with the soul) : this is mine.

Commentary.

Wrong knowledge is here described as the cause of delusion, and an intellect is (of course from the practical point of view) attributed to the soul.

The point is that “Wrong knowledge,” of which instances have been gives in the preceding three Gathas, deludes the perceptive faculty of the soul, and it comes to regard matter-substance as “its” which, though apparently “genitive” or “attributive” shows attachment and leads to perversity, which should be avoided. Thus deluded, a person is affected by strong passionate thought-activities and breeds attachment to the body, which is bound to him, and with family, friends,. Cloths, houses,. Riches, country and kingdom, etc., which are not bound with him. So deluded by other objects, he desires for their possession and company, and their separation brings unbearable grief to him. For their make he is ready to perform any of the worst injuries and irreligious acts which lno wise man would ever do. He life, which can best be utilized in realising true peace, and in soul-advancement it totally ruined. The author has here described this piteous characteristic of an ignorant deluded person.

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29. That the soul always (possesses) the characteristic of conscious attentiveness is seen in the knowledge of the All-knowing. How can be soul be the matter, which thou say’s st is mine?

Commentary.

Remember that the soul, as it is, can never become matter, which is devoid of consciousness; consciousness is the special attribute of the soul. It is therfore, quite different from non-soul substances. This body, in which it resides and to which it resides and to which it is strongly attached, is made up of unconscious molecules of dead, lifeless matter. It is only the abode it dissolvess; but the soul free, and indissoluble, immaterial and conscious will retain its real existence for evermore. Therefore a trully wise man should never consider the body to be his, or otherwise identify himself with it.

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30. If that (soul) becomes matter-substance, the other (i.e., matter) will gain soulless. Then (you) can say that this matter substance (is) mise.

Commentary.

There is a total absence of matter in pure soul. But the impure mundane-soul has always got connection with electric and Karmic bodies. Still even duration of infinite time cannot change one substance into another. It is a rule that a substance can never lose its own real nature by being altered into another substance. It can modify within its own possible conditions, retaining all its natures and attributes of which the substance is an retaining all its natures may, however, modify the substance is an indivisible group. It may however, modify itself into many kinds of worldly lives, and have knowledge varying from the minimum knowledge of a common fine plant-life to maximum knowledge, Omnisciene.

Matter may change into many kinds of fine and gross molecules, of which the different object of the world and the bodies of living beings are formed, yet does not and cannot lose its peculiar attributes of materiality. Colour, smell, taste and touch which are its main attributes can never be lost. This persistent retention of an unchangeable inner-self, whether of matter or soul, is the basic truth of the universe. Soul is different from the body or Karmas. It is the privilege of the real standpoint to see no connection between “self” and “non-self.”

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31. If soul (is) not body, lauding of Tirthamkara and also of Acharya (head of the saints) is wrong: therefore the soul is only the body.

Commentary.

A student after having heard many praises of Tirthmkara and Acharya even with reference to their material bodies may think that if bodies may not be identical with soul, the saints would not have praised their bodies. He therefore may doubt that the soul is a separate substance from the body.

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32. The practical standpoint tells (that) soul and body are certainly one, but from real standpoint soul and body (are) not one substance at any time whatoever.

Commentary.

It is only from the practical point of view that the attributes of matter are ascribed to the soul. In wordly practice, the soul having a beautiful fair body is called beautiful and fair, though really the soul is neither beautiful (Shubha) nor beautiful (Ashubha) which are material associations. The living conscious soul can never become non-living unconscious matter.

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33. By lauding this material body (which is) separate from the soul, a saint understands that the perfect deity is lauded (and) adored by him.

Commentary.

When uttering praises of the body of a living Arhat, or of an image, the saints know all along that this lauding refers not to the body, but to the soul whose inner peace and purity has made the body adorable. It is the Perfect Soul, the Deity that is being bowed to.

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34. That (lauding) is not from the real standpoint: the qualities of the body are not found really in the perfect soul, He, who lauds the attributes of the perfect soul, really lauds the perfect soul.

Commentary.

The right-believing worshipper knows perfectly that lauding of the bodies of the great men is only from the practical point of view. From the real point of view, only that lauding which refers to the soul’s qualities directly can be called a proper lauding of the Tirthamkra and Acharyas.

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35. As admiring th city can never become admiration of the Kind, (so by) lauding the qualities of th body the attributes of the perfect, soul are never lauded.

Commentary.

Here the author illustrates his doctrine. As the praise of streets, roads, houses, gardens, etc., of city is not necessarily the lauding of the qualities of the king of the city, so admiration of the body is not the admiration of Omniscience. True adoration lies in the homage to the soul’s own special pure attributes. Examples of this real adoration are given in the following Gathas.

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36. He, who having conquered the senses realises the soul (as) full of its own inherent knowledge, him they, who (are) saints (and) knowers of the real standpoint really call a conqueror of the senses.

Commentary.

This Gatha illustrates the second aspect of home. The saint with perfect vows ascends the subsidential ladder and practices pure concentration, by virtue of which all kinds of deluding Karmas subside and he attains to the 11th stage of subsided delusion. There he is called a conqueror of delusion.

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38. And when destruction of delusion takes place in a saint, the conqueror of delusion, then verily he is called delusionless by the knowers of reality.

Commentary.

The same saint as conqueror of delusion, falling back from 11th to 7the stage, ascends with destructive right belief on the destructive ladder, where he destroys the deluding Karma altogether. The destruction of delusion opens the path to reality. It is the ascent to the 12th stage of delusionlessness.

It is the third aspect of real adoration. In this way all references about the real attributes of the soul constitute real homage, because they directly laud to the real nature of the soul, the meditation of which is essential to liberation.

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39. As self-knowledge renounces all (impure) thought activities, knowing him to be other than itself, therefore, self-knowledge must be recognised as renunciation in reality.

Commentary.

From the practical point of view the giving up of vowlessness, worldly possession and sense-gratification is called renunciation. From the real standpoint, when a right believer, diverting his attention from all what is other than himself, concentrates himself in his self, i.e., is absorbed in self, without any consideration of renouncing anything, there is real renunciation of he non-self by the soul. The author here means to say hat the saint who is unable to realise the true nature of his own soul cannot be called a renounce, even if he has given up all worldly things and is practicing sevre austerities. Practical renunciation is for the sake of self-realisation; and true renunciation is only where there is self-absorption.

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40. As any man whatsoever knowing another’s thing to be as such gives (it) up, so the (right) knower renounces all non-self-thought-activities knowing them to be non-self.

Commentary.

So long as a person does not realize the distinction between his own and other’s possessions, he might think, as his own the things, which really do not belong to him. But as soon as he knows the truth, he, as a right and hones man, gives up all attachment to them and remains content with what is his own. Similarly a right believer, realizing the truth, understands fully the nothing except his own self with its own pure attributes belongs to him. He at once renounces all attachment o non-self and becomes content with and absorbed in his own self.

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41. Delusion has no concern with me. I am only the atentive one. The knowers of pure soul call me as having no concern with delusion.