28. Chapter 28 - The Road to Final Deliverance

1Learn the true road leading to final deliverance, which the Jinas have taught; it depends on four causes and is characterised by right knowledge and faith. (1)

2I. Right knowledge; II. Faith; III. Conduct; and IV. Austerities; this is the road taught by the Jinas who possess the best knowledge. (2)

3Right knowledge, faith, conduct, and austerities; beings who follow this road, will obtain beatitude. (3)

4I. Knowledge is fivefold: 1. Śruta, knowledge derived from the sacred books; 2. Ābhinibodhika, perception[1]; 3. Avadhi, supernatural knowledge; 4. Manaḥparyāya[2], knowledge of the thoughts of other people; 5. Kevala, the highest, unlimited knowledge. (4) This is the fivefold knowledge. The wise ones have taught the knowledge of substances, qualities, and all developments[3]. (5)

5Substance is the substrate of qualities; the qualities are inherent in one substance; but the characteristic of developments is that they inhere in either (viz. substances or qualities). (6)

6Dharma, Adharma, space, time, matter, and souls (are the six kinds of substances[4]); they make up this world, as has been taught by the Jinas who possess the best knowledge. (7)

7Dharma, Adharma, and space are each one substance only; but time, matter, and souls are an infinite number of substances. (8)

8The characteristic of Dharma is motion, that of Adharma immobility, and that of space[5], which contains all other substances, is to make room (for everything)[6]. (9)

9The characteristic of time is duration[7], that of soul the realisation[8] of knowledge, faith, happiness, and misery. (10)

10The characteristic of Soul is knowledge, faith, conduct, austerities, energy, and realisation (of its developments). (11)

11The characteristic of matter is sound, darkness, lustre (of jewels, &c.), light, shade, sunshine; colour, taste, smell, and touch. (12)

12The characteristic of development is singleness, separateness[9], number, form, conjunction, and disjunction. (13)

131. jīva, Soul; 2. ajīva, the inanimate things; 3. bandha, the binding of the soul by Karman; 4. puṇya, merit; 5. pāpa, demerit; 6. āsrava, that which causes the soul to be affected by sins; 7. saṃvara, the prevention of āsrava by watchfulness; 8. the annihilation of Karman; 9. final deliverance: these are the nine truths (or categories). (14)

14He who verily believes the true teaching of the (above nine) fundamental truths, possesses righteousness. (15)

15II. Faith is produced by 1. nisarga, nature; 2. upadeśa, instruction; 3. ājñā, command; 4. sūtra, study of the sūtras; 5. bīja, suggestion; 6. abhigama, comprehension of the meaning of the sacred lore; 7. vistāra, complete course of study; 8. kriyā, religious exercise; 9. saṃkṣepa, brief exposition; 10. dharma, the Law. (16)

161. He who truly comprehends, by a spontaneous effort of his mind[10], (the nature of) soul, inanimate things, merit, and demerit, and who puts an end to sinful influences[11], (believes by) nature. (17)

17He who spontaneously believes the four truths (explicitly mentioned in the last verse), which the Jinas have taught, (thinking) they are of this and not of a different nature, believes by nature. (18)

182. But he who believes these truths, having learned them from somebody else, either a Chadmastha[12] or a Jina, believes by instruction. (19)

193. He who has got rid of love, hate, delusion, and ignorance, and believes because he is told to do so, believes by command. (20)

204. He who obtains righteousness by (the study of) the Sūtras, either Aṅgas or other works[13], believes by the study of Sūtras. (21)

215. He who by correctly comprehending one truth arrives at the comprehension of more -- just as a drop of oil expands on the surface of water--believes by suggestion. (22)

226. He who truly knows the sacred lore, viz. the eleven Aṅgas, the Prakīrṇas[14], and the Dṛṣṭivāda, believes by the comprehension of the sacred lore. (23)

237. He who understands the true nature of all substances by means of all proofs (pramāṇa) and nayas[15], believes by a complete course of study. (24)

248. He who sincerely performs (all duties implied) by right knowledge, faith, and conduct, by asceticism and discipline, and by all Samitis and Guptis, believes by religious exercise. (25)

259. He who though not versed in the sacred doctrines[16] nor acquainted with other systems[17], holds no wrong doctrines, believes by brief exposition. (26)

2610. He who believes in the truth[18] of the realities[19], the Sūtras, and conduct, as it has been explained by the Jinas, believes by the Law. (27)

27Right belief depends on the acquaintance with truth[20], on the devotion to those who know the truth, and on the avoiding of schismatical and heretical tenets. (28)

28There is no (right) conduct without right belief[21], and it must be cultivated (for obtaining) right faith; righteousness and conduct originate together, or righteousness precedes (conduct). (29)

29Without (right) faith there is no (right) knowledge, without (right) knowledge there is no virtuous conduct[22], without virtues there is no deliverance[23], and without deliverance there is no perfection. (30)

30(The excellence of faith depends on the following) eight points: 1. that one has no doubts (about the truth of the tenets); 2. that one has no preference (for heterodox tenets); 3. that one does not doubt its saving qualities[24]; 4. that one is not shaken in the right belief (because heretical sects are more prosperous); 5. that one praises (the pious); 6. that one encourages (weak brethren); 7. that one supports or loves the confessors of the Law; 8. that one endeavours to exalt it. (31)

31III. Conduct, which produces the destruction of all Karman, is 1. sāmāyika[25], the avoidance of everything sinful; 2. chedopasthāpana, the initiation of a novice; 3. parihāraviśuddhika, purity produced by peculiar austerities[26]; 4. sūkṣma samparāya, reduction of desire; 5. akaṣāya yathākhyāta, annihilation of sinfulness according to the precepts of the Arhats, as well in the case of a Chadmastha as of a Jina. (32, 33)

32IV. Austerities are twofold: external and internal; both external and internal austerities are sixfold. (34) By knowledge one knows things, by faith one believes in them, by conduct one gets (freedom from Karman), and by austerities one reaches purity. (35)

33Having by control and austerities destroyed their Karman, great sages, whose purpose is to get rid of all misery, proceed to (perfection).

34This is usually called mati, and is placed before śruta. The same enumeration recurs in XXXIII, 4, p. 193. Umāsvāti in Mokṣa Sūtra I, 14, gives the following synonyms of mati: smṛti, cintā, abhinibodha.

35Dravya, guṇa, paryāya (pajjava in Jaina Prākṛt). Guṇa, quality, is generally not admitted by the Jainas as a separate category, see Śīlāṅka’s refutation of the Vaiśeṣika doctrines at the end of his comments on Sūtrakṛtāṅga I, 12 (Bombay edition, p. 482).

36They are frequently called astikāyas, or realities.

37It is here called nabhas instead of ākāśa.

38Singleness (ekatva) makes a thing appear as one thing, separateness (pṛthaktva) as different from others.

39Sahasamuiya = svayaṃsamudita. It is usually rendered sahasammati.

40Āsravasaṃvara, see above, verse 14, 6 and 7.

41A chadmastha is one who has not yet obtained Kevala, or the highest knowledge; he is in the two guṇasthānas (the fourteen stages in the development of the soul from the lowest to the highest) characterised as 1. upaśāntamoha, and 2. kṣīṇamoha; viz. 1. that in which delusion is only temporarily separated from the soul, and 2. that in which delusion is finally destroyed.

42Bāhira; apparently the same works are intended which are elsewhere called anaṅgapraviṣṭa.

43The original has the singular.

44The seven nayas are 'points of view or principles with reference to which certain judgments are arrived at or arrangements made.' Bhandarkar, Report, p. 112.

45E. g. that of Kapila, &c., Comm.

46Astikāya; see note on verse 7.

47I.e. true things as soul, &c.

48Saṃyaktva righteousness.'

49Caraṇaguṇa. The commentators make this a dvandva compound, and interpret caraṇa as vratādi, and guṇa as piṇḍaviśuddhi, &c.

50By deliverance I have rendered mokṣa, and by final perfection nirvāṇa. Mokṣa denotes freedom from Karman, a condition which in Brāhmanical philosophy is called jīvanmukti.

51Nivvitigicchā = nirvicikitsa. According to the commentary it may stand for nir-vid-jugupsā 'without loathing the saints.'

52See Bhandarkar, Report, p. 98, note ‡.

53The Dīpikā contains the following details. Nine monks resolve to live together for eighteen months. They make one of their number their superior, kalpasthita, four become parihārikas, and the remaining four serve them (anuparihārikas). After six months the parihārikas become anuparihārikas and vice versa. After another six months the kalpasthita does penance and all the other monks serve him as anuparihārikas.