Jain Religious and Philosophical Concepts in the Prescribed Texts
What this domain tests
One question asks you to explain a doctrine as it appears in the prescribed passage, not as a free essay. Name the doctrine, quote the word from the text, then explain in two or three sentences.
The nine tattvas
jīva (soul), ajīva (non-soul), āsava (influx of karma), bandha (bondage), puṇṇa (merit), pāva (demerit), saṃvara (stopping influx), nirjarā (shedding karma), mokkha (liberation). Nearly every prescribed prose extract maps onto this list.
Karma
Eight mūla-kammas: jñānāvaraṇīya, darśanāvaraṇīya, vedanīya, mohanīya, āyuṣya, nāma, gotra, antarāya. Mohanīya - delusion - is the root of saṃsāra, fed by the four kaṣāyas: krodha, māna, māyā, lobha.
Ahiṃsā
The canon's own formula is savve pāṇā ṇa hantavvā, "no being is to be killed". The reason given is not sentiment but the equality of all jīvas in seeking happiness, and the fact that hiṃsā binds karma. Ahiṃsā is the first mahāvrata of the monk and the first aṇuvrata of the layman, protected by the five samitis and three guptis.
Anekānta
Syādvāda (saptabhaṅgī) qualifies every judgement with siyā, "in some respect"; nayavāda distinguishes standpoints such as naigama, saṃgraha, vyavahāra, ujjusutta, sadda. Anekānta does not mean "everything is relative": an object has infinite dharmas, and a statement is true from a stated standpoint.
Ratnatraya
sammaddiṭṭhi, sammāṇāṇa, sammācāritta - right faith, knowledge and conduct - are the path to mokkha. The siddha state is individual, on the siddha-śilā, with the four anantas: jñāna, darśana, sukha, vīrya.
Worked example
Passage: savve pāṇā ṇa hantavvā. Identify it as the ahiṃsā-mahāvrata, stated as a passive gerundive (hantavva, "to be killed"). Connect to āsava: hiṃsā committed through pramāda (carelessness) is an āsava; stopping it is saṃvara. Doctrine, text word and mechanism together earn the full mark.
Traps
- Importing Sāṃkhya puruṣa/prakṛti language into jīva/ajīva.
- Saying mokkha is merging into a universal soul; it is individual release.
- Saying Jainism denies all deities; tīrthaṅkaras are teachers, not creators.
- Listing the eight kammas without naming mohanīya as the one that keeps one in saṃsāra.