RBSE VU Jain Darshan key terms

The Jain doctrine that reality is many-sided, so any object has countless qualities and modes; no single description exhausts it. It grounds tolerance of apparently conflicting views and underlies syadvada.

The sevenfold predication method (saptabhangi) that qualifies every assertion with 'syat', meaning 'in some respect', producing seven conditional statements about existence, non-existence, and inexpressibility.

The seven modes of syadvada: is, is not, is and is not, inexpressible, is and inexpressible, is not and inexpressible, and is, is not, and inexpressible, each taken in a specified respect.

A partial standpoint or viewpoint that grasps one aspect of a complex object without denying the others; unlike pramana, it is not a complete cognition. Niksepa and nayavada systematize its varieties.

Valid, self-certifying cognition that grasps an object as it really is and is not contradicted by later experience; Jain epistemology counts pratyaksa (direct) and paroksa (indirect, mainly inference and testimony).

Direct perception, in Jain theory the cognition arising from the self when karmic obscuration of the senses and mind is removed; it includes ordinary sensory perception and the omniscient perception of a kevalin.

The method of fixing a word's referent by distinguishing its senses: name (nama), representation (sthapana), substance-possession (dravya), and actual attribute (bhava), so a term like 'Indra' is not confused across levels.

A substance, defined as that which possesses qualities and modes and persists through change; Jain metaphysics admits six: jiva, pudgala, dharma, adharma, akasa, and kala.

An inherent quality inseparable from its substance, without which the substance would not be what it is; qualities such as consciousness in jiva or colour in pudgala persist while modes change.

A mode or modification, the changing state that a substance and its qualities assume over time; modes arise and perish while the underlying substance endures, giving Jainism its identity-in-change ontology.

A conscious living substance, beginningless and endless, characterized by upayoga (knowing and perceiving); it is countless in number and becomes bound or liberated according to karma.

The non-living substances collectively: pudgala, dharma, adharma, akasa, and kala; they lack consciousness but provide the conditions, media, and material for jiva's experience and embodiment.

Matter, the only non-living substance with form; composed of atoms (paramanu) that combine into aggregates, it supplies body, speech, mind, breath, and the karmic particles that bind jiva.

Formless, non-material substances that are respectively the medium enabling motion and the medium enabling rest, analogous to water helping fish move; they are conditions, not causes, of movement and stillness.

Space, the formless substance that gives room to all other substances; its region containing jiva, pudgala, dharma, and adharma is lokakasa, while the empty infinite remainder is alokakasa.

Time, treated in Jain metaphysics as a substance of atomic units (samaya) that marks duration and change in other substances; some traditions class it as a mode of substance rather than a separate dravya.

In Jainism, fine pudgala particles drawn to jiva by passions and activity, forming a subtle body that obscures its qualities; not a cosmic judge but a mechanical, beginningless bondage.

The influx of karmic matter into jiva, caused by yoga (activity of body, speech, and mind) operating together with kasaya (passions); it is the first of the tattvas leading to bondage.

The binding of karmic matter to jiva, determined by the type (prakriti), duration (sthiti), intensity (anubhava), and quantity (pradesa) of karma; it follows influx and is undone by stoppage and shedding.

Stoppage of karmic influx, achieved through guardedness (gupti), vigilance (samiti), restraint of the passions, and the tenfold dharma; it halts new bondage and allows existing karma to be exhausted.

The shedding or falling away of accumulated karmic matter, either naturally as karma ripens or deliberately through austerities and penance; complete nirjara is required for liberation.

The eight karma types split into four that obscure jiva's powers (knowledge, perception, conduct, and energy) and four that shape experience (feeling, lifespan, body, and status); only the former block omniscience.

Non-violence, the cardinal Jain restraint of not harming any living being by thought, word, or deed; it follows from the equality of all jivas and is the foundation of lay and monastic ethics.

The 'lesser vows' of a Jain householder, especially the five anuvratas of non-violence, truth, non-stealing, sexual restraint, and limiting possessions, practised in a moderated form suited to worldly life.

The five 'great vows' undertaken by Jain monks and nuns: complete non-violence, truth, non-stealing, celibacy, and non-possession; they are absolute and stricter than the lay anuvratas.

A Jain lay follower, literally 'one who listens', who accepts the twelvefold lay discipline including the five anuvratas, three gunavratas, and four sikshavratas while remaining in household life.

The voluntary, gradual fasting to death permitted for the terminally ill or extremely aged, undertaken with equanimity and without craving or aversion; it is distinguished from suicide by its peaceful intent.

Right faith, the first jewel of the Jain path: firm conviction in the tattvas and in the liberated teachers, free from doubt, perversity, and indifference; it precedes and purifies right knowledge.

Right knowledge, the second jewel: cognition of the tattvas consistent with right faith, free from doubt and error; the five kinds are mati, sruta, avadhi, manahparyaya, and kevala.

Right conduct, the third jewel: abstention from harmful activity and the practice of vows, rooted in right faith and knowledge; with the other two jewels it constitutes the path to liberation.

Liberation: the jiva's release from all karma, ending rebirth and dwelling in infinite knowledge, perception, bliss, and energy; achieved when ghatiya karma is destroyed and the rest shed.

Omniscience, the unlimited direct knowledge attained when knowledge-obscuring karma is destroyed; it arises with kevala darshana and marks the fourteenth gunasthana, immediately before liberation at death.

The fourteen stages of spiritual ascent, from the first stage of wrong faith through partial and complete restraint to omniscience and final disembodied liberation; they map the soul's progress on the path.

The canonical scriptures of the Svetambara tradition, preserved as the twelve Angas and related texts, believed to record the teachings of Mahavira; the Digambara tradition holds the original canon is lost.

Umasvati's concise Sanskrit sutra text, accepted by both major Jain traditions, organizing the tattvas, karma, jiva, and the path into ten chapters; it is the standard systematic summary of Jain doctrine.

The early Jain acarya, probably around the second century CE, credited with the Tattvartha Sutra and the authoritative commentary on it; both Digambara and Svetambara traditions revere his work.

The twenty-fourth tirthankara of the current age, a historical teacher of the sixth century BCE, whose preaching is held to have been compiled as the Agamas after his liberation.

A ford-maker: an omniscient teacher who establishes the Jain community and revives the doctrine in each cosmic age; twenty-four appear in the present half-cycle, Mahavira being the last.

The comparative point that Nyaya-Vaisesika realism treats categories as fixed and knowable by pramana, while Jain anekantavada treats them as many-sided; both accept pramana but Jainism adds naya and syadvada.

Jainism shares Samkhya's dualism of conscious jiva and unconscious non-self and Yoga's emphasis on restraint, but rejects a single primal prakriti and Ishvara, positing many jivas and karma as the binding mechanism.

Jain pluralism of many jivas contrasts with Advaita's single Brahman; Jainism rejects a creator God and world-illusion, while sharing with Vedanta the goal of release from rebirth through knowledge and conduct.

The defining characteristic of jiva: conscious engagement in knowing and perceiving, present even in the simplest beings as obscured or minimal cognition rather than absent entirely.