means the absolute keeping of the five great vows. His conduct, as we have seen, should be perfect, or Sarvaċāritrya, for he must follow the conduct laid down for him in every particular; but the layman is only expected to possess Deśaċāritrya (partial conduct), for, so long as he is not a professed monk, he cannot be absolutely perfect in conduct.
Three
Śalya
that in-
jure
Ċāritrya. Right Conduct, however, can be ruined by three evil darts, or śalya. The first of these is intrigue or fraud (Māyā śalya), since no one can gam a good character whose life, social or religious, is governed by deceit. Even in such holy matters as fasting, intrigue can make itself felt.
A second poisonous dart is false belief or Mithyātva śalya, which consists in holding a false god to be a true one, a false guru to be a true guru, and a false religion to be a true religion; by so doing one absolutely injures Right Knowledge and Right Faith which lead to Right Conduct; this is therefore a highly poisonous dart. The great evil wrong belief does shows how supremely important it is for men to know who is the true Tīrthaṅkara, and the definition, which the Jaina repeat every day at their devotions, runs as follows:
'He who is omniscient, free from all love of the world and from all failings; he who is worshipped by the three worlds and who explains the inner meaning [of religion] as it exists: this adorable deity is the great god.'[1]
The Jaina similarly define a false god:
'Those gods who retain women, weapons and rosaries, who are steeped in attachment and so stained, who are in the habit of giving and accepting favours, these can give no help towards deliverance.'
In the same way it is of great importance to recognize good gurus, especially in a land swarming with worthless ascetics. This is the Jaina definition, which is also repeated by them every day:
- ↑ i.e. Tīrthaṅkara.
