Pending review. This page is compiled from general sources and has not yet been checked by a knowledgeable reviewer. Jain practice varies between traditions, sub-sects, regions and families — please confirm anything you intend to act on with your own guru or sangh.
What are the three jewels in Jainism?
A well-known verse attributed to Umasvati's Tattvartha Sutra opens by stating that right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together are the path to liberation — a single compound path, not three alternative routes. The image of a three-legged stool is often used: remove any one jewel and the path does not stand.
The order given is also traditionally treated as meaningful. Right faith is usually described as coming first, because without genuine conviction, knowledge remains merely intellectual and conduct remains merely mechanical or socially motivated rather than spiritually purposeful.
What is samyak darshana (right faith)?
Classical Jain texts describe several qualities that mark right faith, including freedom from doubt about the teaching, freedom from desire for worldly reward as the point of practice, and a settled equanimity toward all living beings regardless of their present state or belief.
Right faith is described as attainable suddenly, through a moment of genuine insight, or gradually, through sustained study and reflection — the tradition recognises both routes rather than insisting on one.
What is samyak jnana (right knowledge)?
The five kinds, in ascending order, are mati (knowledge through the senses and mind), shruta (knowledge through scripture and testimony), avadhi (a limited direct knowledge of distant or hidden objects), manahparyaya (direct knowledge of others' thoughts) and kevala (complete, unlimited knowledge). Only a liberated or near-liberated soul attains the last.
Right knowledge is explicitly distinguished from mere information. Knowledge held alongside wrong faith is, in this framework, classified as wrong knowledge (mithya jnana) regardless of its accuracy in ordinary terms, because it is not oriented toward liberation.
What is samyak charitra (right conduct)?
Right conduct is described in stages rather than as a single fixed standard. Jain texts set out fourteen stages of spiritual development (gunasthana), tracking a soul's progress from bound by wrong belief through partial and then full right conduct, culminating in the stages just before and at liberation.
This staged view means samyak charitra is understood as a direction of travel and a matter of degree, not a single pass-or-fail test — a layperson observing the anuvratas and a monastic observing the mahavratas are both understood as practising right conduct, at different stages of the same path.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Tattvartha Sutra of Umasvati (Umasvami), opening verse and chapters on faith, knowledge and conduct
- Padmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification
- Paul Dundas, The Jains (2nd edition, Routledge)