Home > Authors > Vijay K. Jain > Ācārya Samantabhadra’s Ratnakarandaka-śrāvakācāra = The Jewel-casket of Householder’s Conduct
Ācārya Samantabhadra’s Ratnakarandaka-śrāvakācāra = The Jewel-casket of Householder’s Conduct
Ācārya Samantabhadra’s Ratnakarandaka-śrāvakācāra – Ratnakaranda, in short – comprising 150 verses, is a celebrated and perhaps the earliest Digambara work dealing with the excellent path of dharma that every householder (śrāvaka) must follow. All his efforts should be directed towards the acquisition and safekeeping of the Three Jewels (ratnatraya), comprising right faith (samyagdarśana), right knowledge (samyagjñāna) and right conduct (samyakcāritra), which lead to releasing him from worldly sufferings and establishing him in the state of supreme happiness. The treatise expounds an easy-to-understand meaning of ‘right faith’: To have belief, as per the Reality, in the sect-founder or deity (āpta or deva), the scripture (āgama or śāstra), and the preceptor (guru). It specifies criteria to distinguish between the real and the counterfeit enabling one to eliminate follies attributable...