सात तत्त्व

The seven tattvas

The whole of the doctrine compressed into seven categories, from soul to liberation. Learning them is where a Jain education traditionally begins.

Seven categories are held to contain the entire account: jiva, the soul; ajiva, non-soul; asrava, the inflow of karma; bandha, its binding; samvara, the stopping of the inflow; nirjara, the shedding of what is bound; and moksha, liberation. Some enumerations add punya and papa — merit and demerit — as an eighth and ninth, which is a difference of arrangement rather than of doctrine.

The sequence is a diagnosis followed by a treatment. The first two say what there is. The next two say what has gone wrong and how. The next two say what to do about it. The last says what happens when it is done. Nothing in Jain practice sits outside this frame, which is why the list is taught first and returned to constantly.

It is worth noticing what is absent. There is no creator, no grace, and no intercession: the Tirthankaras are venerated as those who made the crossing and showed the way, not petitioned as beings who can carry anyone across. A tradition that recognises no god who could intervene has to put the entire mechanism inside the soul and its karma, and the seven tattvas are that mechanism stated in full.