The
Tattvartha Sutra contains ten chapters: • Faith and Knowledge • The Category of the Living • The Lower World and the Middle World • The Celestial Beings • The Category of the Non-Living • Influx of
Karma • The
Five Vows • Bondage of Karma • Stoppage and Shedding of Karma •
Liberation The first chapter deals with the process of cognition and details about different types of knowledge. The next three chapters deal with the
Jīva (soul), lower worlds,
naraka, and celestial abodes,
devas. The fifth chapter discusses the Non-soul (
ajīva). The next three chapters deal with the
karmas and their manifestations and the influx,
asrava, good and bad
karma,
shubha-ashubha karma and the
bondage of the karmas. The ninth chapter describes the blocking,
samvara and shedding of the karmas,
nirjara. The final chapter discusses
moksha or the liberation of the soul.
Invocation The text written in
Sanskrit, begins with an invocation: "I bow to the Lord, the promulgator of the path to liberation, the destroyer of mountains of karmas and the knower of the whole of reality, so that I may realize these qualities."
Ratnatraya (three jewels) The first verse of
Tattvārthsūtra, "" (), summarizes the Jaina path to liberation. It means that the
Ratnatraya (three jewels: right view, right knowledge and right conduct) collectively constitutes the path to liberation or
moksha.
Seven categories of truth The theology in
Tattvartha Sutra presents seven categories of truth in sutra 1.4: • Souls exist () • Non-sentient matter exists () • Karmic particles exist that inflow to each soul () • Karmic particles bind to the soul {which transmigrate with rebirth} () • Karmic particles inflow can be stopped () • Karmic particles can fall away from soul () • Complete release of karmic particles leads to liberation from worldly bondage () Umaswami categorizes the types of knowledge to be empirical, attained through one's sense of perception. He adds that knowledge is also acquired through literature, clairvoyance, and omniscience. In chapter 2, Umaswati presents sutras on soul. He asserts that soul is distinguished by suppression of deluding karma, or elimination of eight types of karmas, or partial presence of destructive karmas, or arising of eight types of new karmas, or those that are innate to the soul, or a combination of these. In chapter 3 through 6, Umaswati presents sutras for his first three categories of truth.
Ethics In chapter 7, Umaswami presents the Jaina vows and explains their value in stopping karmic particle inflow to the soul. The vows, with their respective translations by Nathmal Tatia, are: •
ahimsa (abstinence from violence) •
anirta (abstinence from falsehood) •
asteya / achourya (abstinence from stealing) •
brahmacharya (abstinence from carnality) •
aparigraha (abstinence from possessiveness)
Karma and rebirths Umaswati, in chapter 8 of
Tattvartha Sutra presents his sutras on how
karma affects rebirths. He asserts that accumulated karma in life determines the length of life and realm of rebirth for each soul in each of four states – infernal beings, plants and animals, human beings and as gods. Further, states Umaswati, karma also affects the body, the shape, the characteristics as well as the status of the soul within the same species, such as
Ucchi (upper) or
Nicchi (lower) status. The accumulated and new karma are material particles, states Umaswati, which stick to the soul and these travel with the soul from one life to the next as bondage, where each ripens. Once ripened, the karmic particles fall off, states Umaswati.
Shedding karma and liberation Chapter 9 of
Tattvartha Sutra states how karmic particles can be stopped from attaching to the soul and how these can be shed. Umaswati asserts that
gupti (curbing activity),
dharma (virtues such as forbearance, modesty, purity, truthfulness, self-restraint, austerity, renunciation), contemplation, endurance in hardship (he lists twenty-two hardships including hunger, thirst, cold, heat, nakedness, injury, lack of gain, illness, praise, disrespect), and with good character towards others (he lists five – equanimity, reinitiation, non-injury (
Ahimsa), slight passion and fair conduct), a soul stops karmic accumulations. External austerities such as fasting, reduced diet and isolated habitation, along with internal austerities such as expiation, reverence, service, renunciation and meditation, according to Umaswati, along with respectful service to teachers and ailing ascetics help shed karma. The state of liberation is presented in Chapter 10 by Umaswati. It is achieved when deluding and obstructive karmas have been destroyed. This leads to the state of quietism and potentiality, and the soul then moves to the end of the universe, states Umaswati. ==Importance==