Samayasara samples in 12 days
1 gatha a day · 12 days · 12 gathas total
Twelve carefully chosen gathas from Kundakunda's Samayasara, one a day. Each gatha is dense — meant to be sat with, not read through. The set covers all nine adhikaras (chapters) of the original.
Primary text: Samayasara · Selected Gathas by Acharya Kundakunda
- Day 1
The jīva is the knower
Gatha 1 — Kundakunda opens the entire text with a salutation and the topic: who you are, beneath what happens.
- Day 2
Niścaya and vyavahāra
Gatha 2 — the two-standpoint method that defines this text. Absolute vs. conventional. Most Jain philosophy hinges on holding both.
- Day 3
Self vs. not-self
Gatha 3 — the self is distinguished from everything it identifies with but is not.
- Day 4
The bound and the free
Gatha 4 — the doctrine of bondage and its mechanism. Karma is something the soul does, not something done to it.
- Day 5
Pure consciousness
Gatha 5 — the self in its essential nature, free of all that obscures it. The target of the entire path.
- Day 6
The soul as agent
Gatha 6 — kartṛ-kriyā-adhikāra. The doctrine of agency. Who acts, and on what?
- Day 7
Karma flows in
Gatha 7 — āsrava. The way fresh karma binds to the soul. The Jain analysis of why suffering perpetuates.
- Day 9
Stopping the flow
Gatha 9 — saṁvara. The first turning of the tide. What the path actually does in moment-to-moment terms.
- Day 10
Burning off karma
Gatha 10 — nirjarā. The release of accumulated karma through tapas and self-knowledge.
- Day 11
Mokṣa — freedom
Gatha 11 — mokṣa. What freedom looks like. The complete result of the path.
- Day 12
Pure-soul realization
Gatha 12 — śuddha-jñāna. The realization of pure knowing. Kundakunda's closing image: what the liberated soul actually is.