Pravachanasara presents self-purification as a movement inward, away from identification with body and karmic conditions, toward steadfast awareness of the soul as pure consciousness. Central to this process are the three jewels: right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct. Right faith entails a firm conviction in the reality of the soul as distinct from the body and karmic states, together with trust in the teachings of the Tirthankaras and the path of liberation. Wrong belief is treated as a primary defilement, so the rectification of vision itself becomes a powerful means of purification.

Right knowledge then deepens this purified vision by clearly discerning the nature of the soul and the distinction between self and non-self. The soul is understood as a knowing, non-material substance, while karmic matter is regarded as an accretion foreign to its essence. This knowledge includes insight into the difference between conventional viewpoints, in which one appears as doer and enjoyer, and the ultimate standpoint, in which one abides as pure knower and seer. Sustained contemplation from this higher standpoint is portrayed as directly weakening karmic bondage and clarifying the soul’s own luminosity.

Right conduct gives concrete form to this inner clarity through disciplined ethical living and progressive renunciation. Non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy, and non-attachment are to be practiced in thought, word, and deed, with both external restraint and inward purification of intention. Equanimity toward pleasure and pain, praise and blame, is cultivated as a stabilizing disposition, while anger, pride, deceit, and greed are gradually relinquished. Such conduct is not merely external rule-following; it is framed as the soul’s gradual freedom from passions and identification with action.

Meditative practice occupies a privileged place in this vision of self-purification. The practitioner repeatedly turns attention to the pure self, engaging in focused contemplation on the soul as knower and seer, distinct from body, mind, and worldly roles. Worldly, angry, or deluded modes of thought are to be abandoned in favor of righteous and pure meditation that aligns with the soul’s true nature. As detachment from the fruits of karma deepens, experiences are viewed as transient modes of karmic operation, while the witnessing consciousness remains untouched. Through this steady cultivation of right faith, right knowledge, right conduct, and self-meditation, the path of inner purification unfolds toward complete freedom from karmic bondage.