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CHAPTER XXXII
GRADES OF MORAL DISCIPLINE
This chapter contains information about four types of morally disciplined beings, viz. perfectly disciplined (samyata), undisciplined (asamyata), imperfectly disciplined (samyatāsamyata) and beyond all sorts of morality and immorality (nosamyata-noasaṁyata-nosamyatåsamyata) and we are told as to which of these types can be possibly present in this or that class of living beings. The infernal beings, the beings from the one-sensed to the four-sensed, Vanavyantara gods, Jyotişka gods and Vaimānika gods are asamyata. The sub-human beings having five senses can be asamyata or samyatāsamyata. The first three types are possible in the class of human beings. The fourth one is found in the class of liberated souls (siddhas) alone (1974-80). The gathā given at the end of the chapter does not take into account the class of siddhas. In Şařkhandāgama there occurs one dvāra called samyama among the fourteen märganästhånas. This shows that the method of dividing living beings on the basis of samyama (moral discipline) has its own importance. Satkhandāgama enumerates in its Samyamadvāra seven types of morally disciplined beings, viz. sämāyikaśuddhisamyata, chedopasthapanaśuddhisaṁyata, parihāraśuddhisamyata, sülşmasām parāyasuddhisamyata, yathākhyātavihärasuddhisamyata, samyatāsamyata and asamyata and tells us as to which of these types are found in 14 gunasthānas (14 stages of spiritual evolution).1
1. Șatkhandagama, Book I, p. 368.
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