Jaina Concept of Omniscience

SR No.: 001547
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ramjee Singh
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 258
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Knowledge
File Size: 17 MB

Page 99

86 ĞRADATION OF SOULS AND STAGES OF OMNISCIENCE
with four-fold infinities and, hence, if proper efforts be made, there is no reason, why one cannot attain the state of superknowledge, faith and happiness [D] Gradation according to the Stages of Spiritual Development
(Gunasthānas) of the Soul and Omniscience The spiritual progress of the soul has fourteen stages, from impurifying bondage to purfied freedom, from wrong-belief to right-belief, from nescience to omniscience. Bondage is due to five causes, namely, wrong belief, vowlessness, carelessness, passions and vibratory activity.59 From the first to the third stage of spirituality (Gunasthāņa), all the causes are found, though in the second, the first is absent for a very short time. In the fourth stage, all but the first (Mithyādarśana) are found, in the fifth and sixth stages, all but wrong belief and vowlessness are present. In the seventh to tenth stages, all but the first three, i.e., wrong-belief, vowlessness and carelessness are found and in the eleventh to thirteenth stages, all but the first four are found. However, none is present in the last stage.60
The inner light, the quest for perfection, is never extin. guished in the soul, even in its bondage. The eternal impulse towards the good is not always like a working volcano but remains like a sleeping one with the greatest possible potentiality. This spiritual slumber can be broken only by cutting the spiritual knot (granthi) of desire (kāga) and aversion (dveşa) by means of three-fold mechanism 61 of moral purification and spiritual enlightment known as slumbering impulse (Yathāpravịtta Karana), new spiritual impulse (apūrvakarņa) and impulse of spiritual dawn (anivșttakarana)( with their respective sub processes.63 Omniscience is attained in the one
59' Ibid., VIII. 1. (Mithyadarsona, Avirati, Pramili, Kaşayu and Yoga). 60 Ibid., II. 27; Viseşāvas yaka Brāşya, 1204-12 17. 61 Nemicaidra, Gunnat sära (Jiva Kāņda), 47. 62 Ibid., 43-54. 63 Viseșāvas yaka-Bhāşya (Brahadyrtti), 1202-1217; Nemican dra, Labdhi
Sāra, 3-7.