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JAINISM AND DEMOCRACY
The two higher states are : (1) the state of concentration and (2) the state of control when the mind is absolutely free from thought.
Buddhism describes the two groups of states as respectively that of a layman (puhujana) and that of one who has entered the current of higher values (sotapanna).
In Jainism the right attitude has been described elaborately. Its constituents, causes, perversions ar.d other things have been discussed in detail. This is useful to an ordinary aspirant also. According to Jainism, the right attitude has two aspects--the internal and the external. The internal aspect is related to the requisite purification of soul.
The soul is compared to a traveller wandering in the forest who has lost his way. Sometimes he is far from the path and sometimes comes near and enters its borders without realizing it. In spite of a physical contact with the path he is not conscious of it; consequently the next moment he loses it and goes astray. Perchance it happens that when he enters the border through the instruction of a preceptor or the direction of his inner voice he comes to recognize the path. This is quite a new incident in his career. Jainism analyses this process into three 'feats. The first is 'the accidental feat' (Yathāpravratikaran), i.e., touching the path accidentally without consciousness of it. The second is "the novel feat" (apurvakaran), one which was never experienced before. The third is "the feat of non-return" (anivratikaran), when the aspirant is fixed on the path and cannot be misled.
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