________________ APPENDIX 14 STAGES OF SPIRITUAL ELEVATION The mention has been made at several places in the text about Gunsthanaks. That refers to the stages, where an aspirant may reach during his spiritual pursuit. Jainism lays the following 14 stages on the path of liberation. They can be treated as 14 rungs on the ladder of spiritual elevation. FIRST STAGE: This stage is known as Mithyatva or the stage of wrong faith. As the name suggests, it does not signify even the beginning of spiritual elevation. It is similar to a bottom floor, where a person might be looking for an elevator to go up. Most of the people are in that stage. The life in that stage is rather instinctive, and the reactions to the situations arising from time to time occur more or less impulsively. There is hardly any sense of discrimination in that stage. One attaches utmost importance to his body and its comforts. At the later part of this stage the spiritual aspirant is expected to have gained the yearning for religious life. For that purpose he seeks access to a spiritual guide. But he does not have the insight to recognize the true guide. As such, he may come under the influence Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
