________________
Dravyasamgraha
worthy to be venerated and worshipped by the lords of the world. And he moves from place to place preaching the gospel to the world up to a maximum period of a little less than pūrvakoți years. When the duration of his life, feeling, bodymaking and status-determining karmas is within one muhūrta, then he gives up entirely the activities of the mind and the speech-organ.
Jain, S.A., Reality, p. 274.
Omniscience results from the destruction of four inimical (ghātiyā) karmas The reader's attention is drawn to the distinction between the two stages represented by the ‘Arhať and the 'Siddha'. The attainment of omniscience is described in the first sutra of this chapter, and the attainment of complete liberation in the second. Omniscience is attained on the destruction of the deluding, the knowledge-obscuring, the perception-obscuring and the obstructive karmas, in the order mentioned in the first sutra. As long as the deluding karmas are very powerful, spiritual progress is very slow if not impossible. In that condition the self is almost a slave to the karmic forces at work and is tossed to and fro in the ocean of transmigration. The secret of spiritual progress lies in the ascendancy acquired with great difficulty and effort by the self over the deluding karmas. Only then does the self become the master of evil and begin to succeed in overcoming evil. It is no doubt a tough fight between the self and evil, and there may be ups and downs in this long and arduous struggle. But the undaunted and unconquerable soul carries on the battle incessantly, gradually establishes ascendancy over the forces of evil, ultimately roots out evil with the help of pure concentration and becomes the Victor. This epic story of the struggles of the soul with the forces of evil
178