Jain Journal 2014 07

SR No.: 520295
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 2014
Total Pages: 90
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 7 MB

Page 19

JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XLIX, NO. 1-IV JULY 2014-JUNE 2015
leads to birth in a superior gati. But such an inference is not acceptable, because liberation can be achieved only from the human gati, not from the celestial gati. While the spiritual development of a celestial being cannot be higher than the fourth spiritual stage (guņasthāna), a human being can ascend all the fourteen rungs of the spiritual ladder and transcent it. On the other hand, the supposition that the human gati is superior to the celestial gati contradicts the scriptures, as human beings on performing auspicious karma transmigrate to the celestial gati. A category of human being can, therefore, he more spiritually and physically developed than a category of human beings can therefore, be more spiritually and physically developed than a category of celestial beings, and vice versa. Hence, living beings can transmigrate from the celestial to the human gati and from the human to the celestial gati. There is a need to identify the category of human beings who could be born as celestial beings in the next birth and the category of celestial beings who could take birth as human beings in the next life.
Similarly, if a human being that performs extreme inauspicious karma in the present life is born as infernal being, not as subhuman being, in the next birth, then it means that the infernal gati is inferior to the subhuman gati. But such an inference is not acceptable, because the life form of infernal beings is more developed than that of most subhuman beings, as infernal beings have a mind while subhuman beings with one to four senses and some with five senses do not have a mind'. On the other hand, the supposition that the subhuman gati is inferior to infernal gati contradicts the scriptures, as the soul of Bhagwān Mahāvīr in a previous life trnsmigrated from the subhuman gati as a lion to the infernal gati. A category of infrenal beings, and vice versa. Hence, living beings can transmigrate from the infernal to the subhuman gati and from the subhuman to the infernal gati. There is a need to identify the categories of subhuman beings and infernal beings that are born respectively as infernal beings and subhuman beings in the next birth.