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Makk
VIMOKKHO: ATTHAMAM AJJHAYANAM VIMOKSHA: EIGHTH CHAPTER
EMANCIPATION
INTRODUCTION
The title of the eighth chapter of Acharanga Sutra is Vimoksha. Vimoksha means to renounce or abandon; to throw away or shed; or the process of getting free of something. From the angle of renouncing, vimoksha is of two types dravya (physical) and bhava (mental). To become. free of physical bondage like a shackle is dravya-vimoksha. To become free of passions that cause the bondage of karmas, or the affiliation with karmas which turns into bondage, is bhava-vimoksha.
This chapter deals with bhava-vimoksha which in turn is also of two types-desh-vimoksha (partial freedom) and sarva-vimoksha (total freedom). To gradually get free of unrighteousness, passions, attachment etc. while still in the embodied state of living is partial freedom. The liberated state of Siddhas is the state of total freedom.
The first lesson describes freedom from non-conformists, the second details freedom from unacceptable and the third deals with freedom from pleasures of senses. Fourth to eighth lessons describe freedom from one ascetic equipment and abandoning the body. For instance, the fourth lesson deals with death by strangulation and other types of self invited death. The fifth describes bhaktaparijna, the sixth details isolation and ingit+ maran, the seventh discusses special austerities (pratima) and padapopagaman, and the eighth describes the process of twelve year samlekhana along with the details about bhaktaparijna, ingit-maran and padapopagaman.
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