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CHAPTER XXXVI.
GUNASTHANAS. The Gunnsthanas or the Stepping Stones to Higher things - The Fourteen Stages Squeezed up into Four only-"The First is the Life of Animality and Impulses - The Second the Life of Conscious Selection-The Third is that of Conscience and Faith-And the Fourth is that of Knowledge and Delight Infinite--Fourteen Stages leading to Omniscience-Regulation or Control does not mean Stultification as Complained of,
To anyone who knows the nature of Moksha and the means prescribed for it in the Jain scriptures, there will be no difficulty in apprehending that the realization of the self is preceded invariably by a series of conditions which must be fulfilled one after another and that perfection itself is the culmination of a graduated scale or hierarchy of moral activities, which have been classified into fourteen stages and have been called Gunastkånus by the Jainas. So long as the soul is bound by karma, it can never attain that deliverance from mundane existence which is the be-all and end-all of all that live, move and have their beings on
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