________________
earth. The Jains believe that there is a ladder of fourteen steps by which a jivu may climb up to the stage called moksha. The sages have, therefore, divided the path which leads to the nirvana into fourteen stages or stepping stones, each of which represents a particular stage of development, condition or phase of the soul, following up from the quiescence, elimination or partial quiescence or partial elimination of certain energies of karma, the final outcome of which is the manisestation of those traits and attributes so long held in check as it were by the karmic energeties.
To begin with the psychological observations which underlie the whole fabric of these gunasthånas, we may remark at the outset, that these fourteen stages may be squeezed up more generally into four only in the moral ascent of the soul. The First stage, we may roughly speak of as the stage of impulsive life, of lust and enjoyment, when the soul is quite in the dark as to its true destiny and goal, and is least removed from the animal existence; the Second is the life of conscious selection and pursuit, where the
621
