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VI. MYSTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF JAINA ETHICS
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conduct-deluding Karma of twentyonel kinds.2 Out of the three Karanas, the self commences with the state of Adhahpravrttakarana for the purpose of higher ascension. It will not be amiss to point out here that the Kṣāyika SamyagdȚsti is capable of ascending both the ladder of subsidence and that of annihilation, while Dvitīyopaśama Samyagdssti can only climb up the ladder of subsidence.
4) ILLUMINATION OR (A) SĀTISAYA APRAMATTA, (B) APŪRVAKARAŅA, (C) ANIVRTTIKARAŅA, (D) SŪKŞMA-SĀMPARĀYA, (E) UPAŚĀNTA KAŞAYA, (F) KșĪŅAKAŞĀYA GUŅASTHĀNAS: The second part of the seventh Gunasthāna and the rest higher Gūnasthānas up to the 12th are the meditational stages or the stages of illumination and ecstacy. The ladder steps are ascended by the aid of deep meditation. It is through the medium of contemplation that the mystic pursues the higher path. By this time, he has developed a power of spiritual attention, of self-merging and of gazing into the ground of the soul. He has developed a deep habit of introversion. In the process of Adhahpravsttakaraṇa which is completed with the Sātiśaya Apramatta Guñasthāna, the mystic abundantly experiences the pure states of the self, and, after the expiry of one Antarmuhūrta, he comes to the eighth stage, namely, Apūrvakaraṇa where he realises such states as were unprecedented in the history of the soul. The maximum sojourn of the self in this stage is one Antarmuhūrta. Here the self engages itself either in subsiding or annihilating the residual of conductdeluding Karma according to the ladder it chooses to climb up. After the end of the aforementioned duration, it performs the process of Anivsttikaraṇa where exists the state of profound purity. This is the ninth stage known as Anivșttikaraña Guņasthāna. In the tenth Gunasthāna known as Sūksmasāmparāya, there is only subtle greed of the fourth type that can disturb the soul.? The self which has chosen the ladder of subsidence for its spiritual ascent suppresses even this subtle greed in the eleventh Guņasthāna and absolves itself from the rise of all types of passions. This stage is known as Upaśāntakasāya Gunasthāna. This height has been arrived at by the first type of Sukla Dhyāna. It is the culmination. of the first type of white contemplation (Sukla Dhyāna). Pūjyapāda observes that contemplation produces supreme ecstacy in a mystic who
1 Labdhi. Comm. 205, 217. * 2 Twentyone kinds=The second, third, fourth groups and Sub-types. 3 Gomma Ji. Comm. Candrikā. 47. 4 Gomma. Ji. 49, 50, 51. SIbid. 53. 6 Ibid. 54. Gomma. Ji. 59, 60. 8 Jñānā. LXII. 20.
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