Gommatasara Jiva Kanda

Author(s): Nemichandra Siddhant Chakravarti, J L Jaini
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 43

32
The English translation is :
The fourteen-soul-quests are:-1 Conditions of existence(Gati), 2 Sense (Indriya). 3 Embodiment (Káya), 4 Vibratory activity (Yoga), 5 Sex-inclination (Veda), 6 Passion (Kasháya), 7 Knowledge (Jnána) 8 Control (Samyama), 9 Conation (Darshana). 10 Thought-paint (Leshyá), 11 Capacity of Liberation (Bhavya), 12 Right-belief (Samyaktva). 13 Rationality (Samjnitva), and 14 Assimilation of matter (Áhára).
The stages and quests, with their many divisions and sub-divisions, and inter-connections (these are specially treated in the two Appendices, Gáthás 677-734), really exhaust the point of view from which souls in the world may be viewed. Our matter-mad, mammonmad world may blind us to Truth. But the sign-posts on the path to it, though deserted and neglected still shine with their eternal splendour and are unerring guides to the soul who understands itself and cares to tread the hard and lonely but sure path to freedom unending and bliss everlasting. Shri Nemichandra has not erected these sign-posts. He is eager and careful to tell us at each step "The Conqueror has said so" "the All-knowing has described it;" etc. The passions and the cease-less vibrations are the primary and essential cause of stages and these and the operation of other Karmas that of quests. The soul who wants to know itself will soon see its thraldom to the Passion of Anger, Pride, Deciet and Greed, and Sleep and Attachment and their innumerable combinations. Here as everywhere else in Jainism, there is no room for unreasoned faith. If anyone claims this and frightens away the earnest inquirers, it is not the fault of Jainism. It is a gross misunderstanding, and misrepresentation of Jainism. It is fouling one's own nest. True Jainism does not want blind faith. It wants knowledge of Universal principle. Nay, More. It wants realisation and application of this knowledge to the tears and smiles of our neighbours, to the dew and sun on the red rose, to the rainbow on the sky, to the roaring torrents of the Niagara, to the fury of the floods and famines in our Motherland, India, and to the solution of the soul-racking problems of Economics and Politics in Europe and America. No corner of the Universe, no condition of life, no modification in our finest tremor of the mind or soul, no change of form in lifeless matter anywhere nothing is hidden from Jainism. Nothing is exempt from the Sovereign Law of Causation, from the unconquerable Rigour of Karma. The Stages and Quests of the soul here below are entirely due to this. The omniscients of old, the saints, with souls which were purer than the purest ideals concievable by men, and stronger