ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 02

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 199

insight), Kāntā and Prabhādrsti is (elementary and deep meditation insights) after passing through Mitra, Tārā, Balā, and Diprā7 drstis 18" All these definitions of mysticism are fundamentally the same. Paramātman refers to Arhat-hood, Siddhahood, Parā-drsti, and the state of Vittisarksaya, Antarātman points to Samyagdarśana, Sthira-drsti, and Samyagdrsti, and consequently to Samyagjñāna, Samyakcăritra, the state of Cāritrī and the Kāntā and Prabhā-drsti, Bahirātman, refers to Mithyādarśana the state of Apunarbandhaka along with Mitrā, Tārā, Balā and Diprādrsti and consequently to Mithyājñāna, and Mithyācāritra.
Thus we may say that the Paramātman is the true goal of the mystic quest. The journey from the Antarātman to the Paramātman is traversed through the medium of moral and intellectual preparations, which purge everything obstructing the emergence of potential divinity. Before this final accomplishment, a stage of vision and fall may intervene. Thus the whole mystic way can be put as follows:
Awakening of the transcendental self, Purgation, Illumination, Dark-period of the soul, and Transcendental life
According to Underhill, 'Taken all together they constitute the phases in a single process of growth, involving the movement of consciousness from lower to higher levels of reality, the steady remaking of character in accordance with the 'independent spiritual world 19. But the Jaina tradition deals with the mystic way under the fourteen stages of spiritual evolution, technically known as gunasthānas. However, these stages may be subsumed under the above heads in the following way:
"The type of enlightenment accruing from eight drsti may respectively be compared to the type of light given out by the sparks of straw fire, cow-dung fire, wood fire, the light of a lamp, the luster of a gem, the light of a star, the light of the sun, and the light of the moon (Yogadrsti-samuccaya 15). Thus it varies from the indistinct enlightenment to the most distinct one. The first four drstis (Mitrā, Tārā, Balā, and Diprā) occur in the stage of Apunarbandhaka (Mithyādrsti in transition) hence they are unsteady, while the last four, in the stages of Samyagdrsti and Caritri, hence they are steady. 18 Yogadrsti-samuccaya, 13, 19, 178 19 Mysticism by Underhill, P. 169. (Methuen, London).
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