Indian Culture and Jainism

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Jain Vidya Samsthan

Page 26

1. Awakening of the self-Aviratasamyagdrsti Gunasthāna (Fourth) Fall from awakening : (a) Sāsādana Gunasthāna (Second)
(b) Miśra Guņasthāna (Third) The soul in this Gunasthāna considers his own self as his genuine abode regarding the outward physical dwelling places as artificial. He renounes all identification with the animate and inanimate objects of the world and properly weighs them in the balance of his discriminative knowledge. He is the only person who has acquired the right of Mokșa.
Fall from awakening : If the spiritual awakening is due to the total annihilation of spiritual ignorance the self has thrown over all the chances of its fall to the lower stages. But if the spiritual awakening is consequent upon the suppression of spiritual ignorance, the self either falls to the lower stages or remains in the same stage with the emergence of certain defects ordinarily incognisable. 3. Purgation :
(a) Viratāvirata Gunasthāna (Fifth) -
(b) Pramattavirata Gunasthāna (Sixth) After dispelling the dense and intense darkness caused by spiritual ignorance, the passionate and ardent longing of the awakened self is to purge the defects of conduct which now stands between it and the transcendental self. In the fifth Gunasthāna, the aspirant who is a householder is incapable of making himself free from all Hiṁsā root and branch. In consequence, he adopts the five partial vows (Anuvratas) along with the seven Silavratas in order to sustain the central virtue of Ahiṁsā as for as possible. This shows that the householder's life is a mixture of virtue and vice, which obstructs the purgative way pursued by the mystic. Hence the aspirant, being motivated by certain incentives to spiritual life, (Anupreksās) gradually renounces the householder's type of living, becomes a saint in order to negate Hiṁsā to the last degree. In consequence, the saint observes five Mahāvratas, and practises internal and external austerities with special attention to meditation, devotion, and Svādhyāya. This stage may be regarded as the terminus of purgative way.. 4. Illumination : (a) Apramattavirata Gunasthāna (Seventh)
(b) Apūrvakaraña Gunasthāna (Eighth) (c) Anivșttikaraņa Guņasthāna (Ninth)
Indian Culture and Jainism
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