Introduction to Jaina Sadhna

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 79

72: An Introduction to Jaina Sādhanā
of mind, body and speech and thus prepares itself for the final emancipation. In this stage the remaining four non-destructive karamas are destroyed and the soul, after leaving the body, proceeds for its heavenly abode at the top of the universe and lives their for time-infinite.
Three Stages of Spiritual Quest
This spiritual quest of soul has been summarised into three stages :
1. The Extrovert Self ( bahirātmā), 2. The Introvert Self ( antarātmā ) and 3. The Transcedental Self ( paramātmā ).
Ācārya Kundakunda, Svāmi Kārtikeya, Pūjyapāda, Yogindu, Haribhadra, Anandaghana and Yaśovijaya have mentioned these three states of spiritual quest in their respective works.
1. The Extrovert Self ( bahirātmā): One, who possesses perverse attitude and consequently does not discriminate soul from body, regards the external thing as mine and takes keen interest in the worldly enjoyment, is called an extrovert self. In other words, this is state of identification of the self with body and external belongings. This identification is due to the ignorance of the real nature of soul. The souls belonging to the first, second and third guṇasthānas fall in this category.
2. The Introvert Self (antarātmā ): The self, which possesses the right attitute and therefore clearly distinguishes the soul from the body and the other external belongings is called an introvert self. An introvert self does not take intrest in the worldly enjoyments, but meditates on one's own real nature and regards external belongings as foreign to it. This introvert self has been further subdivided into three states — (i) lower,