Istopadesa The Golden Discourse

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp

Page 30

यत्र भावः शिवं दत्ते द्यौः कियद् दूरवर्तिनी । यो नयत्याशु गव्यूतिं क्रोशार्द्धे किं स सीदति ॥
Verse 4
EXPLANATORY NOTES
(4)
When through meditation on the soul a man can attain the supreme status, that is, liberation, how far can the heavens be from him? Will a person accustomed to carrying a load to a distance of four miles get tired if he has to carry it just one mile?
The Three Jewels (ratnatraya) of right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct, together, constitute the path to liberation. Belief in the nine substances as these are is right faith. Knowledge of these substances without doubt, delusion or misapprehension is right knowledge. Being free from delusion and passions is right conduct. As mentioned earlier, omniscience is attained on the destruction of the deluding, the knowledge-obscuring, the perception-obscuring and the obstructive karmas. As long as the deluding karmas are very powerful, spiritual progress is very slow, if not impossible. How are the deluding karmas destroyed? The potential soul becomes a right believer and with growing purity of thought activity, starts its journey of spiritual progress.
From the empirical point of view, souls are divided into fourteen classes or spiritual stages (gunasthāna).
Ācārya Pujyapada's Sarvārthasiddhi delineates the fourteen spiritual stages (gunasthana) as under:
1. mithyadṛṣṭi - deluded
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