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Verse 4
conduct certainly lead to liberation, and not to any other state of existence. However, due to the Self getting involved in virtuous dispositions (śubhopayoga), bondage of virtuous karmas takes place leading to birth in auspicious abodes including the heavens.
Only those who are born in the middle world in the regions of labour attain liberation, as liberation is possible only in this terrestrial world of human effort. In the lands of paradise and in celestial regions, the desires are fulfilled instantaneously without any effort. Hence there is no room for observing right conduct, one of the three prerequisites to attain liberation.
Persons with right faith, till they finally attain liberation, are destined to superior states of existence thereby getting reborn in auspicious environments only. It is said in the Scripture that persons with right faith will be reborn among the fourth order of devas – heavenly (vaimānika) devas – and not among the three lower orders, namely the residential (bhavanavāsī), the peripatetic (vyantara), and the stellar (jyotişka) devas. Those persons who are characterized by right belief and practice restraint with attachment, and restraint-cum-non-restraint, will also be reborn in the higher heavens of Saudharma kalpa and so on and not among the three lower orders of celestial beings.
Adapted from: Jain, S.A. (1960), “Reality: English Translation of Shri Pujyapada's
Sarvārthasiddhi”, Vira Sasana Sangha, Calcutta-37, p. 183.
Ācārya Samantabhadra in Ratnakarandaka-Śrāvakācāra highlights the propitious outcomes of being endowed with right faith:
ओजस्तेजोविद्यावीर्य्ययशोवृद्धिविजयविभवसनाथाः । महाकुला महार्था मानवतिलकाभवन्ति दर्शनपूताः ॥
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