Jain Journal 1970 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 42

JAIN JOURNAL
taking in view the standpoint of the self itself even the reference of zero goes astray, and the self becomes all in all, independent and pure. It enjoys then the bliss of kevala-jñāna.
Here the kevala-jñāna should not be taken as total unfoldment of jñāna attribute only leaving other ones aside. It rather symbolizes the unfoldment of all the other attributes. But the jñāna assumes the prominance, for the reasons, that it is conceptual and shaped (sākāra),70 while other attributes are non-conceptual and unshaped (nirākāra). All the non-conceptual attributes can be grasped only through conceptualization i.e. jñāna. Without jñāna no attribute can be described and understood. Therefore, wherever the understanding of any attribute occurs, jñāna-attribute comes in light, for understanding'as such is the function of jñāna. Hence to know the perfection of soul otherwise, the perfection of jñāna is but necessary ; or, in other words, the kevalajñāna is the fore-most condition of the perfected soul. It is because of this, that the kevala-jñāna implies kevala-darśana, ananta-sukha and ananta-vīrya. Its denotation is much wider.
This liberated state is, however, reached at the thirteenth and fourteenth stages of spiritual progression (gunasthānas). The kevala-jñāna at the thirteenth stage is another name of the embodied-god (jivanmukta), when all the obscuring karmas get annihilated and only some sort of hurt-less karmas prevail, due to which some desire-less movementsinternal and external, take place.71 This is the stage, when the soul attains Tirthankara-hood—though not necessarily—and sets the wheel of religion roll on. It is, in other words, called as spiritual salvation (bhāva mokşa). After this, at the fourteenth stage, these all foreign, though formal activities cease and the soul attains material salvation (dravya mokşa) also, leaving this mundane world for the highest abode of the universe.72
At this stage the fullest integration of the universal and the particular, of divine descent and individual ascent takes place, and the kevalajñāna represents the integral whole of spiritual awake. It is the point
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Raja Mall explains the word akara as concrete conceptualization (artha-vikalpa), for, artha means the concrete things--self or non-self, and vikalpa a mode of upayoga. Thus akara means jnana. (2-391). Certain mode or form of jnana always accompanies with the other nirakara attributes of the soul ; just as, the sraddhana attribute though points out to the nirakara darsana, yet in itself it is a mode of jnana. (2-386,387). Jnana has, therefore, a superior position in the orbit of soul. Nsr., 171 to 174. Ibid., 175.
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