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JANUARY, 1993
becomes an avowed householder, a śrävaka by taking the twelve vows of a householder. He gives up prohibited and immoral acts and restricts his sense-gratifications and selfish activities. He now labours to control these aspects of the four kaşayas which had become instinctive and over which he had no control (apratyakhyāni).
6th Pramatta Sarva-virata Gunasthāna
At this stage a Jain becomes a spiritual aspirant. He ascends to a higher stage of moral development. He now desists from those sinful practices which he had earlier tried to bring under voluntary control (pratyakhyānī). He takes formal monastic vows and becomes a śramana. He is now sarva-virata i. e., who abstains from all external sense-gratifications and from causing injury to creatures. But he is still pramatta i. e., not sufficiently careful to avoid occasions of sin or sinful thoughts. Due to attachment to the body and obligation to maintain it he may commit acts as may cause harm to other living creatures. Evil tendencies and passions (kaṣayas) persist in subtle form, (samjvalana). For example, he may not get outwardly angry but cannot help getting irritated or annoyed mentally. However, a clear concept of the goal and abstinence from evil actions greatly helps him to gain strength for subtler harder struggles ahead. An aspirant at this stage may engage in activities like preaching and writing etc. for the good of others.
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7th Apramatta Samyag Guṇasthāna
This stage is reached when an aspirant, now a monk, is able to detach his consciousness or ātman from the gross physical body temporarily, and relinquish the idea of agentship. He also gains sufficient mental alertness to avoid minor defects and lapses due to carelessness (apramatta). However, since identification with gross body is hard to overcome, the aspirant cannot stay longer than 48 minutes in this stage and slips back to the lower one. Most monks live oscillating between these two stages. Ultimately however, the aspirant is able to totally relinquish body-consciousness and ascend the eighth gunasthāna.
to
In this guṇasthäna the aspirant totally gives up all thinking related
9 As many as 37500 pramadas are described in Jainism.
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