Jain Journal 2002 04

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

Page 30

BRAHMESHANANDA: THE LADDER OF SPIRITUAL ASCENT
Summary
According to Jainism there are five conditions of bondage : perversity of attitude (mithyātva), non-abstinence from sense-pleasures and violence (avirati), spiritual inertia or carelessness (pramāda) passions or evil tendencies (kaṣāya) and threefold activity of the body speech and mind (yoga). Of these mithyātva is first to go in the fourth stage of samyag dṛsti. Lay and monastic vows in the fifth and sixth stages eliminate avirati. Pramada is removed in the seventh stage. The destruction of the four kāṣāyas takes the longest way. Starting from the fourth stage it is completed in the twelfth stage. Finally the threefold yoga ends in the last stage.
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Of the four types of thinking (dhyāna raudra dhyāna persists up to the sixth stage. This means that even after taking monastic vows undesirable thoughts may persist. Arta dhyana, another undesirable thinking dominated by sorrow and depression may persist up to the eleventh stages. Dharma dhyana starts in the fourth (and third) stage and reaches its culmination in the eleventh. The aspirant is able to do the first of the four types of pure thinking (sukla dhyāna) in the seventh stage but is able to take up its second type only in the twelfth stage. These two meditations are based on scriptural texts. In the thriteen stage, the kevali does the third type sukla dhyana, and liberation is attained by the fourth type in the final stage.
A review of the duration spent in each stage shows that the aspirant stays for the longest period in the fourth, fifth, and sixth gunasthanas. These therefore are given great importance and described in greater detail in Jain scriptures. The eighth, although a very important stage, lasts for a short period only. The five-fold technique described in that stage can be applied repeatedly from the sixth to the tenth stage for the rapid elimination of karmas.
This brief review may be concluded by reminding the readers that descriptions are necessarily imperfect and these stages are better understood through practice and actual experience.
Acknowledgemeni: The author wishes to express his gratefulness to Dr Sagarmal Jain, Director of the Parsvanath Jain Research Institute, Varanasi, for guiding and scrutinizing this work. Among the books consulted in the preparation of this article the following deserve special mention.