Jain Moral Doctrine

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal

Page 77

CHAPTER VI
STAGES IN THE MORAL PROGRESS
Moral progress involves the practice of the good acts, formulated in the foregoing chapters. At its lowest stage, we have the un-moral state in which there is a complete suppression of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct, while at its culminating point, the self emerges as fully realised in all its innate perfections. Until this final perfection is attained, the self finds itself in successively unhappy states and subjected to various forms of pain and privation e.g. the Parişaha's, as described before. During this long process of moral progress, there are many set-backs as well as steady advances. The most prominent points in the progress of a moral life have been considered by the Jainas to be fourteen in number and these have been called the 'Guņasthana's by them. These fourteen stages are marked by the gradual subsidence of the eight kinds of Karma, which bind down the self and the evolution of true faith, correct knowledge and moral activity in their various forms. It should be noted that the limitation of the self consists primarily in its forgetfulness of its true nature, which is due to the influx of the Mohaniya or the deluding Karma in it. The inflow of the Mohaniya prepares the self for the further absorption of other forms of the Karma. The inflow of the Mohaniya into the self is the fundamental obstacle to its self-realisation and moral progress begins with its partial removal. The Mohaniya is of two kinds-viz. the Darśana-mohaniya or that which deludes one's right belief and the 'Çaritra-mohaniya or that which deludes one's right conduct.
(1) The first stage in a moral life i.e. the basic subjective state from which the moral progress is to start is the state of Mithyātva or