Jain Moral Doctrine

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

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STAGES IN THE MORAL PROGRESS
wrong belief. This stage is characterised by the absence of a belief in the reality of liberation and is due to the activities of the Darśanamohanīya Karma in the self.
(2) The second Gunasthāna has been called the 'Sāsādana' or channel of regress or downfall. The Sāsādana is not a stage which succeeds the Mithyātva i.e. the first stage but is an inevitable channel, through which, the moral self in its downward way of sion, reverts to the first stage.
(3) The Miśra or the mixed stage is characterised by wrong belief co-existing with right belief. This also is a stage, through which a moral man, deflecting from the moral course, passes in order to revert to the original stage of the Mithyātva.
(4) The Avirata-samyaktva is a state in which there is the right belief but the belief is not attended with appropriate moral activities. This is really the second stage in the progress of the moral life, a stage which comes directly after the Mithyātva-stage. As in this stage of the Avirata-samyaktva, not all the Darśana-mohanīya Karma's are completely eradicated, there is a chance of fall from it, a reversion to the Mithyātva-stage. This retrogression, as pointed out above, is not direct and precipitate but through the third and the second Ganasthānas.
(5) The fifth-stage is the Deśa-virata. The real active moral life may be said to begin at this stage, in as much as it is in this that one takes, for the first time, to the practice of the Anu-vrata's or the great vows modified in accordance with a house-holder's life.
(6) In the next stage of the moral progress, which is called the 'Pramatta-virata', the vows are practised but practised imperfectly and the mind often casts a lingering look at the needs and the services of the body.
(7) It is in the 'Apramatta-virata' or the seventh Guņasthāna that all careless conducts are stopped, the practice of vows becomes perfect and fault-less and the moral practiser absorbs himself in Dharma-dhyāna or spiritual meditations.
(8) The eighth Gunasthāna is the 'Apūrva-karana' which as its name implies, consists in meditative activities which are 'novel'. It is at this stage that one takes to the first or the primary form of the pure meditation or Sukla-dhyāna (literally, white contemplation).
(9) The next stage in the course of moral progress is the Anivrtta-karana, which involves Sukla-dhyāna, more advanced than the one involved in the eighth Gunasthāna.
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