Jaina Acara Siddhanta aur Svarupa

Author(s): Devendramuni
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 63

Jaina Acāra : Siddhanta aura Swarūpa
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fructify earlier than the scheduled time. The soul in the thirteenth stage remains in the process just fortyeight minutes before its final emancipation. In the first instant the soul stretches itself vertically both ways and touches the zenith as well as the nadir of the inhabited universe, the thickness of this vertical column being the same as that of the body. In the second instant the soul expands itself in the forward and the backward directions up to the end of the loka. In the third instant the soul expands itself sideways both up to the end of the same. The soul has now divided the 'loka' into four parts. In the fourth instant the soul expands in the remaining gaps and retraces its steps to return to its original condition in the eighth instant. The soul thus equalizes the length of the other karmas with that of the 'āyukarma'.
There is also the threefold activity of the body, the sense- organ of speech and the mind. The soul remains in this stage for forty-eight minutes being the minimum and the maximum for somewhat less than a 'Purvakoti'.
The fourteenth stage is of 'Ayogikevali' i.e. of absolute motionlessness lasting for a very short time to be immediately followed by final emancipation. The soul gets prepared for the stoppage of all activities gross and subule. The stoppage of an activity requires another activity as the instrument. The soul first stops the gross activities of the sense-organ of speech and mind by the subtle activity of the body. It then enters the third stage of 'Sukladhyāna', the conditions of which are forbearance, humility, straightforwardness and freedom from greed. It is accompanied with steady vibration and stops the subtle bodily activity by means of the activity itself, for there is none other than itself. This meditation facilitates contraction of the soul, thereby filling the cavities created in the embodied state. It is now reduced. The fourth stage of this meditation does not admit of any vibration. It is as motionless as a mountain rock. Here all the remaining karmas are annihilated. It lasts only for the period of time required to pronounce five short syllables at the ordinary speed. The soul now attains unembodied emancipation.
In this vast world the number of souls cannot be counted not unlike hair on the head. There are numerous mobile and immobile beings but souls can broadly be divided into external, internal and supreme or super-souls. Those in the first three stages possess only external souls. Those from the fourth to twelfth stages have the inner self intact and those on the last two stages have reached the summum bonum. With the ascending stages the force of the external self goes on weakening but the force of passions may drag them downhill. Activity, however subtle, is binding. The force of attachment ordinary souls find irresistible. Attachment to one's own body sticks fast. Introspection alone teaches man that real, lasting peace is not in or with the world but inside every human heart. He has to invent nothing new but only to discover it within himself. These fourteen stages of spiritual