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CHAPTER VIII
STAGES OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
Introduction :
From the first stage of impulsive life, which is comparable to animal existence, to the ultimate end of liberation, where one attains perfection, the aspirant passes through many stages. Fighting against karmans, which have held the soul in check from beginningless time, the aspirant continues his moral struggle till he achieves the state of supramoral existence of complete harmony. Strictly speaking, the stages through which an aspirant passes differ from moment to moment and are therefore innumerable; yet for the sake of convenience and for a better understanding of the process of spiritual development, the Jaina ācīryas have described fourteen stages of the spiritual journey, called gunasthānas, which we propose to deal with in the present chapter.1
It may be pointed out these fourteen stages of developments do not imply any mechanical process. They merely afford a complete picture of spiritual development from the beginning to the end. Some of these gunasthānas, for example 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th, last for a short duration, not more than a fraction of 48 minutes. This classification is, therefore, more important for reading the psychology of an aspirant in different places of his spiritual sādhanā. Many details regarding these guņasthānas belong to the sphere of karaṇānuyoga rather than to caraṇānuyoga. As we are here concerned only with the ethical implications of these gunasthānas, we will not go into details of such particular as are not connected with our subject.
1. Cf. यावन्तः परिणामास्तावन्त एव गुणा किन्न भवन्तीति चेन्न, तथा व्यवहारानुपपत्तितो द्रव्याथिकनयसमाश्रयणात् ।
-Virasena on Șațkhandāgama, 1.1.17 (Vol. I, p. 184). 2. Cf. Pujyapada On Tattvärthas ūtra, 1.8. (pp. 32-33).
Also Virasena on Satkhandāgama, 1.5.19-22 (Vol. IV, pp. 350-355).
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