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Stages of the Spiritnal Development
213 tion of knowledge Jiva would have become ajiva. 2. Sāsvādana-samyag drsți-gunasthāna? :
The soul while falling from fourth gunasthāna to the first makes a sojourn through this guņasthāna. This is a stage not of development but that of degradation. A soul which has attained Aupa śamikasamyaktva (i.e. subsided vision--deluding karman temporarily), at the rise of life-long, intense types of four passions, falls to the first stage. In this process of degradation, he passes through this stage. He has an indistinct idea of samyaktva for a very short period (one samaya to six ävalis) before he reverts to mithyātva. The soul in second stage invariably falls down to the first stage. But this stage has an indistinct element of samyaktva and, therefore, is considered to be higher than the first gunasthāna. Just as a person who has tasted something sweet (like khira etc.) and then vomitted it out feels a strange taste of sweetness, similarly the soul in this stage has a strange feeling of samyaktva. Because of the existence of this taste it is called sāsvādana.3 The BỊhatkalpabhâsya gives another two examples. Just as a person falling from a ladder stays for sometimes in the vaccum, before coming to the earth, a person falling from samyaktva to mithyātva also experiences an admixture of the two for some time. Another example is that of a person who has tasted sugar. He goes to sleep but has not completely slept. In that state, he still feels the sweetness of sugar indistinctly. Similar is the case with the soul in the second guṇasthāna.5 3. Samyag mithyādršți guṇasthāna:
This is a stage of uncertainty and tension. Due to the
1. Karmagrantha, Vol. II, Quoted by Muni Nathamala Jaina darśana
ke Maulika tattva Vol. II. p. 449. 2. Virasena on Satkhandāgama, 1.1,10 (Vol. I, p. 163).
Also Gommațasära, Jivakānda, 19-20. 3. Bohatkalpabhäşya, Vol. I, 128. 4. Ibid., 126. Also Gommatasara, Jivakända, 20. 5. Ibid., 128. 6. Virasena on Saļkhandāgama, 1.1.11 (Vol. I, p. 166).
Also Gommațasāra, Jivakānda, 21-24.
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