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Faina Ethics
rise of miśramohaniyakarmans, the soul remains indifferent to truth. It neither believes nor disbelieves it.
After this stage, a soul may ascend to true belief or may descend to false belief. Either a person may ascend to this third stage or a person may descend from some higher stage to this stage. It is, therefore, a stage of development as well as of degradation, according to circumstances. This stage has been compared to curd mixed with sugar which has sour as well as sweet taste.1
4. Aviratasamyagdrsţi gunasthāna :
An aspirant having firm belief in truth attains this stage. The anantānubandhi category of passions is subdued and only the weak form, called apratyākhyānavarni kaşāya, remains which does not last more than a year. We have already dealt with the character of an aviratasamyagdışți. In this gunasthāna on account of apratyākhyānakaṣāya, the existence of the aspirant is not able to observe any moral vows. Therefore, he is called avirata.
Here the aspirant realises for the first time that the sensual pleasures, for which he strives so much, are only temporary, finite and painful in the end. Still he cannot leave them.3
The moral condition of an aspirant in the fourth stage can be compared to the state of Duryodhana, who said, "I know the truth but I cannot follow it; I know the falsehood but I cannot shun it."
Morally, a man in the fourth stage is still not mature, yet this stage is very important in as much as it indicates the beginning of real spiritual exertion. 5. Deśasamyata gunasthānas :
Here the stoppage of karmans begins. With the removal.
1. Gommațasāra, Jivakānda, 22. 2. Virasena on Satakhandägama,, 1.1.12 (Vol. I, p. 170),
Also Gommațasāra, Jivakānda, 27-29. 3. Gomma tasara, Jivakānda, 29.
Cf. Muni Nathamala, Jaina darśana ke maulika tattva, p. 301. 5. Virasena on Satkhandāgama, 1.1.13. (Vol. I, p. 173),
Also Gomma fasāra, Jivakānda, 30-31.
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