Jaina Mysticism and Other Essays

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 9

the Paramātman (transcendental self) through the Antarātman (internal self) after renouncing the Bahirātman (external selfl()'. Haribhadra (7th cent. A. D.) also employs a different terminology when he announces : ‘Mysticism consists in arriving at the, state of Vrttisarkşaya (cessation of mental states) through the stages of SamyagdȚsti and Cāritrī after abandoning the stage of Apunarbandhaka? (Mithyādsști in transition"8). At another place he says 'Mysticism consists in attaining to Parādssti (transcendental insight) through Sthirā (steady spiritual insight), Kāntā and Prabhā Drstis (elementary and deep meditational insights) after passing through Mitrā, Tārā, Balā, and Diprā!' Drsțis.'20 All these definitions of mysticism are fundamentally the same. Paramātman refers to Arhat-hood, Siddha-hood, Parādssti, and the state of Vịttisamkşaya; Antarātman points to Samyagdarśana, Sthirādssti, and Samyagdrsti; and consequently to Samyagināna, Samyakcāritra, the state of Cāritri and the Kāntā and Prabhā Drsțis; Bahirātman, refers to Mithyādarśana the state of Apunarbandhaka along with Mitrā, Tārā, Balā and Diprā Drstis and consequently to Mithyājnāna, and Mithyācāritra.
Thus we may say that the Paramātman is the true goal of the, mystic quest. The journey from the Antarātman to the Paramātman is traversed through the medium of moral and intellectual preparations, which purge everything obstructing the emergence of potential divinity. Before this final accomplishment, a stage of vision and fall may intervene. Thus the whole mystic way be put as follows: (1) Awakening of the transcendental self, (2) Purgation, (3) Illumination, (4) Dark-night of the soul, and (5) Transcendental life. According to Underhill, “Taken all together they constitute the phases in a single process of growth, involving the movement of consciousness from lower to higher levels of reality, the steady remaking of character in accordance with the “independent spiritual world”l. But the Jaina tradition deals with the mystic way under the fourteen stages of spiritual evolution, technically known as Guņasthānas. However, these stages may be subsumed under the above heads in the following way:
Jaina Mysticism and other essays