________________
78
Jaina Philosophy and Religion
him. On the destruction of the subtle greed, the deluding karma is totally destroyed. With the destruction of the deluding karma, the knowledgecovering, the vision-covering and the obstructive karmas are destroyed. And the soul attains omniscience in this twelfth stage. As already stated, wrong faith, non-abstinence, spiritual lethargy, passions and activity are the causes of bondage. On the presence of the previous one, all the succeeding ones are present. But on the presence of the succeeding one, the previous ones may or may not be present. For instance, on the presence of wrong faith, all the other causes of bondage, viz., non-abstinence, etc. are present; but on the presence of non-abstinence, wrong faith may or may not be present. In the first stage of spiritual development, wrong faith and non-abstinence both are present while in the second, third and fourth stages there exists non-abstinence but not wrong faith. Similarly, where there is passion, there is activity; but it is not true that where there is activity, there is passion, because the activity of the omniscient in the embodied state is absolutely free from passions. As the soul advances on the path of spiritual progress, the causes of bondage gradually disappear one by one. For instance, at the fourth stage on the attainment of right faith, the wrong faith disappears; thus at this stage there is the stoppage (samvara) of the manifestation of wrong faith. Similarly, on the attainment of the spiritual stage of abstinence, non-abstinence disappears; thus at this stage there is the stoppage of non-abstinence. On the attainment of the spiritual stage (seventh) of spiritual vigilance, spiritual lethargy disappears; thus at this stage there is the stoppage of the manifestation of spiritual lethargy. On the attainment of the stage of subsidence or destruction of delusion (eleventh or twelfth stage), passions disappear; thus at this stage, there is the stoppage of the manifestation of passions. And at last at the time of his death the practiser in the fourteenth stage of spiritual development attains the state of non-activity; thus at this stage, there is the stoppage of activity.
On the total and absolute destruction of delusion in the thirteenth stage, no new karmas are bound henceforth, that is, there is an end to the process of bondage. This means that there is an absolute stoppage of the inflow of karmic matter into the soul. (The momentary bondage of pleasure-giving karma is of no consequence and count.) This is the stage of the liberated-while-living (the omniscient with three-fold activity). And the disembodied state of liberation is attained in the fourteenth stage. Both the processes of samvara (stoppage of the inflow of karmic
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
