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The Pathway to Perfection
151
bereft of a vision, though indistinct, of the right. Still, due to perversity of attitude we do not relish the truth, just as a man suffering from fever has no taste for sugarcane.**
The next stage is called sāsvādana-samyagdrsji. It is a halting and transitory stage in which one may get the vision of truth but is likely to fall back on falsehood due to the excitement of passions. In the third stage, of samyag-mithyādsșii, we have a mixed attitude of right and wrtong belief. There is neither a desire to have true beliefs nor a desire to remain in ignorance. It is like mixing curds and treacle.68 This also is a transitional stage. Next comes the stage of right attitude, samyagdrşpi. One gets a glimpse of the truth. Yet one has not the spiritual strength to strive for the attainment of it. In this stage we have attained knowledge, but we lack moral effort, as we have not yet developed self-control. From the next stage onwards there is gradual expression of self-control. We may compare these four stages to the state of the persons in Plato's ‘parable of the cave'. The prisoners in the cave would see their own shadows and the shadows of other men and animals. And they would mistake the shadows for realities. This is the stage of mithyātva. If one were to be released, the glare of the light would distess him; and he would persist in maintaining the superior truth of the shadows. This is the stage of sāsvādana. But once he gets accustomed to the change, he will be able to see things, and gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heavens. And once he gets the clear vision, he will realize the folly of his fellow prisoners and pity them."
Dešāvirata-samyagdssti is the next higher stage of spiritual development, in which we get partial efforts for self-control in addition to the possession of the knowledge of truth. There is a partial destruction of Karmic matter which produces
52. Gommatsāra-Ji vakānda, 17. 53. Ibid. p. 22. 54. Plato, the Republic. VII.
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