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Jaina View of Life
8. Prabhāvanā is to kindle the light of right understanding,
by removing many misconceptions, inadequacies and deficiencies. The hurdles in the path of right understanding are many and varied. Some of the difficulties are psychological. Ācās, a Samāntabhadra has given an enlightened and able descriptions of the psychological and sociological impediments in the acquisition of rightness of outlook and right understanding.
II. Ācārya Samantabhadra says that right understanding and right faith would be vitiated by the two psychological and sociological processes : 68 1. Eight types of vanity (Arrogance) and 2. three types of
folly. We may also class them as forms rooted in ignorance. The first distinction refers to the 8 forms of Mada (vanity) and the second has reference to the 3 types of mūdhatā.
The 8 types of vanity are primarily psychological. They vitiate the working of the mind and create perversity of out look which becomes an obstacle in the development of right understanding. We lose the balance of understanding and are strayed away from the right path of grasping the truth. We live in the world of self-created illusions about ability and achievements. We are lost in the jungle of subjective phantasies. The 8 types of vanity are : (i) Jñana mada : In this we live in the world of our own
creation that we are the wisest men on the earth. It is the Vanity of knowledge. Vanity (arrogance) of knowledge is born out of the immaturity of mind. We gloat over our own intellectual achievements and suffer from
the illusion of vanity of knowledge. (ii) Pūjaniyata mada : In this we become blind to our short
comings and failures because some people respect us. Respect and admiration for whatever little we have
48. Ratnakarand akaśrävakácāra : 25, 26.
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