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JAINISM
living being never goes back to it again (avyavahara mithyatva nigoda.) It comes out of this state by circumstances, and its development begins. We human beings are, of course, all now out of this state and our development is proceeding, either naturally and slowly, taking a long time, or scientifically and taking not so long a time.
The fourteen stages of development can be grouped into four sets corresponding to the four causes above mentioned, plus one stage, the 14th, in which none of the four causes operates.
(1) In the first of the fourteen stages, all the determinant causes work.
(2) In the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th stages of development only three of the determining causes work, namely, the non-control, the moral uncleanness, and the final cause.
(3) In the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th stages of development, only two of the determining causes work, namely, moral uncleanness, and the final one.
(4) In the 11th, 12th, and 13th stages only the final cause works.
And in the 14th stage none of these four causes works. It is only a momentary stage.
FIRST STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT
In the state before development commences the life is an indefinite life; the false beliefs are of an indefinite kind; they have not taken any shape; whereas the false beliefs of beings whose development has advanced in the Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
