Lord Mahavira

Author(s): Boolchand
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society

Page 57

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to do so. It causes hindrances in life and has the effect of "muddling away every opportunity that life offers." These Karmas are classified into the Ghātī, which are particularly obstructive to the accomplishment of the natural perfections of the pure soul and which can only be destroyed by great labour and effort, and the Aghati, which are not very injurious and can be more easily destroyed. The Ghati-karmas are दर्शनावरण मोहनीय and अन्तराय and once they are burnt up in the burning glow of austerities, the Aghati can be snapped as easily as a piece of burnt string.
This is clearly admitted in the analysis of the fourteen steps () by which a jiva is supposed to ascend to the state of liberation. The analysis of these stages through which a developing soul passes is but one instance of "the amazing knowledge of human nature which Jain ethics display." Deliverance is impossible so long as the soul is bound by and does not fully annihilate the Ghati-Karma, but once freed from the Ghati-karma the soul may retain its connection for sometime with the Aghati-karmas without being effectively bound by them. In the ladder of the fourteen steps, the first step (fr) is when the soul is completely under the influence of Karma and does not know its true good at all. From the first step, either through the influence of the past good karma or in response to some external stimulus, the soul obtains a glimpse of the true faith and thus immediately rises to the fourth stage (f) when although unable to take those vows which help in the fight against Karma, it can, if it likes, control the grossest form of anger, conceit, intrigue and greed, the four angest kasayas. In the absence of active effort to control these passions, there may be a falling back of the soul to the second stage (1) which is characterised by a very faint sense of discrimination between what is false and what is true, and from there to either further descent to the first stage or gradual ascent to the third fa which typifies a state of uncertainty, one moment