Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

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KAMAL CHAND SOGANI
with the mystic way under the fourteen stages of spiritual evolution, technically known as Gunasthānas. However, these stages may be subsumed under the above heads in the following way: 1. Dark-period of the self prior to its awakening:
Mithyātvat Gunasthāna (First) 2. Awakening of the self-Aviratasamyagdīştı Gunasthāna
(Fourth) Fall from awakening: (a) Sāsādana Gunasthāna (Second)
(b) Mišra Gunasthāna (Third) 3. Purgation: (a) Viratāvirata Gunasthāna (Fifth)
(b) Pramattavirata Gunasthāna (Sixth) 4. Illumination: (a) Apramattavirata Gunasthāna (Seventh)
(b) Apūrvakarana Gunasthāna (Eighth) (c) Aniv?ţtıkarana Gunasthāna (Ninth) (d) Sukṣmasampara ya Gunasthāna (Tenth) (e) Upaśāntakaşā ya Gunasthāna (Eleventh)
(f) Kșinakaṣāya Gunasthāna (Twelfth) 5. Dark-period post illumination: Fall to the first or the
fourth Gunasthāna. 6. Transcendental life: (a) Sayogakevalī Gunasthāna
(Thirteenth) (b) Ayogakevalī Gunasthāna
(Fourteenth)
its awakening or
(1) Dark-period of the self prior to Mithyātva Gunasthāna:
In this Gunasthāna the empirical souls remain in a perpetual state of spiritual ignorance owing to the beginningless functioning of Mohanī ya (deluding) Karma. This Karma on the psychical side engenders a complex state of Moha' having perveted belief (Mithyadarśana) and perverted conduct (Mithyācāritra) as its ingredients. Here the effect of Mithyādarśana is so dominant that the self does not evince its inclination to the spiritual path, just as the man invaded by bile-infected fever does not have liking for sweet