Mahavira and his Teaching

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

Page 132

JAINA MYSTICISM
125
the Atman, when, at an opportune time, delusion is destroyed. It may be noted here that when there is Ardhapudglaparāvartana Kāla, for the deliverance of the self, it prepares itself for three types of Karanas (Bhāvas), namely, Adhahpravrttakarana, Apūrvakarana, and Anivttikarana, which guarantees for it spiritual conversion.2 Each of these Karanas lasts for an Antarmuhūrta (less than forty eight minutes*). Just after the process of Anivsttikarana the soul experience the first dawn of enlightenment or spiritual conversion. It is by these Karanas that Granthibhedha is effected. “Even as a person born blind can see the world as it is on the sudden acquisition of eyesight, so can a soul having experienced the vision the truth as it is. Even as a person suffering from long-drawn disease experience extreme delight on the sudden disappearance of the disease, so does a soul eternally bound to the wheel of worldly existence feels spiritual joy and bliss on the sudden dawn of enlightenment."
This is to be borne in mind that the spiritual conversion is to be sharply distinguished from the moral and the intellectual conversion. Even if the man in the first Gunasthana gets endowed with the capacity of intellectual and moral achievements, it cannot be said to have dispelled the spiritual darkness. The characters portrayed by Jaina Ācāryas of Dravya-lingi Muni and some of the Abhavyas who have attained to the fair height of intellectual knowledge and moral upliftment illustrate this sort of life without spiritual conversionó. Thus the flower of Mysticism does not blossom by the water of mere morality and intellectuality, but requires spiritual manure along with it.
Paramātmaprakāśa, 1.85 Labdhesāra of Nemicandra, 33 (Rāyacandra) Ibid. 34 Ibid. 2 Studies in Jaina Philosophy, Nathmal Tatia, P. 273 (Jaina Cultural Research Society, Banaras) Samayasara, 273, 274.
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