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STAGES ON THE PATH
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A glance at the above table would suffice to show that the liability to fall back to the earlier stages is completely shaken off only on reaching the state of desirelessness at the twelfth gunasthāna, since greed, the mother of the remaining three forms of kaşāyas and the root of all other minor passions and emotions, is eradicated only at the moment of stepping from the sukshmasūmprüya to the hishinamoha stage. Other forms of passions and emotions, such as superciliousness, envy and the like, are really the progeny of the four principal kaşāyas alluded to above, and have not been specifically treated for this reason; they disappear with the drying up of their respective sources. The complete eradication of greed simply means their total destruction and the full manifestation of all the divine attributes and properties of the soul, now become deified by the destruction of its ghātiyā karmas.
It only remains to study the working of the diverse karma prakritis in respect of their engendering, fruition and elimination. Obviously, all these energies cannot become active at one and the same time, since some of them are counterindicated by those of an antagonistic nature which may be in actual play, 6.9., one cannot have a human and an animal body at the same time, though a human being may contract the liability to be reborn as an animal, and vice versa. Hence, bandha does not signify immediate fruition of karmas, but only the liability to undergo certain experiences at some future moment of time. This liability is contracted, as already pointed out, in consequence of the fusion of spirit and matter, and remains in abeyance till it find a suitable opportunity for its operation in consequence of the subsidence of the activity of the particular energies which hold it in check. Thus there are three different aspects of the karmic force, namely, sattā (potentiality), bandha and udaya* (rising, hence maturity, or fruition or activity), which have to be taken into account in a systematic
* The term udaya, strictly speaking, only means disposed or inclined to be active, not necessarily full operation, though the latter significance is also covered by it. For the full operation or functioning of an impulse depends on the external conditions to a great extent, as for instance, the sexual instinct may be mature, but it will remain unfunctioning unless there be present external conditions which are necessary for its full operation.
