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nirvana, but both beginningless and interminable for those who are not to reach the Supreme Seat. In respect of the progress and fall of the first kind of souls, it has both a beginning and an end.
The effect of the successful conquest of the first stage, the stronghold of ignorance, as is evident from the nature of the prakritis rendered inactive and of those that are not engendered afresh, is that the soul can no longer descend into hell, nor be re-born among the four-sensed or still lower beings, unless the liability to rebirth in hell or in the class of the four-sensed or still lower beings is contracted before the destruction of mithyatva.
It is to be observed that the cause of a rebirth in any particular hell lies in the assimilation of particles of matter having a peculiar affinity to its soil, and the assimilation itself is due to the negativity of the soul ignorant of its true nature and existence independently of the body. It follows from this that no one who actually believes in the theory of re-birth and in the divine nature of his own soul can possibly be re-born in hells, or in the lower grades of life in his next incarnation. This is subject to the observation that the liability to be re-born in hell and the lower grades of life, as already pointed out, is not contracted before the dawn of proper discernment, though even in such cases the acquisition of the right faith will prevent a soul from descending into the lowest hells and from the worst forms of torment,' and will also considerably shorten the period of its sojourn in those regions of suffering and pain.
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STAGES ON THE PATH
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