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THE FOURTEEN GUŅASTHĀNAS
HELMUTH VON GLASENAPP
Fourteen stages, i.e. the Guņasthānas, from the condition of complete dependence upon the Karma to the complete detachment from it can be distinguished. They are classified in a logical manner, according to the principle of decreasing iniquitousness and of increasing purity, and not in chronological order in which they could pass. For relapses are possible in the case of every soul; they can throw it down from the ascended stages and withdraw completely or partially the development made so far. This can be understood better when it is considered that the stay in many Guņasthānas lasts for only few minutes so that it is quite possible that someone finds himself in the morning on a high stage, but falls down from it during noon and again climbs to it in the evening. But apart from the possibility of a relapse, it would be impossible to go through all the 14 stages one after the other because a direct transition from the first stage to the second is out of question and the 11th stage is not directly passed before the 12th to the 14th.
I shall give below the individual Guņasthānas in the usual order and give a brief discription of each of them : 1. Mithyāděşti-gunasthāna. This stage is characterized
by complete heterodoxy. Many souls, i.e. all those which are not capable of redumption, never come out of this stage. This applies also to those which are born as fully developed. irrational animals having 1 to 5 senses, as long as their existence lasts in this class of beings. Others are elevated from here, and mostly directly up to the fourth Guņasthāna, but they can descend again to this stage and stay here for a
