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RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE JAINAS
According to Jainism the whole universe is packed with minute living beings. They are so minute that they cannot be seen even by powerful microscope, cannot be killed by fire, water or any human instrument, can pass through mountains, fire, etc. without being hurt. They are called nigoda. They are divided into two classes, namely, one class of those having avyakta mithyātva and the other class of those having vyakta mithyātva. Those belonging to the former are below this first stage, while those belonging to the latter are in it. As soon as the avyakta mithyātva becomes vyakta, the development begins.
Gandhi raises a question : What starts the development ? The answer given is : In a whirlpool some bits of stick or paper or other matter may in the surging of the water get to one side and become separated from the rest, be caught by the wind, and dried by the sun; and so some such thing may happen to a nigoda which would awaken just a spark of the latent potential power of development.'
The second stage is called sāsvādana, Gandhi describes it as follows : It is only a momentary state. It is after anger, for instance, has risen and then subsided, and then is rising again; there is a momentary sensation of the taste of the quiet state; taste of the control of mithyātva.
The third stage is called miśra-drsti-gunasthāna. 'In the first stage or mithyātva-gunasthāna, the state of mind is such that there is a positive dislike and repulsion of the truth; in the second stage or sāsvādana-gunasthāna, there is just the taste of the control of the mithyātva (delusion); in this miśra-drsti-gunasthāna, there is neither like nor dislike for the truth when it is presented to you, you just let the truth pass by without either liking it or disliking it. It is a sort of indifference, and there is no great wish or desire or energy put forth in this state of mind.'
1. Nigoda beings having avyakta mithyatva are infinite. It is also the theory
of the Jainas that as a soul passes from the embodied to the liberated state, a nigoda comes out and development begins. But this does not mean that a nigoda comes out only on such occasions.
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