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Karma - Its Operation and an Appraisal
Defaviralaramyagdrşfi is the next bigber stage of spiritual development, in which we get partial efforts for self-control in addition to the possession of the knowledge of truth There is a partial destruction of karmic natter which produces passions 24 Full practice of virtues would not be possible because there is the possibllity of the influence of passions
In the next stage, the moral effort takes & inore definite shape, although it is not always successful A person has a more or less steady glimpse of the truth, and he tries to develop self-control But even here, the moral life and the spiritual struggle are not fully successful, owing to moral and spiritual inertia This inertia is called promada And pramada 19 overcome in the seventh stage of a pramatta-samyala Efforts to reach moral excellence take definite shape the operation of Karma preventing perfect conduct is very feeble, and minor passions are also subdued The process of adhahpravrtti-karnia, by which the soul on a lower level can rise higher, operates in this stage 15
The eighth stage is called apīrvakarana It leads to greater and more definite self-control the self attaios special purification and 18 capable of reducing the intengity and duration of Karma The Gommatasara gives a detailed description of the process of apūrvakarona operating in this stage One is affected only by the mild affective states It 19 possible to develop a stoic attitude In the stage of development called antorttu-badara-samparaya, it is possible to overcome even the milder emotional disturbance with grea ter confidence and ease some times slight emotional afflictions are, here, possible In the tenth stage of Sakşınasamparaya, only greed disturbs us, and that too slightly Except for this disturbance, one is passionless and calm This subtle greed can be interpreted as the subconscious attachment to the body even in souls which have a hieved great spiritual advancement 10 But one is free from even the slightest passions in the eleventh Gunasthana, of upasantainoha, still the affections are not altogether eliminated They are only suppressed through the pressure of moral effort We are mostly free from the baneful influence of the Karma, except the deluding Karma (mohantyaKarma) This state is called chadmastha It is also callcd vtardga, as one is able to remin calm and undisturbed through the suppression of Karma In the next stage, of ksina-moha there is annihilation of Ghaul Karma and not mere suppression And when all the passions and the four types of ghata karma are destroyed one reaches the thirteenth stage of spiritual development, called sayoga-Kevali One is free from the bondage of ghatı Karma, yet is not free from activity and bodily existence as the Aghanı Karma, ayukarma eta
24 26 26
Gommajasara-Jivakānda, 90 and commentary Ibid 48, 49 Tatia (N) Studies in Jana Philosophy, p 27,
