Book Title: Samkit Faith Practice Liberation
Author(s): Amit B Bhansali
Publisher: Amit B Bhansali

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 98
________________ Each living being, in its capacity of knowing, knows at the very least, the infinitesimal part of a letter. If it were to not know even that much, it would cease to qualify as a living being and would be classified as an insentient, non-living being. Because of this capacity of knowledge, irrespective of how minute it may be, mithyaatva is seen as the most basic stage of spiritual development. 2. Owing to the presence of mithyaatva, none of the qualities of the soul manifest themselves. Hence, to show that the living being has the absolute lowest category of realisation, mithyaatva is considered to be the first gunsthaanaka and a person with mithyaatva is considered to belong to the first stage of spiritual development. One sensed-beings, defective-sensed beings, insentient five-sensed beings and bhavaabhinandii five-sensed beings (living beings who love remaining in sansaara} belong to the first gunsthaanaka stage of spiritual development). 3. Samyaktva cannot be found where there is no desire to free oneself from the cycle of transmigration. But it is not necessary that samyaktva be present where there is a desire to free oneself from the cycle of transmigration. One who has interest in liberation is certain to attain samyaktva. But mere desire to attain liberation cannot give birth to samyaktva. One can have mithyaatva and still cherish a desire to attain liberation. Hence, the concept of gunasthaanaka has been mooted. 4. It cannot be stated that living beings whose mithyaatva {false belief) is very less and who have first class qualities like generosity, compassion, charity, the desire to break free from the cycle of rebirth, the desire to seek liberation and other fine qualities, and have entered the charamaavarta kaala' {final period before liberation}, seek liberation owing to the lightness of their mithyaatva, and believe that liberation can only be attained through dharma, do not consider the true god to be the true god, the true preceptor to be the true preceptor and the true religion to be the true religion. Such souls may believe in the true god, true preceptor and the true religion. But they have not yet realised that only the true god is god and all others are false gods. Nor have they realised that only the true preceptor is preceptor and all others are false preceptors. Nor have they realised that only the true religion is religion and all others are false religions. Such souls are unable to discriminate between the true and the false and hence also believe in false gods, false preceptors and false religions. Yet this kind of souls have progressed to the level that they atleast believe what is true also, thus mithyaatva gunasthaana has been adumbrated from their point of view. 5. Even those mighty living beings that have restricted their mohaniiya karmas to a finite number (apunarbandhaka jiivas) are categorised under mithyaatva, hence it is known as a gunasthaanaka. 6. Gunasthaanaka has been mooted to indicate where the spiritual progress of the soul. It begins at the bottom, with mithyaatva. Attributes can be of two varieties - Asti {extant; and Naasti {absent). Mithyaatva is a negative attribute. Since beginning less time, souls remain in the cycle 95

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447