________________
154
SOME PROBLEMS IN JAINA PSYCHOLOGY
possible because of the fundamental characteristic of the soul in its tendency to upward motion. The struggle for liberation goes on with the help of the two processes mentioned above. This is the journey of the soul along its homeward path. The progress of the soul in its homeward journey takes fourteen stages till the final goal in perfection is realized. These fourteen stages are the guṇasthānas.
The soul gets the first spiritual vision from the subsidence of the karmic matter and removal of the perversity of attitude, the mithyātva. But this spiritual vision does not in the beginning last long. But the soul remains restless and struggles in a number of ways to recapture the vision and keep it permanently. This struggle is long and arduous. It has to remove gradually the five conditions of bondage--mithyātva, perversity of attitude, avirata, lack of self-control, pramāda, spiritual inertia, kaṣāya, passion and trigupti, threefold activity of body, speech and mind. The subduing of passions is an important condition of spiritual progress. It is possible only by the operation of the processes of yathāpravṛttakaraṇa manifesting in the forms of apurvakaraṇa and anivṛttikaraṇa. The progress of the soul in all the fourteen stages is possible in two ways: (1) the soul may suppress the passions, when, as a consequence subsidence of the karma would take place. This is the path of suppression or subsidence. It is called upasama śreņi. (2) The soul may also go the way of annihilating the karmas altogether. This spiritual path is called kṣaya śreņi. Thus, the soul goes the way of self-realization by the paths of subsidence (upaśama), and destruction, (kṣaya) of the karmic veil. the highest stage of self-realization, the soul reaches the stage of perfection and omniscience. This is the fourteenth stage and the consummation of the struggle.
In
Discussion of the Fourteen Stages
We shall now refer briefly to the fourteen stages of spiritual development. These stages represent the journey of the soul to
self-realization.
(1) The first is the lowest stage. It is the stage of perversity of attitude and is called mithyatvadṛṣṭi. In this stage, we accept wrong beliefs and are under the false impression that what we believe is right. We look at every thing through coloured glasses. We refuse to recognise that we are wrong. It is a stage of wrong belief which is caused by the operation of mithyatva karma. However, the soul is not entirely bereft of an indistinct vision of the right. This is possible because the soul cannot be entirely bereft of the possession of the right knowledge. The soul has at least the minimum degree of right vision in this stage, although the latter is entirely clear. Though the soul has, the capacity of removing the perversity by means of the right vision, it is still, under the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
