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SOME PROBLEMS IN JAINA PSYCHOLOGY
veil of karma. The attainment of samyaktva, right attitude, is a condition of finding the way to self-realization,
In its wanderings in the wheel of saṁsāra, the soul sometimes gets the vision of the goal of liberation as also of the way to reach this goal. It feels an impulse to make efforts to reach this goal. This energy for effort is yathāpravrtta karana. It is then set on the way to liberation. The struggle consists in the twofold process known as apūrva karana and anivetti karaṇa. The process of apūrva karana enables the soul to cross the obstacles of karma granthi while anivrtti karana leads it to the dawn of enlightenment.
The way to self-realization is long and arduous. It takes many difficult stages before perfection is reached. The Jainas have mentioned fourteen stages in the struggle for perfection. They are called gunasthānas. The first four stages lead to the right vision (samyaktva), by removing the obscuration created by perversity of attitude. It is purely an intellectual process. It does not involve moral effort for self-realization. These four stages may be compared to the progressive development of the attitude of the prisoner in 'the parable of the cave' in Plato's Republic. In the struggle for attainment of perfection, the soul undergoes the vicissitudes of moral life, sometimes going up the stage of moral development and sometimes coming down. This moral struggle starts with the fifth stage. The fourteenth gunasthāna is the final stage of self-development. It is called the state of ayoga kevali. Thirteenth stage is the Kaivalya stage, and this is the final stage and it represents its last phase in life for a few moments only.
Dr. Nandimath compares the gunasthānas to the sat-sthalas of Virasaivism. Prof. Kundanagar in his introduction to Adipurāna, gives a similar view. The struggle for perfection in the fourteen stages of selfdevelopment has great psychological importance, although psychology as a positive science will not be able to explain the significance of these stages.
A study of the problems of psychology as presented by the Jainas is useful for a better understanding of the Jaina philosophy. These problems have been interpreted in terms of the concepts of western psychology, especially the rational psychology. An analysis of these problems in the light at once of ancient Indian thought and Western psychological thought gives a synoptic view of the nature and value of the problems that the Jainas presented.
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