Book Title: Spiritual Awakening and other Essays
Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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Page 180
________________ men follow must be distinguished from the supermundane one which relieves man from the transitoriness of worldly objects and from sorrows and sufferings. In Jaina terminology the path of right belief, right knowledge and right conduct is traversed by the prudent souls, while that of wrong belief, wrong knowledge and wrong conduct is traversed by the ignorant. The former emancipates man from terrestrial curses in contradistinction to the latter which entangles him in the mire of distressing and insatiable sensual desires. According to the Chāndogya Upanişad? the ascetics in the forest adorned with knowledge and faith treat the path of the gods (devayāna) which consequently leads to the attainment of the Brahman or deliverance in contrast to the householders who are busy performing sacrifices and go by the path of the fathers (pitsyāna) to be born again in this world. In a similar way the Gītā' also recognizes two paths, namely the bright and the dark; the former is conducive to emancipation and the latter, leads to rebirth. The bright gati amounts to the termination of transmigration, while the dark gati, to the wanderings into the wheel of birth and death. * Jainism speaks of Siddha-gati and the four gați-s, celestial-human, sub-human and hellish. The former is permanent and immutable, and it implies the complete cessation of transmigratory existence. The latter indicate the rounds of birth and death in the empirical world. Secondly, the realization of Para Gati," the deliverance of one from the mouth of death, 6 is tantamount to experiencing the Brahman or Atman which is the dearest of all, the target to be aimed at, 8 the only desirable, singularly discernible, preferentially knowable, lo and the resting abode of all that is conceivable and perceivable." As viewed by the Gītā, the attainment of anāmayam padam 2 (status beyond Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays 171 Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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