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V. 1]
DOCTRINE OF GUNASTHĀNA
279
remains for one antarmuhurta in this stage. In the last instant of this stage all the sub-types of the knowledge-covering, intuition-covering and the obstructive (antarāya) karman are annihilated, and the soul is now absolutely free from all the four types of obscuring (ghātin) karman. The soul now is in the thirteenth stage of spiritual development. This stage is the equivalent of what is known as the jivanmukta stage in other Indian systems. The Jaina name for this stage is sayogakevali-gunasthāna. Of the five conditions of bondage viz. perversity, non-abstinence, spiritual inertia, passions, and activity, the first four are now totally annihilated. The last one however still remains, and hence it is sayoga (with activity). The soul is now omniscient (kevalin). It has now attained full and perfect intuition. There is now perfect expression of spiritual energy. There is however still the rise and existence of the four non-obscuring types of karman viz. feelingproducing (vedaniya), longevity-determining (ayus), body-building (nāman), and the status-determining (gotra). The soul is not freed from the embodied existence until it reaches the end of the life term already determined by the āyuhkarman. There is also the threefold activity of the body, the sense-organ of speech and the mind. But there is no new bondage leading to worldly life. A soul remains in this stage for one antarmuhūrta in the minimum and for somewhat less than a pūrvakoți in the maximum. Before entening into the last and the final, the fourteenth, stage of absolute motionlessness which lasts only for a very short time and is immediately followed by final emancipation, the soul prepares for the stoppage of all activity, gross and subtle. The stoppage of an activity requires another activity as the instrument. And so the soul first stops the gross activities of the sense-organ of speech and the mind by the gross activity of the body. Then it stops the gross activity of the body as well as the subtle activities of the sense-organ of speech and the mind by the subtle activity of the body. The soul then enters the third stage of śukla-dhyānal which is 'accompanied with subtle vibration' (sūksmakriya) and steady (anivartin), and stops the subtle bodily activity by means of the activity itself for there is none other than itself. Due to the above dhyana the soul contracts and fills the cavities created in embodied state. It is now reduced. Then it enters the fourth stage of the sukla-dhyāna which is bereft of all vibration (samucchinnakriya) and infallible (apratipātin). It is now as motionless as a mountain rock (śaileśa). Here all the remaining karmans are annihilated. This state of absolute motionlessness is the fourteenth stage of ayoga-kevalin. The state lasts only for the period of time required to pronounce five short syllables at the ordinary speed. At the end of this period the soul attains unembodied emancipation.
1 Vide infru, p. 292.
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