________________
[ 276
]
called Ayogakevaligunasthāna.I This is the state of a Siddha who is free from all kinds of karmas-Ghāti as well as Aghati and is therefore free from a body which is due to karma. A Siddhapurușa who is in a sense devoid of body due to karma is said to possess an auspicious body which is absolutely pure and has nothing to do with karma. He rises up higher and higher in Lokākāśa till it reaches the Summit and is seated in the so called Siddhasilā beyond time, space etc. The Siddhapuruşa is the most purified Ātmā and is eternal. It lies or stays midway between Lokākāśa and Alokākāśa and has no longer anything to do with the activities of the mundane world,
The fourteen gunasthānas represent a graduated scheme of the of study spiritual ascention in which the elimination of karma forms the most essential part. Karma and the body together with the mundane life and all that it means disappears in siddhi. The entire world-structure as well as the individual human body are the outcome of karma and continue so long as karma continues but as karmas in the course of spiritual discipline through the guņasthānas disappear more and more, the soul attains to its utmost purity when it is altogether freed from karma and from its consequences-association with body, experience of pleasure and pain and subjection to time by virtue of Ayu. It may be pointed out that many Jaina Munis have described in an unequivocal language that the Siddhātmā is the Ātmā in its essential form and is rightly called Paramātmā. This doctrine of Paramātmā does not imply that the Jainas believe in an extra-cosmic or supercsomic Išvara. Although it is true that Paramātmā or īśvara are essentially one and the same, it may be pointed out that Iśvara in same system plays the role of a Cosmic Ruler or a Creator of the world or Supreme Guru engaged in liberating humanity through knowledge.
1. Gomațțasăra Jivakāņda, 65
