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Chapter 4.9 SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
ery few persons are on the path of spiritual progress. The general population lacks both Right Knowledge and Right Conduct and is busy satisfying temporary
pleasures of the senses. Their life is governed by drives and passions such as anger, pride, deceit and greed. They have fears, such as the fear of losing possessions, status, family, society and health. This phenomenon is due to the karmic bondage of the soul, which obscures its true characteristics. Liberation from karmic bondage, to uncover the true nature of the self, is the goal of spiritual development. The journey from the embodied soul to the liberated soul is traversed through the medium of moral and intellectual preparation. Jain scriptures have described the graduated stages on this virtuous path.
Stages of spiritual development There are fourteen stages of spiritual development, known as gunasthanas.
1 The Dark Period of Self: The first is called the stage of false faith or delusion' (mithyaatva). At this stage the worldly soul remains in a perpetual state of spiritual ignorance due to deluding karma, which engenders a complex state of perverted beliefs and conduct. The dominance of a spurious faith precludes the self from any inclination towards the path of liberation.
Delusion vitiates Right Knowledge and Right Conduct. People may possess both extensive knowledge and moral conduct, but a spurious faith does not allow them to destroy the hostile elements of the soul and to proceed towards spiritual development. Thus the darkest period for the self is when it is overwhelmed by a spurious faith that obstructs all spiritual endeavour. It is a state of spiritual slumber, when one does not recognise one's delusion. The soul tied to this stage identifies itself with bodily colour, physical frame, race, sex, caste, creed, family, friends and wealth. It is constantly obsessed with the fears of losing possessions, family, friends and health, and is tormented by the thought of death.
A bogus faith makes one accept a miss-construed religion as the right religion, a false path as the right path, the materialistic body as the soul, the non-saintly person as the saint, the unemancipated as the emancipated, and so on. Jain seers have described this deluded spiritual stage as the 'state of external self". In this stage there will be some souls who never triumph over this darkness, never achieve liberation, and are known as 'ones who are incapable of liberation' (abhavya). They have a bogus faith and misconstrue the nature of things (Tattvartha Sutra 1974: 2.7). Others who also occupy this stage have inclinations towards spiritual development, as they are learning towards the path of Right Faith and do not commit intentional sinful acts. They do not attach undue value to the worldly life and maintain vigilance over whatever they do. The spiritual darkness of those with an inclination towards spiritual development is not as intense as that of the welcomers of transmigratory existence. From the first stage, if individuals are successful in removing the effects of faith-deluding karma and develop Right Faith, they can rise to the fourth stage. They can fall from the fourth to the third, second or first stage if the effects of faith-deluding karma reappear, as is described below.
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