Practical Dharma

SR No.: 011122
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Indian Press
Publication Year: 1929
Total Pages: 123
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 8 MB

Page 85

STAGES ON THE PATH
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(8) Apūrva karaņa (apūrva=new + karaña=thought). The saint now applies himself to holy meditation (sukla dhyāna).
(9) Anivșitti karana (advanced thought activity). This is a more advanced stage than the preceding one.
(10) Sukshma sāmprāya (sukshma=very slight+Sümprüya=conflict), hence struggle to control the kaşayas (passions). Only the slightest form of greed remains to be eradicated in this stage.
(11) Upaśāntamoha (upšānta, from upaśama=quiescence + moha= delusion). This stage arises from the subsidence of the energies of the mohaniya karma.
(12) Kshina moha (destruction of delusion). Complete eradication of the mohanaya karma is the chief characteristic of this stage. It should be pointed out here that the path bifurcates at the end of the seventh stage, one route lying along what is known as upašama śreni (upašama =subsided or quiescent, and śreni=flight of steps, hence ascent), and the other along the kshūyaka (eradicative). The former path finds its culmination in the eleventh stage, that implies the total suppression, but not destruction, of the mohaniya karmas; but the other, which is trodden by those who are not content with the mere subsidence of karmic energies, and who, rejecting half measures, proceed by destroying the 'enemy' once for all and for ever, is the high road to nirvāna. Those who follow it pass directly from the tenth to the twelfth stage, and, acquiring omniscience as the reward of their unyielding, unflinching asceticism, reach the Supreme Seat. The saint who reaches the upaśānta moha stage falls back to a lower one, and keeps on travelling backwards and forwards on the line till he is able to gird up his loins to tread the more trying and difficult kshāyaka path.
(13) Sayoga kevali (sa=with, yoga, the three channels of activity, 2.e., mind, speech and body, and kevali=omniscient). This is the stage of jīvan-mukti, characterised by the total destruction of the four kinds of ghātiyā karmas, but indicating the association with the physical body due to the operation of certain aghātiyā prakritis. Those who evolve out the tirthamkara prakriti become the Tirthankara, who reveals the true dharma (religion). Surrounded by devas and men who hie from all quarters to offer Him devotion, the Tirthamkara explains the doctrine