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GUNASTHANAKAS
PART II : 21
The seventh Gunasthana is known as Apramattasanyata. It should be remembered here that the third category of passions was subdued in the sixth stage. After that there remains the fourth category of Sanjvalana only. This is the mildest form of passions. It is compared with a line drawn in water. No sooner it is drawn, it vanishes. The passions of the Sanjvalana degree have no curation. Nevertheless their arising is not stopped completely. The aspirant in the seventh stage tries to control that also. This stage is called Apramatta because the aspirant is always sufficiently alert not to allow any slipping. Here the aspirant wins also three stronger types of sleep.
8th Apurva Karana Gunasthana 9th Anivrittikarana Gunasthana 10th Shukshma Sanparaya Gunasthana 11th Upashanata - Mohaniya Gunasthana 12th Kshinamohaniya Gunasthana 13th Sayogi - Kevalin Gunasthana 14th Ayogi - Kevalin Gunasthana.
As these Gunasthanas are not attainable by us at present time from the present world, only their names are mentioned.
The Jains hold an ideal of freedom from bondage. This can only be achieved by voluntary effort, both intellectual and moral. There is no escape from the cycle of birth and re-birth till he is able to shake off, by his own moral endeavour, the pudgal particles clinging round his soul on every occasion he acts. This bondage is alien to the soul. He can regain his original state of liberation, by developing in full, the capabilities which are now lying veiled or dormant in him. The sacrifice of the present to the future, the sarcrifice of flesh to enter into a life of spirit, the annihilation of passion to enjoy a state of serene bliss :- That forms the key-note of Jainism.
The yearning for a state of Freedom from bondage, achieveable after much moral er.deavour, from a pious home-sickness in the state of bondage in this earthly life is at the heart of Jainism. Consequently Jain ethics is essentially an ethics of self-realisation in and through self-rule and self-regulation. We propose to deal with this subicct of Jain ethics in Part IV, afier dealing with the subject of Jain Philosophy in Part III.
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