Jain philosophy simplified

  • By Shri Narottamdas Kapasi
  • July 2002
  • 84472 views

14 steps to Salvation        

173. A soul gropes in dark.  It sees no light.  It attains no spiritual progress.  This is the first step of a staircase, leading to eternal abode.
174. A time comes, where when; one knows neither Truth nor untruth.
175. The inhabitants of a place where only coconuts grow know nothing about the grains.  So does the soul. This is the third step of the staircase. A soul cannot stay there for more than forty-eight minutes.
176. If the soul travels upwards, it arrives at the fourth step.  Plus there is light.  The soul sees the truth.
177. The soul travels further upwards and reaches the fifth step of the staircase.  Here, there is a partial renunciation of the world.
178. At the sixth step, there is complete renunciation of the world. A person on the sixth step is a ‘Muni’.
179. On the seventh step, the Muni can stay hardly for a second.  The stay there is only momentary.

Upward journey of the soul is not possible in this life.

180. When a person falls from any of the higher steps, if it comes down to first step, it reaches the first step, after touching the second step for a moment, while vomiting a sweet object, a slight taste of sweetness is experience.  Similarly while falling from spirited light; a person gets a momentary taste of spiritualism.  This is the second step, known as ‘Sasvadana’.  It comes only during a fall.
181. The names of the fourteen steps are as under: -
1.  Mithyatva                            2.  Sasvadana              3.  Mishra
4. Avirta Samyag Darshan        5.  Deshvirati                6. Sarvavirati
7. Apramatta                            8.  Nivrutti                    9.  Anivrutti
10. Satsuhma Samparaya         11. Upashanta Moha   12. Kshina 
13. Sayogi Kevali                     14.  Ayogi Kevali

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