The Foursome Kasaay

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Today’s topic is something we have touched upon many times. So many times that I thought necessary to dedicate a day for it – the topic of the foursome kaṡāy – anger (क्रोध), ego (मान), deceit (माया), greed (लोभ). Interestingly, almost every philosophy says that these are the cause of the bondage, sufferings, etc. And if you reverse question as why are these four there. It would come back as because of the karm bondage we have.

“That looks like a vicious cycle. Kaṡāy because of bondage, and bondage because of kaṡāy”, interrupted Ātmā.

Yes, it is.

If it is a cycle, can we ever come out of it and be a free soul aka go to mokṡ.

Yes, sure. But for that, one needs to understand as how to break the cycle. The key is puruṡārth – one’s own effort.

Yes. We had talked about it under the drivers of our activities.

Correct. That is the only one which could break the cycle. Bondage would lead to kaṡāy, but with our conscious efforts, we can prevent them to further cause bondage – thus breaking the cycle.

How do we do that?

Simply by being equanimous in the situations of provocation of kaṡāy.

“That’s hell lot of effort”, exclaimed Yog.

Ya but that’s what is needed to break the cycle. In fact, it looks complex only at its face. There are ways to make it simple.

Tell us that.

The kaṡāy could be broken up into four stages, and then we may master its control to equanimity through these stages, one by one.

Are these four stages for all the four kaṡāy?

Yes. Thus, there becomes four x four = sixteen kaṡāy, but for the time being we’d consider it just as four stages, each with the four kaṡāy. The various insights into the four stages of kaṡāy is tabulated as follows (alongwith the various stages of soul purification):

Kaṡāy stage Guṅasthān Max period of the stage Next birth Avoid falling back to previous stage by effort of Forgiving
anantānubandhī (severest) 1, 3 Life long Hell Already at the lowest
apratyākhyān (severe) 2, 4 1 year Tiriyanch Forgive within 1 year
pratyākhyān (light) 5 1 month Human Forgive within 4 months
sanjwalan (lightest) 6-10 15 days Heaven Forgive within 15 days
Zero kaṡāy stage 11 < 48 minutes Heaven Not controllable by puruṡārth – would eventually fall back to previous stages
Zero kaṡāy stage 12-14 Permanent Mokṡ Not controllable by puruṡārth – would be maintained forever

“What I understand from the chart is that once we reach 12-14th stages of soul, we don’t need to put any efforts to be equanimous”, clarified Ātmā.

Yes – there you are already equanimous and it is self-sustaining – basically you have broken the cycle and are heading to permanent mokṡ.

That’s great. I think the last column in the chart is really something that gives us the direction to conquer our kaṡāy.

Yes. And other columns shall give you motivation.

Before we close for today, can you please provide some analogies for us to understand the four stages for each of the four kaṡāy? That way we could be more alert of our kaṡāy, so as to take some actions to conquer it.

Ya sure. In fact, I’ll quote the analogies from the philosophical text, itself:

Anger Ego Deceit Greed
(Strong as) (Stubborn as) (Twisted as) (Sticky as)
anantānubandhī Etching on a stone Stone pillar Bamboo roots Colour of silk
apratyākhyān Etching on hard land Bone pillar Sheep horns Colour of mud
pratyākhyān Etching on sand Wood pillar Pee-line of a walking ox Grease
sanjwalan Etching on water Vine pillar Stripping bamboo bark Colour of turmeric

Thanks. That looks cool.

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Anil Kumar Pugalia (123 Posts)

The author is a hobbyist in open source hardware and software, with a passion for mathematics, and philosopher in thoughts. A gold medallist from the Indian Institute of Science, Linux, mathematics and knowledge sharing are few of his passions. He experiments with Linux and embedded systems to share his learnings through his weekend workshops. Learn more about him and his experiments at https://sysplay.in.


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2 thoughts on “The Foursome Kasaay

  1. Pingback: Stages of Soul Purification | Playing with Systems

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