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Main Index
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| | | Book Name: The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 1 | Previous Next | |
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He does not call it avatara, because avatara means 'god descending into the world' -- you have to believe in god. He does not call... in any way he does not use any term that has to have some presuppositions. He uses simple terms without any presuppositions.
NEXT IS THE ANAGAMIN.
Arhat is the highest state, next to it is the anagamin. Anagamin means 'one who will not come again', one who...
AT THE END OF HIS LIFE, THE SPIRIT OF THE ANAGAMIN ASCENDS TO THE HEAVEN AND OBTAINS ARHATSHIP.
It is just below the arhat state.
Anagamin -- the word means 'one who will not come again'. Gone, he will be gone. Gone, he will be gone forever, he will not return. He has come to the point of no return. He is just close to being an arhat, he has passed the clouds. Just on the boundary, he is standing on the threshold of being an arhat. Maybe a small clinging has remained in him, and that clinging is with the body. So when he dies, that clinging also disappears. He will not be coming back.
NEXT IS THE SKRIDAGAMIN.
Skridagamin means 'one who comes back'.
THE SKRIDAGAMIN ASCENDS TO THE HEAVEN (AFTER HIS DEATH COMES BACK TO THE EARTH ONCE MORE...
Only once.... He has still some clinging; very faint -- but there are still a few roots and he will be pulled back to another womb again. He is not absolutely desireless. Arhat is absolutely desireless. A skridagamin has passed beyond the gross desires, but subtle desires are still there.
What are the gross desires? Desire for money, for power, prestige -- these are gross desires. Desire to be free, desire to be calm, desire to attain to the last state of arhatship -- these are subtle desires, but they are still desires. He will have to come back only once.
NEXT IS THE SROTAPANNA.
The word srotapanna means 'one who has entered into, the stream'. Srota means stream and apanna means 'one who has entered'. Srotapanna means 'one who has entered the stream'. He has just begun his journey on the path. He is no more worldly -- he has become a sannyasin, he has entered into the river. Far is the ocean, but he has entered into the river, he has started.
And when
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