Every day he should be very careful to keep the six rules for daily life, which are described in a well-known śloka:
‘One must worship God, serve the guru, study the scriptures, control the senses, perform austerities and give alms.’
Thirdly, while still on this step, he may advance to Utkṛiṣṭa deśavirati, eating only once a day, maintaining absolute chastity, resigning the society even of his own wife, eating nothing that possesses even one life, and finally forming the determination to become a sādhu. This is the highest step that a layman can reach as such, for if it be successfully surmounted, he will become a sādhu.
At this stage, too, moderate anger, deceit, pride and greed are controlled and sometimes destroyed.
vi. Pramatta guṇasthānaka.We now come to the sixth step on the ladder, Pramatta guṇasthānaka, which can only be ascended by the professed ascetic. Even slight passions are now controlled or destroyed, and only certain negligences (Pramāda) remain.
‘These five Pramāda: Pride, Enjoyment of the senses, Kaṣāya, Sleep and Gossip, torment the soul in this world’
runs a Māgadhī śloka, and the Jaina believe that if a soul is to mount the next step, he must never indulge any of these for more than forty-eight minutes at a time; if he does, he will not mount, but on the contrary will descend to the lowest step of all.
vii. Apramatta guṇasthānaka.At the seventh step, Apramatta guṇasthānaka, anger is either absolutely quiescent or actually destroyed, and only in a slight degree do pride, deceit and greed remain. The soul's power of meditation increases, for the bad qualities which lead to sleep are absent, and lastly one is freed from all negligence.
viii. Niyatibādara (or Apūrvakaraṇa) guṇasthānaka.Among the Digambara some say that women can only mount as high as the fifth stage; others believe they can reach the eighth step, which is called Niyatibādara guṇasthānaka. It is also called the Apūrvakaraṇa, because the man who has his foot on this stair experiences such joy as he has never known before in all his life. As anger disappeared