Twenty-two hardships (Parisaha)

Twenty two hardships (parisaha) are mentioned in Tattvarthasutra. One has to experience hardships in the form of hurdles or obstacles on this path just as result of the past karma. These hardships^[1] are hunger, thirst, cold, heat, insect-bites, nakedness, absence of pleasures, women, pain arising from roaming, discomfort of postures, uncomfortable couch, scolding, injury, begging, lack of gain, illness, pain inflicted by blades of grass, dirt, reverence and honour (good as well as bad reception), arrogance of learning, despair or uneasiness arising from ignorance and lack of faith. They are mainly for testing if we could maintain calmness or the state of equanimity, to stay on the right path for eradicating the bondage of karma. Inspite of all hardships, if one can ignore the bodily concerns, he can prevent acquisition of new karma. A spiritual aspirant should remain aware that hardships arise as the consequence of karma and need to be borne with patience. More than nineteen parisahas or afflictions can not occur simultaneously^[2] since one out of cold and heat and one out of pain arising from roaming, discomfort of postures and uncomfortable couch can occur at a time.

Tattvarthasutra describes fourteen stages of spiritual elevation^[3] and development for stopping of karma inflow and how much one has to bear with the above hardships in each stage. It also specifies types of karma that lead to different hardships (parisahas). Only Jnanavaraniya (knowledge obscuring), darsanavaraniya (perception obscuring), Mohaniya (perception-deluding), caritra-mohaniya (character-deluding), vedaniya (situation conferring) and antaraya (obstructing) karma are responsible for causing hardships (parisahas).