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Bhagavai 3:2:105
-:73:
The super-intensive cour- | A night-long intensive se of penance. Bhagavai, course of penance. Anta3.105
gadadasāo, 3.8.88
The twelfth intensive course of penance of monks. Dasão, 7.33
With both legs closely | Tilting the body slightly | With both legs closely joined and the arms fully forward, with the arms stretched, with the eyes fully stretched, both the stretched, with the eyes fixed unblinkingly on a legs closely joined fixed unblinkingly on a single material particle, together, eyes fixed un- single material particle, tilting the body slightly blinkingly on a white tilting the body slightly forward, fixing the limbs material particle. forward, fixing the limbs at their proper places,
at their proper places, controlling all the
controlling all the senses.
senses.
Lord Mahāvīra, in the three days' fasting adopted a night-long intensive course of penance. Monk Gajasukumāra, on the first day of ordination, adopted a nightlong intensive course of penance in the Mahākāla crematory. In the Dasão, there is no mention of the term 'super-intensive course of penance'. There only the 'oneday intensive course of penance practised by a monk is mentioned. Such penance is adopted during a three-day fast. From the above three lists, it is clearly known that there is only difference of nomenclature between the night-long intensive course of monks and the night-long super-intensive course of penance, there being no substantial difference between them.
2. Fixing the eyes unblinkingly on a single material particle
In the Jain system of meditation, the fixing of gaze steadily on a particular material particle is designated as 'unblinking perception'. Lord Mahāvīra practised such concentration quite frequently. In the Tantra-śāstra and Hathayoga such practice is called Trātak. Here 'the material particle' may stand for either a part of body' or an external object'. It is an important aspect of the practice of meditation to fix unblinkingly the gaze on the tip of the nose or in the middle of both the eyebrows. Acārya Hemachandra has characterized the unblinking gaze on the tip of the nose as a form of Jinendra-mudrā (a posture of the Jina). The fixing of the unblinking gaze in the middle of both the eyebrows has been called 'Sāmbhavi mudrā' in the Gheranda Samhitā.
Semantics aștama-bhakta — after lapsing seven meals in three days, accepting the eighth meal i.e., the three-day fasting. vaggahāriya - this is a desī word which means 'stretched'. The words vāghāri and vāghāriya are also available.* prägbhāra - the front part, summit. The Vrtti explains this as 'the face titled
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