________________
934
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
dhyana, it is evident that self-contemplation possible only in three ways, viz,: (1) with the aid of thought forms, (2) by means of words and (3) by feeling the pulsation of Life in certain nervous centres in the body. These are the three yogas which have been already referred to; and their changing is due to their instability in all stages prior to the thirteenth where only one of them is operative. Even this remaining yoga is destroyed in the fourteenth stage when there is complete separation between spirit and matter, so that the final form of pure self-contemplation (sukla dhyana) is only the functioning of pure spirit, devoid of yogas-mind, speech and the body of matter.
The necessity for practising sukla dhyana arises because the contemplation of the soul as separate and distinct from matter and endowed with all the divine qualities and attributes is the only direct means of selfrealisation. In other words, sukla dhyana occupies an intermediate position between dharma dhyâna and actual self-realisation, so that while dharma dhyana is the instrument of developing the knowledge of the self and of engendering the spirit of vairagya in the soul, sukla dhyana is necessary to raise that knowledge to the degree of an actual affection, or feeling, before divinity in embryo may be expected to be transformed into a fully evolved God. The old law--as you believe, so you become—is also in operation here, since belief reaches its culminating point only when characteristic feelings are evoked. The forms of the different dharnas and dhyânas are also most helpful in this respect. They not only furnish material for self-contemplation with the aid of the two principal
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org