Jaina Acara Siddhanta aur Svarupa

SR No.: 006747
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Devendramuni
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 322
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 229

Jaina Acāra : Siddhanta aura Svarūpa
195 satisfying it will be. It is only such staying contemplation that is transformed into concentration which makes you an introvert for some time to enable you to study life deeply and dispassionately. Such attitude alone will make you feel that you are not mere body which others see, love or hate.
Contemplation may go upwards or ascend and also come downward. When it looks upward it ensures peace of mind and good share of cheer. When it falls below, it means misery, affliction, and troubles galore. Samghadasagani says that it may be auspicious or inauspicious. The first is to be cultivated with assiduity and the second is to be got rid of. Who would like to see his house dirty and foulsmelling? Your desire will be to see it trim, tidy, clean and sweetsmelling. Inauspicious contemplation means corruption, duplicity, nepotism, favouritism, partiality, prejudices and such other passions. A recluse nurturing such passion is a blot on monkdom. Monks and nuns must entertain noble and exalted emotions which make for tranquillity and lasting peace of mind. Inauspicious contemplation makes a dare-devil of you, revelling in frivolities, relishing delicacies, harbouring jealousy and hitting people behind their backs. It will make one lecherous and subject to unending transmigration. It is nothing but abusing and misusing this precious life of ours. As many states of mind, so many are contemplations. What demeans a man to demonhood is to be shunned straightaway. What ennobles your life should be practised with sincerity and devotion.
There are contemplations either to sanctify conduct or to strengthen the feeling of detachment. There are five reflections on each of the five great vows. They make an ascetic firm in his resolve to observe vows unflinchingly.
We shall now take up twelve contemplations as propounded by various preceptors. They are all meant to foster detachment. These twelve are in ascending order. The uppermost stair can be reached only by ascending step by step.
The First contemplation concerns the transitoriness of all mundane things including the body that you call your own. Riches have wings. Youth smiles for a day and soon enough becomes decrepit, diseased and falling, if not fallen. All things, be they your blood relations or your bungalows, are no more than the momentary flash of lightning. People love not you but your money. Selfishness rules the roost. Fathers are afraid of their own sons and the only cause is property in cash and kind. What is impermanent you take as lasting because of your delusion which does not let you see things as they are. Youdhistira had replied to the question put by Yaksa that the greatest wonder of life is that even though you see people dying every day, you think that destiny has made you immortal. Nothing stays; every thing is changeful.