Jaina Mysticism and Other Essays

SR No.: 006933
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 166
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 83

God in his heart for ever.'? Intoxicated by the devotional juice, the devotee announces that he keeps God in his heart and so allows Him (God) to cross the ocean of mundane miseries; but after a moment, he reverses the position by saying that God serves as the air inside the leather bag of his heart for crossing the ocean of world. 18 The spirit of utter consecration is manifested when Samantabhadra proclaims that — that is intellect which remembers God, that is head which bows down at His feet, that is successful life which lives under His pious shelter, that is speech which sings His praise, that is a sacred man who is engrossed in His devotion, and that is a learned man who bows down at His feet.19 Consequently He alone is the object of his belief, he exclusively remembers and adores Him, both his hands are meant only for paying Him obeisance, his ears are ever engaged in listening to His noble characteristics, his eyes are always busy in beholding His beauty, his deep-rooted habit is to write something in His praise, and His head is for the sole purpose of bowing to him.20
Types of devotion
Bhakti, according to Jainism, may be classified as Arhat Bhakti Acārya Bhakti, Upadhyāya Bhakti and Pravacana Bhakti 21 Another classification runs as Siddha Bhakti, Śruta Bhakti Căritra Bhakti, Yogi Bhakti Acārya Bhakti, Nirvana Bhakti Panca-Guru Bhakti Tirtharikara Bhakti Nandišvara Bhakti, śānti Bhakti, Samadhi Bhakti and Caitya Bhakti.22 Kundakunda's Niyamasāra categorises Bhakti into Nirvytti Bhakti and
Yoga-Bhakt:23 The former comprises devotion for right belief, right knowledge and right conduct and for the emancipated soul; the latter implies absorption in self, meditation after one has renounced attachment etc. and the foreign mental activities. 24 The different types of devotion may be stated as pertaining to (1) Stuti (2) Vandanā, (3) Idol worship, (4) Nāmasmarana, (5) Bhajana-kīrtana, (6) Vinaya (7) Vaiyāvrttya, and (8) Abhiksanajñānopayoga.
(1) Stuti entails one to devote oneself to the holy contemplation of the divine characteristics revealed by the consecrated twentyfour Tīrtharkaras, and to the sacred meditation on the implications of their names.25
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Jaina Mysticism and other essays