Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 511

The Śramaņi: The Worker
483
initiate the sādhvis into this practice.29 In the course of the centuries what might be called a slippery path has led to the attachment of very great importance to mantras; now, although japa is at one and the same time both a preparation for and a constituent part of dhyāna, it can also deflect one from it.30 In a similar way great importance has been attached to all the external forms of tapas without much attention being given to interior tapas and to its most perfect expression, which is dhyāna.
Furthermore, the jungle and countryside of past centuries, favourable as they were to the state of recollectedness, have gradually given way to noisy towns and since the Jaina samgha is for the most part a trading community, certain upāśrayas for a number of practical reasons have been located right within the bazar area, which is scarcely conducive to the practice of spiritual exercises.
It cannot but be noted, also, that among those sādhvis who are very well instructed in their doctrine certain ones are scarcely aware of this lack; they themselves do not always feel the necessity of the practice of dhyāna.31 Up till now few have shown determination or interest in returning to the sources in this regard. However, there are some exceptions. 32
29 It is this lack which the Śramaņi Vidyāpitha and the Saṁsthā aim at remedying.
30 Cf. Rājimati, 1977, pp. 23-24.
31 One scholarly sādhvi, who had done advanced literary study, told me that she had no experience of dhyāna.
32 An interesting contribution in this aea has been made by Sadhvi Räjimati, who, on the basis of some serious study and her own personal experience, has written a treatise for the use of śrāvakas and śrāvikās, comprising a practical introduction to the disciplines of classical yoga from the Jaina perspective: Yoga ki prathama kirana, (1975), Ist vol. of a series she is envisaging. We must also mention the excellent initiative taken by Mahāsati Umarävakumvara (Arcana'), who collaborated with a muni and a pandit in producing an edition in Hindi of the Yogaśästra.