Anandrushi Abhinandan Granth

Author(s): Vijaymuni Shastri, Devendramuni
Publisher: Maharashtra Sthanakwasi Jain Sangh Puna

Page 779

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Dr. Bashishtha Narain Tripathi
bonum (the highest good or siddhi ; i. e., couplition and perfection) of existence. Sadhanā includes all the religions practices and ceremonies that are helpful to the realisation of the spiritual experience, and therefore may be regarded as the practical side of religion. A men's value in the sphere of religion is always judged by the quality and the intensity of his religions experience, and the utility of the manifold practices always consists in their leading up to and helping the energence of the spiritual experience. This is why the moral life is the indispensable preliminary discipline to the religions, and this is the central teaching of all forms of Sadhana in Jainism. Sādhanā really begins with purificatory discipline. The awakening of the higher self, the flashing of the divine spark in man, forms the initial step in the course of Sadhana. Jainism, like the other systems of Indian thought, attaches supreme importance to dhyāna (concentration of mind) as a means to spiritual realisation. Along with its purification, the soul develops the capacity for self-concentration. Acharya Kundakunda and, following him, pūjapāda and Yogindudeva have very thoroughly discussed this method of self-realisation in their respective works viz., Mokşaprābhsta, Samadhitantra and Parmātmaprakāśa. They distinguish three states of self, viz. the exterior self (bahirātman), the interior self (entarātman), and the transcendent self (paramātman).
The Jaina thinkers define dhyāna as 'the concentration of the thought on a particular object."22 The mind is capable of the threefold functions of concentration (bhāvanā), contemplation (anuprekṣā), and thought (cintā). Dhyāna is broadly classified into two categories viz., inauspicious or evil (apraśasta) and auspicious or good (praśasta). What leads to the inflow and bondage of bad karmic matter is inauspicious concentration, and what leads to the dissociation or destruction of karmic matter is auspicious concentration. The second category of Dhyāna is divided into two types viz., dharmadhyāna and śūkla-dhyāna. (A) Dharma-dhyāna : The sthānangasutra expounds dharma-dhyāna in these four-fold aspects viz. (1) its objects, (2) the signs (laksana) of a soul possessed of this dhyāna, (3) its conditions (ālambana), and (4) its afterthoughts.23 The immaculate and infalliable nature of the revelation (ājñā), the fact of universal suffering (apaya) and its conditions, the nature of the fruition (vipāka) of various karmans, and the structure (samsthāna) of the universe are the four objects of the dharma-dhayāna. The concentration of thought on account of the meditation (vicaya) on these objects is called dharma-dhyāna. The characteristic sign of a soul capable of this type of concentration is its natural love for and faith in the path it has selected to tread upon and the system of thought which it has been initiated in. Exposition (vācanā), critical inquiry (pratipracchana), repeated study (parivartenā), and reflection (anupreksā) are the conditions that lead to such concentration of mind. The mind muses upon the following subjects when it retires to the normal state after the concentration : the loneliness of the self in its wanderings, the reflecting nature of the wordly things, the absence of spiritual well-being in the world of morality, and the nature of the world as an endless motion (saṁsāra). Jinbhadra expounds this dhyāna from a few other stand