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The Nature of Leshya
Just as waves rise and recede in an ocean, so also there is rise and fall in our thoughts and feelings. Leshya means the vibrations in our thoughts, attitudes and passions. As a person's mental state goes on changing, his leshya also changes.
We can stop using our speech, we can put our palms over our ears to avoid listening to the harsh words uttered by others, we can tie a cloth over our eyes, but unlike our sense organs, we cannot stop our leshya. Its waves are flowing every second. It is in a constant state of vibration, receiving input from others around us while impacting them in turn. This leshya is the silent interaction between us and others, the invisible communication.
Many seers have attempted an in-depth study and understanding of leshya and established some primary principles and rules. The Jaina scriptures explain the nature of leshya through a simple story. Six friends entered a garden to eat berries. Each one thought of a different method to get the berries off the tree. One wanted to cut down the entire tree, the second decided it would be better to chop off all the large branches, and the third, the smaller branches. The fourth friend wanted to
shake the tree and eat the fallen fruits, while the fifth said he would climb the tree and pick the ripe berries. The sixth friend said he would be content eating the berries that had naturally fallen on the ground. Thus, the six different leshyas of the six friends led them to choose different ways to reach the same goal.
There are six types of leshyas - black, blue, grey, red, yellow and white. The first friend's leshya is said to be black, the second one blue, the third grey, the fourth red, fifth yellow and sixth white. From the example, it is clear that the mental states of these six friends range from inauspicious to auspicious, from sorrowful to joyous, and from negative to positive. Among these, the brightest and most auspicious is the white one, known as shukla leshya, while the most negative and inauspicious is black or krishna leshya.
Just like our gross body, our subtle body also contains the properties of colour, smell, taste and touch. The uniqueness of these properties is that they are not perceived by the sense organs. The sense of sight cannot perceive the colour of our leshya, so also the nose cannot know its smell, the tongue cannot experience its taste, and the skin cannot know its touch; yet its impact is
very powerful.
