Dhyanastav

Author(s): Bhaskarnandi, Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 6

GENERAL EDITORIAL
Meditation ( Dhyāna ) is a subject of supreme importance in Jainism which is essentially spiritualistic in theory as well as in practice; and numerous works, big and small, in Sanskrit and Prākrit, have been produced on it since times immemorial.
Here is presented a small hymn in Sanskrit containing 100 verses : it is called Dhyanastava, though it could be called Dhyanaśataka as well. It is an exposition of Dhyāna ( Meditation ). The contents are given in the "Outline of the Poem" (pp. 6-7), in the Introduction of the Editor. The author is Bhaskaranandi, the same as the author of the commentary on the Tattvärthasūtra.
This is edited here by Miss Suzuko Ohira along with English translation and Introduction, shedding much critical light on the contents of the work as well as on the author's lineage and age. Miss Ohira hails from Japan. She is a B. A. in English Literature ( Tsuda College, Tokyo) and M. L. S. in Library Science (University of Washington, Seattle ), and has studied in Banaras Hindu University during 1964-65. Lately, she was in the States working in the University of Illinois Library. She is a keen student of Sanskrit, and has been occupied for sometime past on the English translation of Bhaskaranandi's Sanskrit commentary on the Tattvärthasūtra. She has a good grounding in Jainism. At present