ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 02

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 187

B.3.4
Spiritual Awakening, Devotion and Meditation: Jaina Perspective
Prof. Kamal Chand Sogani
1.0 Spiritual Awakening The pronouncement of the Acarangal that the ignorant are asleep and the wise are awake inspires us to be aware of the highest in us, which is our Real Nature. In Jain terminology we may say that this is tantamount to achieving Samyagdarśana (Spiritual Awakening). When we are asleep we are in the state of spiritual perversion known as Mithyādarśana.
1.1 The Role of Samyagdarśana (Spiritual Awakening) in the life of an Individual Jainism regards spiritual awakening (Samyagdarśana) as the beginning of the spiritual pilgrimage, and it is the foundation of the magnificent edifice of liberation. Even performing very severe austerities by persons devoid of spiritual awakening do not attain spiritual wisdom even in thousands and millions of years. Just as a leaf of the lotus plant because of its own nature and constitution is not defiled by water, so also an awakened person because of his spiritual nature is not sullied by passions and sensuous attractions. Value-knowledge and ethico-spiritual conduct is acquired through spiritual awakening. The spiritually awakened self considers his own self as his genuine abode and regards the outward dwelling places as artificial. He renounces all identification with the animate and inanimate objects of the world, and properly weighs them in the balance of his awakened spirit. Thus he develops a unique attitude towards himself and the world around him.
Without Samyagdarśana conduct is incapable of surpassing the province of morality. An ascetic who bases his asceticism on the mere moral concepts cannot be said to be superior to a householder whose interior has been illumined with the light of Samyagdarśana, inasmuch as the former is paving the way for the achievement of empyreal pleasures far away from the blissful state of existence, while the latter's face is turned in the right direction, which will in due course yield whatever is worthy of his inherent nature. The spiritually awakened persons regard the auspicious bhāvas as the temporary places of stay, when they find themselves incapable of staying at the pinnacle of truth and realization. These Bhāvas serve as a halting place for them and not as a permanent dwelling. Thus such individuals absolve themselves even from subconscious egoism in performing auspicious activities. On the contrary, those who are only morally converted regard the acquisition of auspicious
Acarariga - Sutta amunni munino sayā jāgaranti, Acarariga -cayanika, 44, p. 32.
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