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PREKSHA MEDITATION: INDIVIDUAL & SOCIAL UPLIFTMENT Indian philosophy has discussed truth, which is bound by time, and also the eternal truth, which is not limited by time. The eternal truth is relevant in the dimension of the past, the future and the present moment. Nowadays everybody is short of time. Most people have no time for self-study, meditation and many important things. The paucity of time is observed among one and all - industrialists, managers and laborers, without exception. I have deeply pondered over this aspect and concluded that it is not basically deficiency of time but ignorance of time management. People do not know how to organize their time properly, though they have ample time. There are twenty four hours in one day and a person can organize and do what he feels like in this time. Because of ignorance of time management, the problem of lack of time cannot be tackled effectively. We should divide the time in two parts - holistic and integrated.
Acharya Mahapragya Jain Vishwa Bharati University, Ladnun,
341306, Rajasthan, India. Phone +91-1581-222110
Acharya Mahapragya is a
Jain religious leader. He is tenth and the current
Acharya of Terapanth sect in succession to Acharya Tulsi. He is a writer, poet and
a philosopher; and is known for Preksha Dhyan
and Ahimsa yatra. He has authored over 150 books on Philosophy,
Literature, Yoga, and Religion in Hindi and
Sanskrit.
Two Aspects of Life The holistic and integrated aspects are important in their respective fields. In case one wants to seek the truth, he has to integrate himself because the truth is holistic in the sphere of utility and behaviorisms. We divide everything in the material world, so life also has to be divided. We divide life into two parts, namely, individual life and social life. Today, there is a big discussion going on regarding socialism, its end result is that the individual is being ignored. In olden times, the individual was very important, discussion was mainly centered on the individual and society was ignored. There is incompleteness in both the outlooks. We are always inclined to ignore one thing and develop a one-sided outlook. Today, there is much discussion on society, so an individual is being marginalized. It is important to give equal importance to both the parts of life. Individual life and social life should be equally attended to. If the individual is not healthy, society will not be healthy, and if society is not healthy then the individual will not be healthy.
Essentiality of Individual Development Individual life has three aspects, namely physical, mental and emotional health. If the body is unhealthy, it creates obstacles. If the mind is not healthy, it is bad; if the emotion is not healthy, it is the worst situation. First of all our emotions should be healthy so that our capacity to control our impulses remains effective. Many people are not able to control their impulses; they easily get tempted by impulses. Though anger, greed, fear hate and lust exist in everyone, only healthy people are able to control their impulses. And those who cannot control their impulses often get provoked by impulses, thereby creating negative health.
First of all there is a need for individual health, which is achieved by restraining the emotions. People practicing Prekshadhyana should clearly understand its purpose. The primary objective is to achieve emotional health, physical health is secondary. We should enhance our capacity to control our impulses, though it may take a lot of time to reach that state, where there
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