Jain Digest 2018 10

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 10

JainDigest
Anyatva Bhavana
By Smita Shah Smita Shah B.Sc. is a retired realtor and loan broker. She currently spends her time listening to spiritual discourses and reading on religious topics. Her passion is health, science and naturopathy.
Anyatva Bhavana makes us realize that everything other than the soul is "Anya" - not ours. All other living beings and all material things (pudgal) are "Anya" from the perspective of the soul.
Just as a foreign body, will cause harm to the body if allowed within, any feelings of attachment or aversion
towards people and things will cause karma particles to attach to the soul and create a big havoc. Our focus moves away from the virtues of soul - such as knowledge, peace, bliss, etc; - and we miss our direction and real goal.
In Anyatva Bhavana our attachment to world around us is of primary concern. Effect of our involvement and attention given to others and all material things is the main issue that we have to contemplate upon. We need to move away from the belief that I am the body. Once that happens then anything associated with the body - people, things - will not be 'ours'. The goal of Anyatva bhavana is to loosen our grip on our relationship with the body and to strengthen our belief that "I am a pure, peaceful, powerful soul."
Our main goal is to recognize who we are - the Soul - and submerge ourselves in it! How did we get in our current situation?
A child is born. He is helpless. For his survival he needs help from mother, nurse and family members. He is happy when comfortable and well fed and cries if he is not comfortable or not well fed. Slowly he learns to like the people who provide for his needs and wants. He develops likes and dislikes for various things according to his past sanskaras. This goes on for
years and continues throughout his life span. Attachment and aversion are the root cause of
Our likes and dislikes, attachments and
aversions, pleasure and pain, all dualities karma, and karma originates from infatuation. create good or bad karma and get attached
to the soul. The process of accumulating such Karma is the root cause of birth and death,
karma has been going on since eternity. We
accumulate more karma than we shed. and these are said to be the source of misery.
Life is a game; a drama created by fruition of None can escape the effect of their own past
our good and bad karma. We do not have karma.
control over when and which way our past karma will put us in various circumstances. But
we do have control over how we act under any situation. Due to lack of awareness of who we really are, most of the time we get carried away and waste our time in reacting to the situations. We forget their temporary nature. This in turn causes bondage of more karma and the cycle continues.
"Bhed Gyan" - A way to increase our awareness
How do we increase the awareness of who we are? It is not that easy to understand who we really are. However, we even make mistake in understanding the true nature of things that are external to us. We have to know clearly who I really am and what really belongs to me. We have to understand that something that is not intrinsic to me, is not mine and can never be mine.
Anything that is temporary in nature and can be taken away from me, can't be mine. What I see with my eyes and know with my senses is all external to me -'anya'. It is not me. This body is also not me or mine. I am the soul, who knows them all. I am separate from them all. I am the knower of all that can be known and a seer of all that can be seen. I am the Gyata and Drashta of all that is happening around me. This is Bhed Gyan.
To believe that I am this body and this family and friends are mine or this wealth is mine is Mithya Drishti - wrong belief. This is the main cause of pain and suffering in life. They are all temporary, will leave us sooner or later. We can keep relation with family and friends, do our all duties towards them but we have to make sure not to get attached to them. We have to be