________________ JainDigest Ashuchi Bhavana By Dilip Parekh Ashuchi Bhavana makes us aware of the impurity of the body. The body is a pit of excretory filth, adobe of disease and ageing. Contemplating that I am distinct from such a body is Ashuchi Bhavana. The body is made up of flesh, blood, bones and waste matter. We do not realize this because it is covered by the skin. The sight of flesh and bones is revolting to us. Anything that the body comes in contact with tends to get dirty. The clothes we wear have to be washed. When we shake hands with other people, we can feel the grimy and sweaty touch. When we see delicious, mouth-watering food in a plate it looks so appealing. We take the food and put it in our mouth and enjoy its taste. However, if for some reason, that same food comes out of our mouth, we run to the sink to throw it away! What happened? The food that was appetizing a minute ago became repulsive just after it entered our body. The body is the breeding ground of disease. Composed of 3.5 crore such cells, the body is a veritable stockpile of crores of potential health problems. We have to keep washing our hands in order not to spread germs of diseases like cold and cough. As we get older we are susceptible to various diseases. Our senses get weaker, memory starts fading and activities that were easy for us in earlier life, start getting difficult. That is the reality of life. This does not mean that we should condemn our body. We feel that the body is impure because of various bodily discharges. But they fulfill vital physiological functions that help us survive. So instead of condemning the body for its tendency to age and decay, we need to appreciate it for its utility in taking us through our day and helping us fulfil our role in life. However, we need to achieve a balance between appreciating the body and hating it. Excess focus on appreciating the body can lead one to identify the self with the body. We can easily slip in to thinking that we are a body with a soul instead of thinking that we are soul, temporarily in this body form. We end up harnessing all our resources including our mind to cater to the body, its needs and its relationships. This keeps us revolving in to an endless cycle of birth and death. It is for this reason that we are advised to see our body as a composite of flesh, blood, bones and faeces. We can then understand how temporary and deceptive the beauty of the body is. This will help us in exploring our inner being which is the core of our existence. With this understanding we will be able to separate ourselves from the body and be appreciative of the fact that purpose of human life and body is to achieve spiritual growth. Sanatkumar, a king of supremely magnificent looks, was once bathing when two devtas descended from heaven in human guise to verify whether he was really as handsome as he was famed to be. Awestruck by his looks, they nodded their head gently in approval. A chuffed Sanatkumar then invited them to his court where he would dazzle, decked up in royal finery. The devtas obliged him, and after looking at him in his king's gear, shook their head. When a puzzled Sanatkumar asked them why did they look disapproving, they told him that his body had changed. It had become poisonous. To prove their point, they asked him to spit. Sanatkumar did and watched a housefly die on consuming a fraction of his spit. The message of the body's frailty and destructiveness having sunk in, Sanatkumar abdicated his throne, shed his robes and took off on spiritual quest as a monk. The body came with birth and will go with death. Only that which does not have a beginning can be conceived to not have an end. And there is just one such entity - the soul. It has been around forever and will be around forever. It has no beginning or end. Once we grasp the importnce of this divine knowledge, we open the doors to the boundless power of happiness that is bursting within, waiting to be acknowledged, aching to be experienced. ASHUCHI BHAVANA - CONTEMPLATION OF IMPURITY The body is made up of flesh, blood, bones and waste matter. It is a pit of excretory filth, adobe of disease and ageing. I, the soul, am separate and different from the body. Any attachment to the body is useless. To strongly believe and feel that way is Ashuchi Bhavana.
