Jain Journal 1974 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 88

226
of external austerities belong also sitting in secluded spots to meditate there and the postures taken up during meditation. The latter item Jaina ascetics have in common with Brahmanical Yoga. (B) Internal austerities embrace all that belongs to spiritual discipline, including contemplation, e.g., confessing and repenting of sins. Transgressions of the rules of conduct are daily expiated by the ceremony of pratikramaņa; greater sins must be confessed to a superior (ālocanā) and repented of. The usual penance in less serious cases is to stand erect in a certain position for a given time (kāyotsarga); but for graver transgressions the superior prescribes other penances in the worst cases a new ordination of the guilty monk. Other kinds of internal austerities consist in modest behaviour, in doing services to other members of the Order or laymen, in the duty of studying, in overcoming all temptations. But the most important of all spiritual exercises is contemplation (dhyāna). Contemplation consists in the concentration of the mind on one object; it cannot be persevered in for longer than one muhurta (48 minutes), and is permitted only to persons of a sound constitution. According to the object on which the thoughts are concentrated and the purpose for which this is done, contemplation may be bad or good, and will lead to corresponding results. We are here concerned only with good contemplation, which is either religious (dharma), or pure or bright (śukla). The former leads to the intuitive cognition of things hidden to common mortals, especially of religious truths. Indeed, it cannot be doubted that the pretended accuracy of information on all sorts of subjects, such as cosmography, astronomy, geography, spiritual processes, etc., which the sacred books and later treatises contain is in great part due to the intuition which the 'religious contemplation' is imagined to produce. Higher than the latter is the 'pure' contemplation, which leads through four stages to final emancipation: first, single objects are meditated upon, then only one object; then there is the stage when the activities of the body, speech, and mind continue, but only in a subtle form without relapse. At this stage, when the worldly existence rapidly draws towards its end the remaining karma may be suddenly consumed by a kind of explosion called samudghata. Then, in the last stage of contemplation, all karma being' annihilated and all activities having ceased, the soul leaves the body and goes up to the top of the universe, where the liberated souls stay for ever. It must, however, be remarked that 'pure contemplation is not by itself a measns of reaching liberation, but that it is the last link of a long chain of preparatory exertions. Even its first two stages can be realized only by those in whom the passions (kaṣāya) are either neutralized or annihilated; and only kevalins, i.e., those who have already reached omniscience, can enter into the last two stages, which lead directly to liberation. On the other hand, the nirvana is necessarily
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