Jain Journal 2012 07

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

Page 18

Sagarmal Jain: The Historical Development of Jaina-Joga-System
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and Bhagavad Gitā in particular. But we can not say that Jainism has borrowed it from Hinduism, because it was propounded in Ācārānga which is an earlier work from Bhagavad Gītā.
3. Post Canonical-age : This period is very important for the development of Jaina yoga for two reasons, first of all in this period many yoga works are written in Jaina tradition, secondly this is the period in which the impact of other yoga systems on Jaina-yoga can be clearly seen. So far as the yoga-literature of this period is concerned, though in Jaina cononical works we have some scattered references about five yama (Mahāvratas), five niyamas, some of the bodily postures, the controlling of sense organs as well as one various aspects of meditation along with some common philosophical and religious preaching, but these cononical works, can not solely be considered as the works of Jaina-yoga literature. In my opinion the first work on Jaina system of meditation is Jinbhadragani's (6th century A.D.) Dhayāna-sataka. This work is fully devoted to Jaina way of meditation and totaly based on Jaina-cononical works such as sthānanga and some others. Sthānanga deals with four kinds of dhyānas and their sub classes along with (i) their objects (ii) their sign (lakṣaṇa), (iii) their conditions (ālambana), (iv) their reflextions (bhāvanā). But this description of dhyanas is fully at par with canonical works, except some details such as the subkinds of meditation, tim of meditation, examples of meditation, qualities of a meditator, results of the meditation etc23. In this work Jinbhadra deals with first two unauspicious dhyānas in short, and last two auspicious-dhyānas in detail, because according to him the first two dhyāna are the causes of bondage, while the last two are the means of emancipation and so that only they can be accepted as a limbs of yoga-sādhanā.
After Jinabhadragaņi, Haribhadra was the first Jaina ācārya who has made a very valuable contribution for the reconstruction of Jaina yoga system and the comparative study of Jaina-yoga system with that of other yoga ystems. He has composed four important works