Book Title: Jaina Psychology
Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

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Page 222
________________ CONCLUSION AND RECAPITULATION 205 MEANS OF THE CONTROL There are certain essential conditions recognized by the Jaina thinkers for the successful control, regulation, and cessation of various activities. Following them the final spiritual emancipation can be attained. The Buddhists, the adherents of the Pātañjala Yoga, and others prescribe similar conditions of self-discipline. The eightfold path of self-discipline of Patañjali is familiar to us. The Buddhists attach great importance to meditation. They recognize four stages of meditation: vitarka, vicāra, sukha, and upekṣā. Through these stages we can control our mental activities. The Jaina prescribes the following conditions for the control of various activities and the realisation of final liberation: self-regulation, moral virtue, contemplation, conquest of affliction, auspicious conduct, and austerity. Self-regulation consists in the control of the five-fold activities, viz., walking, speaking, receiving of something, keeping of things, and performing of excretional activities. Moral virtues are ten in number: forbearance, modesty, straightforwardness, contentment, truthfulness, self-restraint, austerity, renunciation, nonattachment, and celebacy. Contemplation consists in repeated thinking of a particular idea or object. A self-disciplined person is required to contemplate the following twelve-fold objects: the fleeting nature of things, the helplessness of the individual, the miserable nature of the world, the loneliness of the worldly sojourn, the distinctness of the self from the body, the impure character of the body, the conditions and consequences of the inflow of karmic matter, the means for the stoppage of the inflow, the conditions of the dissociation of karmic matter from the self, the nature of the constituents of the universe, the difficulty of the attainment of enlightenment, and the true nature of reality. The Jaina gives a list of twenty-two troubles to be learnt and conquered by one practising self-control. Hunger, thirst, cold, heat, nakedness, isolation, begging, etc., are some of the troubles. The Buddhists do not attach much importance to the conquest of various afflictions. The Jaina thinkers have recognized five stages of auspicious conduct. The first stage is known as sāmāyika. A person belonging to it does not do any harm to others. He develops the sense of equanimity. The second stage is called chedopasthāna. At this stage the individual begins to follow the path of self-discipline rigorously. The

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