________________
Religious Rituals and Practices of the Karnataka Jainas
99
of a meditator, engrossed in self-concentration. He dives deep into the ocean of love and sympathy for all creatures, and is absolutely free from attachment to the world. He keeps his body straight and erect, and becomes as motionless as a painted figure. The withdrawal of the mind along with the sense organs from the external objects (pratyahar) and its concentration (dharana) on some place of the body, for instance, the forehead, is essential to the development of the power of contemplation.
We may notice several points of resemblance between the Yoga system of Patañjali and the Jaina Yoga. Patañjali's Yoga stands for the restraint of the sease organs and the mind. Emphasis on the observance of the moral and physical discipline, bodily postures, breath-control and withdrawal of the senses from their natural and outward functions are indispensable for spiritual progress. They are decidedly a common feature of both the systems. The moral virtues of the Jainas can be compared with the five types of nizama (observance) recommended by Patañjali.
1. Ibid ch. 28, yv, 34ff, pp, 283ff. 2 Ibid, ch, 30, v. 13, p. 307, 3. S. Radbakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, ii, p. 338.
