________________
190
THE MYSTERIES OF MIND
as evil. Such powers can be acquired by the concentration of the mind also.
Will is the next power of the mind. It strengthens contemplation. Will is another name of Bhāvana. If the practitioner has a strong will, he begins to feel himself to be what he wants to make of himself. Will produces such vibrations in the thought process which bring about a transforma: tion of personality. It also produces vibrations in the sky which bring us nearer to our ideal.
Sometimes we hear that God revealed himself to such and such a person. How does such a revelation take place ? The practitioner who has formed a clear image of Mahavira becomes Mahavira. Those who had clear images of Rāma and Krsna became Kama and Rrsra. The nature of revelation is determined by the kind of image we form in our minds. The god we see is the god whose repliea we had formed in our imagination. The replica becomes the god revealed to us. This happens due to the vibrations caused in the sky by the practitioner's will power. These vibrations produce the image the practitioner contemplates. This is how we have revelations.
We have to utilize both will and imagination in sādhanā. The third power of the mind is concentration. We have to utilize this power also. We have to concentrate the entire energy of the mind on the ideal. This will not allow the mind to go astray. Mental processes which do not flow towards a fixed direction defeat the purpose of sādhanā. We can become what we want to become only when the mind begins to flow in a single direction. Let us, therefore, walk on a straight path. One who beats about the bush can not achieve success. A combined and correct application of imagination, will and concentration of the mind leads the practitioner into a state of meditational selfabsorption.
Samāyika is our ideal. We are meditators. There is a long distance between the meditator and his ideal. It can be measured in terms of our restlessness or in terms of concentration. The more the restlessness, the longer the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
