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prepares it for the practising of the shukla, i. e., the highest form of dhyana.
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Śukla dhyana, in its purest form, signifies an broken contemplation ofone's own âtman, and cannot be realised so long as the all-illumining kevala jîâna does not arise in the consciousness of the jiva. The preparatory course for the realisation of the sukla dhyana, therefore, consists in the two-fold method of concentration and meditation which give rise to the kevala jñana and fix the form of thought.'
MOKSHA.
If the reader would bear in mind the fact that belief is the builder of character and that the essence of the soul is pure intelligence which is influenced by its own beliefs to such an extent that it actually becomes what it believes itself to be, he would not find it difficult to understand that steadiness of mind is not possible without there being a corresponding fixity of belief in the first instance. Hence, belief must first mould the essence of spirit before any permanent results are to be expected. To this end the Scripture enjoins the practising of the following kinds of dhyâna in the final stages of asceticism :
(1) Pindastha dhyana which consists of five dhârnas (forms of contemplation) as follows:
(a) Prithvi dharnâ. The yogi should imagine a boundless ocean of the size of madhyaloka, motionless and noiseless, of the colour of milk, with a huge resplendent lotus of a thousand petals and having a bright yellow pericarp of the height of Mount Meru in its On the top of this pericarp he
centre.
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