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1.12
THE PRACTICAL PATH.
mind is liable to be stirred or moved in the wrong direction; hence, the manifestation of kevala jnána is out of the question for those who fix their minds on ku-deva (false divinity). For instance, the act of contemplation of a dancing 'God' can only result in establishing the soul in a dancing attitude, which, the moment it becomes strougly marked, would interrupt all further concentration of mind in the right direction. The form of divinity is not that of a dancer, nor of a climber of trees; the true godhood is the perfection of the noblest attributes of the soul-peacefulness, tranquillity, renunciation, self-control, equanimity and the like and must be contemplated as such. The paramatman has nothing to conceal, nor to be ashamed of; He wears neither clothes nor ornaments, nor does He embellish His 'person' otherwise. Shanta (full of peace), serene, and self-centred, He sits, unmoving and unmoved, in the contemplation of His own effulgent glory, indifferent to the praises of the bhavya and the abuses of the abhavya. Such is the true object of contemplation which is to be found only in the consecrated pratibimbas (images) of the holy tirthamkaras in a Jaina Temple.
It may also be pointed out here that those who try to attain the purity of dhyâna by dispensing with concentration on the form of the tirthankara, are not likely -to achieve any happy results. They are like those who try to reach the top of the ladder without the help of its rungs. It is true that constant meditation on the qualities of the paramâtman, accompanied with the belief that the same qualities inhere in every jiva, goes a long
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