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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
For the laity, it is the only dhyāna advocated and recommended, although even the ascetics usually practise it. And, with it begins the practice of yogas in Jainism which end in Sukladhyāna.
Dhyana and Yoga
Here, terms yoga and dhyāna are more or less synonymous. The ascetic yogin never consciously indulges in either of the two bad dhyānas, and starts practising dharmya-dhyāna whenever and wherever he gets an opportunity; he cannot remain in a state of no-dhyana for more than a muhurta (about 48 minutes). Not only this, he tries again, with wilful effort, to pass on from the dharmya-dhyana to the śukla-dhyana which is the last of the four kinds of dhyāna, and is the best, the highest, the sublimest and the subtlest dhyāna.
It is not merely auspicious (subha), but is pure (śuddha) and the noblest (sukla) the summum bonum and chef d'oeuvre of the dhyānas, and hence of the tapas. It is the culmination of the unio mystica and of all religious effort, the biggest leap on the path of liberation. In it the yogin engages himself in concentrated contemplation of the nature and qualities of the pure soul, so much so that he comes to stay, for a time, in a state of perfect self-realization, the most transcendental spiritual experience, an inexplicable supra-normal ecstasy the like of which there is none.
There are four stages, and if the yogin manages to abide long enough, he quickly passes from stage to stage annihilating and dissociating, in the process, the karmic forces in an unprecedented manner, attaining in no time, kaivalya, the state of an Arhat, the Jina, whence there is no return. The total time taken in the process is at the most about three quarters of an hour.
The only snag is that very few of even the true ascetic yogins are able to achieve the state of śukla-dhyāna, and for those
