Self Awareness Through Meditation

Author(s): Ranjitsingh Kumat
Publisher: Ranjitsingh Kumat

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RANJIT SINGH KUMAT
mind and can be called in “Samaadhi' or true peace. One who is living in the present is wakeful to every moment and is called 'Apramatta’ or fully awake. He is fully enlightened and knows every moment of his life. He has no longing, no aspiration or yearning for the worldly objects. He clearly sees the link between the soul and the body and so cuts the Gordian knot and becomes free, detached and liberated. He needs no direction nor any preaching. He is the realized soul. Jain, Buddha and Patanjali Yoga Darshan admit that giving up violence is a precondition for treading the path of meditation and selfawareness. Those who do not give up violence are miles away from “Samyaktava' or Right Path. Lord Mahavira, however, goes a step further and explains the need for non-violence by saying, "One, whom you want to kill or torment, is none other than yourself”. So long as we treat all other beings as “other” and feel that whatever we do unto them is felt by them only and not by us we continue to kill or torment them in one way or the other. Lord Mahavira, therefore, states that so long as you have this feeling of 'otherness' for others you cannot become truly non-violent. When you start feeling what others feel, you develop true empathy and that is the day when you will become non-violent by deed as well as by feelings. So long as you do not start feeling what others feel, your non-violence is outward superficial and only skin deep. When you identify yourself in others, non-violence emerges
the deep and then only true equanimity and 'Samyaktava' or Right Path is attained. One who has learnt to introspect and reside in the self, becomes automatically 'silent' and free from possessions. Giving up things outwardly does not become 'Aparigraha' or non-attachment with things. By looking inwards, one realizes that all material things are momentary and ephemeral and hence there is no fun in attaching oneself with them leading to disenchantment and lack of craving. Once craving dies, the mind becomes silent and peaceful and this inner silence is much more important and meaningful than mere silence of words. The author Sri Kumat has written at one place, “To immerse in oneself and to observe the sensations on the body with equanimity, is the real 'Samyaktava' and that is real silence.” This is supported by the following stanza of the Achaaraanga Sutta:
One who sees the Samyaktava, sees the silence, One who sees the silence, sees the Samyaktava
-Achaaraanga Sutta Chapter 5 Uddesshya 3.
The author has ably brought out the inner and fundamental identity of the three systems of meditation—The Jaina, Buddha and Patanjali Yoga