Self Awareness Through Meditation

Author(s): Ranjitsingh Kumat
Publisher: Ranjitsingh Kumat

Page 19

SELF AWARENESS THROUGH MEDITATION
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path to bliss through meditation. Many of us can recall and I can personally testify to a momentary or fleeting sense of ‘anasakti', a detached witnessfeeling (Anaasakta Sakshi-Bhava) following meditation, a feeling of freedom and relaxation beyond body and mind.
Particularly noteworthy in this notable book are the chapters on Shramana or Jain practices of meditation which stress 'Samyakatva’ or right pe spective (equanimity) and wakefulness. “Samayika' is a method of ensuring the in-flow of equanimity. In the words of the renowned Jain Acharya, Bhadrabahu:
“To remain tranquil, equanimous and sinless without disturbing the state of mental equilibrium when faced either with gold or grass, friend or foe, and not swept away by feelings of craving and aversion, is called Samayika. For it to be in equanimity is Samayika.”
Two other definitions of Samyaka, state of purified consciousness, are apt:
1. It is my prayerful wish that I always have feeling of friendship towards
all beings of this world, feeling of happiness towards the meritorious, feeling of kindness towards those who are suffering and level-headedness
towards those are on the wrong path. 2. Whether it is a situation of loss or gain, of pain or pleasure, of long life
or immediate death, of praise or criticism, of appreciation or affront, I wish to remain poised and balanced, that is real samayika'.
Two cognate Jain concepts are ‘Pratikraman' and 'Kayotsarga'. Pratikraman is a practice of withdrawal and retreat from the routine into the sanctuary of silence, svadhyaya and jaap. Kayotsarga' leads a Saadhaka to purify the feeling, to repeat and atone, to cleanse the mentality of sensual mind, remedying distractions to attain freedom from all cravings and attachments—a Veetaraaga state of ‘anasakti' and 'Vairagya'. Perhaps these are comparable, if not akin, to the ‘stithaprajnya', state of consciousness in equanimity and conquest of ego, and its attributes and obsessions. There is a kinshipcontinuum between Kayotsarg and “Samlekhna' or 'sannelekhana' of which there is considerable scriptural and pauranic evidence in Vedic and Pauranic literature as in the case of Uddalaka, Sri Rama, Sri Krishna and others, a practice which has been erroneously likened to suicide in the Indian penal code by a blundering lack of cultural awareness.