Self Awareness Through Meditation

Author(s): Ranjitsingh Kumat
Publisher: Ranjitsingh Kumat

Page 20

RANJIT SINGH KUMAT
Samlekhana, in my opinion, is the practice of “Nishkama Visarjan” of the body.
Shri Kumat enumerates the five lapses of Samlekhana which are being mistaken as its genesis or concomitants in the current public and judicial discourse by the spiritually uninitiated and the culturally illiterate. Those five lapses are encapsulated with admirable precision by Shri Kumat as follows:
1. The first lapse of Sanlekhana is that while doing this practice one
desires something or the other of this world. 2. The second lapse is to desire something or the other of the other
world. 3. The third lapse is to have desire to live. 4. The fourth lapse is to have desire for death. 5. The fifth lapse is to have desire for sensual gratification.
Sanlekhana thus means embracing and observing death with equanimity in that which overcomes the fear of mortality and it is in this sense that Sanlekhana has been accepted in the Jain and Hindu scriptures as the opposite of suicide.
The Tatvaartha Sutra which is the most important Jain scriptural text tells us of four kinds of Meditation: 1 'Aarta Dhyana—Meditation for craving 2. ‘Roudra Dhyana’ —Meditation for evil doing 3. 'Dhamma Dhyana’ — Meditation for Dhamma or the Nature 4. 'Shukla Dhyana'—Meditation par excellence. Each one of these categories has different types, sub-categories and symptoms. For instance there are four types of Aarta Dhyana' (a) Craving to get rid of unwanted things, persons or situation. (b) Craving to get rid of unpleasant situations (c) Craving to get back the beloved things or persons that have been lost (d) Craving to get sought after things and persons. There are also four types of Meditation for an evil deed. The two most recommended kinds of Meditations are Dhamma Dhyana and Shukla Dhyana both of which are positive in nature and help to purify human consciousness. Shri Kumat gives us an excellent definition of Vipassana, known as a Buddhist method of meditation: “Observe the truth, do vipassana' of the self or observe the self .... Tathagata (the knower of the truth) has no relation with the past, or with the future. He, without any option, observes the present and destroys (Karma).” Vipassana is similar to Veetaraaga Dhyana in Jain tradition. According to Aachaaraanga Sutta of Jain Tradition, like Vipassana, calls upon a Sadhaka to observe the truth and to witness and observe the Self.