Self Awareness Through Meditation

Author(s): Ranjitsingh Kumat
Publisher: Ranjitsingh Kumat

Page 54

MAIN PRACTICES OF JAIN RELIGION
and serene manner. This is called Sanlekhana and this type of death is called death of a wise person'. If you want to know as to how a person lived his life, it is essential to know how he faced the death. If he accepted the death with equanimity and without fear, that is called death crowned with wisdom. Otherwise it is the death of a foolish man.
The word “Sanlekhana' is composed of two words 'Sam' meaning equanimity and ‘Lekhana' meaning to observe. In other words, to observe self with equanimity is ‘Sanlekhana”. In the self we observe our body, thoughts, desires, emotions etc., and to observe these with equanimity is Sanlekhana.
To understand Sanlekhana, one should study the procedure prescribed for the same. It has been laid down that a person desirous of accepting Sanlekhana, the mode of attaining emancipation and exhausting all karmas and evil emotions, should seek a calm and serene place, clean it and inspect it to ensure that it is free from insects and other micro-organisms and spread one's bed and inspect it in the same manner. After paying obeisance to the ‘Arihant, Siddha’, ‘Acharya’, and all Sadhus and seeking their forgiveness, one should atone for any lapses in one's vows. Then he should take vow not to commit any sin and give up all types of food and drink. After giving up food and drink, one should calmly and patiently wait for the death without bothering for the sensations of pains and pleasures appearing on the body. One has to observe with equanimity and get rid of all desires which had bothered one's whole life.
The crucial ingredient of Sanlekhana' is to observe and not mere giving up of food and drink. If importance is given to abstinence from food, then the main object of Sanlekhana, the riddance from desires, is completely overlooked. The main object is to go deep inside oneself, experience the subconscious level of mind and to get rid of desires and aspirations deeply ingrained in the subconscious. The fact that the main object of Sanlekhana is to get rid of desires is obvious from five lapses of Sanlekhana enumerated 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 have desire for death 5. Finally, the fifth lapse is to have desire for sensual gratification.
From the above it is clear that the object of Sanlekhana is not to wait for death by giving up food and drink. The main object is to get emancipation