Self Awareness Through Meditation

Author(s): Ranjitsingh Kumat
Publisher: Ranjitsingh Kumat

Page 76

DHYANA IN AACHAARAANGA SUTTA—II
One who can stop the inflow of Karmas from inside as well as outside and observes the death without craving and aversion, Sees the results of Karma successfully Know him to be Vedagya' or the knower of everything."73
This requires an in-depth study. We are bound or attached to this world because we have a past as well as a future. We are either reliving or recounting the past events, or planning and anticipating the future. So long as we are in this mode, we are attached and bound. No sooner we cut ourselves from the past and the future, we become totally free because there is nothing to hang on. The present is too small and fleeting. One who has learnt to live in the present or 'now', learns to live freely-free from all suffering. Death is the greatest fear. Observing death in a detached manner, one can get over it, become totally fearless and transcend it. If one can observe death, how can he be ever afraid of it? Thus the aspirant is directed to live in the present and observe the things and events as they are in a detached manner; that is the way to become free from all bondage. Unfortunately, these commands were not interpreted in the manner it has been attempted here and that is why practice of meditation and living in the present' have not been emphasized (to the extent other practices have been emphasized) in the prevalent practices of Jain religion.74
Essence of the Universe
The fifth chapter of the Aachaaraanga Sutta is named 'Lokasaara' or ‘Essence of the Universe'. This chapter contains discussion on the Universe, the beings etc. It says, “The beings behave in a contrary fashion, sometimes even unnecessarily. They have infinite longings and so they are near death and away from the immortality. On the other hand, those who have given up desires and who see this world as a drop on the grass-leaf-tip' are neither near the death nor away from immortality. Those who do not understand the transient nature of this world, indulge in violence and other heinous activities and end up in suffering. Beings attached and involved in indulgence and defilement take birth and die again and again.” “Those who advocate Moksha or Freedom through ignorance and indulgence remain in the whirlpool of this world—the cycle of birth, death and suffering and never get out of it”75
When you are in doubt then only you search and get the knowledge. If you have no doubt, you do not get knowledge.76