Self Awareness Through Meditation

Author(s): Ranjitsingh Kumat
Publisher: Ranjitsingh Kumat

Page 79

SELF AWARENESS THROUGH MEDITATION
violence without being violent inside. In this connection following stanza is
worth consideration:
"When you think someone should be killed, you are the one who is to be killed
When you think someone should be commanded, you are the one who is to be commanded
When you think someone should be tormented, you are the one who is to be tormented
When you think someone should be enslaved, you are the one who is to be enslaved
When you I think someone should be annihilated, you are the one who is to be annihilated"80
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Violence towards others is violence towards the self. You hurt somebody or be violent towards him by throttling your good feelings and replacing these with bad feelings towards the victim of violence. This is the reason why Lord Mahavira says that when you are killing someone else, you are killing none other than yourself. This emphasizes indentical nature of feelings among the living beings. All would feel the same way if they are hurt or killed. Empathy, the capacity to feel and experience what others feel, alone can help us abjure violence. This is what kindness means and without it no one can dwell in equanimity.
Characteristics of 'Soul' or 'Self'
Soul or Self is defined as one that feels, senses, knows or experiences. One, which cannot sense or feel, is not a soul. So the chief characteristic of soul is to discern or experience the pain or pleasure not only of the self but that of others. It is this characteristic of feeling and empathy that makes a soul transcend the sufferings of this world. The following stanza looks very simple and tautological but has deep meaning:
"The soul discerns. The one who is conscious is the soul.
Discerning is through the soul.
Reckon it through feelings.
This is the soul related equanimity and it takes us beyond the world."81