Self Awareness Through Meditation

Author(s): Ranjitsingh Kumat
Publisher: Ranjitsingh Kumat

Page 83

SELF AWARENESS THROUGH MEDITATION
Dhamma propounded by the Enlightened or the Arya is well known. They (aspirants who know the Dhamma) are without desire, nonviolent, kind to all beings, learned and wise.90
The aspirant is directed to see things as they are. One has to concentrate and observe the body, the mind, the stored prejudices or Sanskaras and the Dhamma. The following stanza is clear and instructive:
“Observe the Sanskara (the stored impressions) and Dhamma (Nature) and be free. Entangled in the knots, surrounded by desires, Observe your obsessions, Despair not the scarcity or inadequacy. One who knows the beginning (of the Karmas), knows fully. Unmindful of scarcity, breaks the entanglement of anger, ego, fraud and greed, Moves free and unhindered, So do I say."91
Attainment of freedom or Moksha or Nirvaana is not after death. It is to be attained right while living. A person who has conquered the passions and is devoid of desires is free and unmoved like a log. He is not attracted by worldly things and so he is totally free. He is beyond body and hence death is superfluous. It is only an event; he is already free from it.
"One who has attained freedom, Is steadfast and unmoved like a log, Waits and inspects or observes the body with equanimity Until body is separated from the self (by death)"92
Seventh chapter of the Aachaaraang Sutra has been lost. The title of it was ‘Mahapragya' or the special enlightenment which indicates that it was of great importance. We can only guess what it contained. In the end, stanza of chapter 8 is quoted below which gives the process of enlightenment and what he would know.
“Know and observe the process of creation and destruction, Food nourishes the body, Pain destroys it