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SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
aspect He would not banish thinking during concentration on the self To begin with he would discriminate between the self and the body Once this feeling consolidated he would be absorbed in the conscious aspect of the self An impure thought breeds another impure thought and a pure one another pure one On that analogy the Lord meditated on the pure aspect of the self. His meditation flowed like a constant stream of self-realisation
The Lord wold not seek the warmth of the sun during winter He would not seek cool shade during summer. He never rubbed his eyes He would not scratch the itching part of the skin He neither vomitted nor took laxatives for health's sake No drug was ever taken Massaging, oil massaging and bath were never resorted to in brief, he conferred little care on the body What is the rationale of it? Some of the scholars, explain it away as a means of physical torture to one's self, a sort of masochism The present biographer holds a different view Body is no more than an essentially dull weight Firstly, how will it sense the infliction? Secondly, what good would come out of torturing it? Thirdly, when the body offered no resistance in his spiritual odyssey what would motivate him to excruciate it? The biographer's explanation is that the Lord had gone too far towards self-realisation to defer to the external requirements The consciousness of physical discomforts had been effaced from its usual effective plane and was directed towards the primaeval fount of consciousness That explains his indifference to the physical body during his practices
TANMURTIYOGA.
The Lord effected harmony between the end and the means during meditation He named it as Tanmurty. It is the process of harmonising with the existence in the present instant, refraining from chewing the cud of the past and reverie of the future He practised such meditation while seemingly engaged in moving about, eating and drinking 'While
