Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

Author(s): Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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Jaina Canonical Texts
death comes, he accepts voluntary fasting and gives up easily as one would throw off the old garment.
Internal penance is of six kinds: (i) Prāyaścitta (expiation of sins), (ii) Vinnya (modest behaviour), (iii) Vaiyāvrtya (serving the Guru), (iv) Svādhyāya (study of scriptures),(v) Dhyāna (meditation), and (vi) Utsarga (giving up all attachment for the body). 3 Expiation of sin is meant for purifying one who has committed sins so that he may attain mental peace and spiritual upliftment. These are of ten classes-(a) Alocanā (discussion and confession of one's fault), (b) Pratikramaņa (repentance and retracing from sins), (c) Viveka (abandoning impure food), (d) Tapas (austerity), (e) Vyutsarga (detachment from the body), (f) Cheda (reduction of monastic seniority), (g) Müla (complete re-initiation), (h) Anavasthāpya (a hard expiation for a serious crime which acts as a bar to reinitiation), (i) Pārañcika (suspension of monkhood).
Like other system of Indian philosophy, the Jaina ascetic gives adequate emphasis on dhyūna or meditation. It is an important spiritual exercise for the monks. Through meditation or contemplation the soul progresses on to higher gunasthānas and destroys all the karmas. Attachment for beneficial and aversion from harmful objects have to be given up to attain concentration of mind, which is the pre-requisite of successful meditation. "The Jaina dhyāna consists in concentrating the mind on the syllables of the Jaina prayer phrases. The dhyāna however is only practised as an aid to making the mind steady and perfectly equal and undisturbed towards all things. Emancipation comes only as the result of the final extinction of the Karma materials."14 It is of four types:
(i) Ārtadhyāna (concentration of mind on account of anguish) (ii) Raudradhyāna (concentration consequent upon anger and
wrath) (iii) Dharmadhyāna (meditation on religious thought) (iv) Sukladh yāna (pure meditation)
However, it is Sukladhyāna or pure meditation which ultimately leads the soul to liberation; there is a complete cessation of physical, verbal and mental activities and the ātman or the self is absorbed in himself. With the entire stock of karmans exhausted the soul shoots up to the top of the universe where the liberated souls stay for ever,