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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
213
A poet has praised the qualities of the Vaiyyāv rtya and says that the excellence of service is so great that even the yogis cannot easily understand its importance.
SVĀDHYAYA (SELF-STUDY) Svādhyāya refers to self-study. It is a systematic study of the śāstras.1 Svādhyāya also means introspection on the nature of self.
The self-study increases the capacity of intellect. As food is necessary for the development of the body, self-study is absolutely necessary for the development of the mind. Self-study and contemplation, lead us towards creative thinking and towards the development of the mental capacity.
Wrong types of physical excercises are harmful to the body. Unwholesome food is injurious to the body. Similarly, study of literature like-sex literature, would be very harmful to the purification and to the development of the mental states in the proper direction. Mental activities become distorted and one loses the power of discrimination. It would, therefore, be necessary that we always study wholesome literature, although we may study less.
It is possible to be free from misery, through svādhyāya. The accumulated karma coming from a chain of previous life can be annihilated by svādhyāya. Svādhyāya, itself is a form of important tapas. Ācārya Sanghadāsagani says, that svādhyāya, is unique and the austerity of svādhyāya is unparallel because such noble type of austerity has not been experienced in the past, nothing so great in the present and nothing similar to it in future.5
The Vedic seers have also said that svādhyāya is a form of the tapas. We should not be negligent of svādhyāya.? Just as the wall becomes shining by constant rubbing and polishing, it reflects the
i Sthānānga, Abhayadeva vrtti 5, 3, 465 2 Svasya svasmin adhyāyaḥ-adhyaynam-svādhyāyaḥ. 3 Uttarādhyayana 26, 10 4 Chandraprajñapti 91 5 (a) Brhatkalpa bhāşya 1169 (b) Candraprajñapti sütra 89 6 Taittirīya aranyaka 2, 14 7 Taittirīyopanişād 1, 11, 1
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