Spiritual Awakening and other Essays

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 25

In keeping with this trend of exposition, Tapas are announced to be of two kinds, namely, the external and the internal. The former is so called because of the preponderance of the physical and perceptible abandonment, while the latter is so called on account of the inner curbing of mind.? We shall first dwell upon the austerities in their external forms. External austerities:
The external austerities are enumerated as six in kind, namely, (1) Anaśana, (2) Avamāudarya, (3) Vrttipatisankhyāna, (4) Rasaparityāga, (5) Viviktasavyyāśāna and. (6) Kāyakleśa.S
(1) Anasana' implies fasting or abstinence from food either for a limited period of time, or till the separation of the soul from the body. It is performed for the purpose of practicing self-control, exterminating attachment, annihilating Karmas, performing meditation and acquiring scriptural knowledge, and not for the purpose of any mundane achievement whatsoever. It may be noted that Anasana has been recognized as the simultaneous renunciation of food and the attachment to it. Mere maceration of the body is not fasting."
(2) Avamaudarya means not to take full meals; i.e. out of the normal quantity of thirty-two morsell2 for man, and twenty-eight for woman, the reduction of even one morsel will come within the range of this Tapa.'? The observance of this austerity has been calculated to offer control over the senses and sleep, to assist in the practicing of self study and meditation.'+
(3) Vịttiparisankhyāna's means the predetermination of the saint regarding the number of houses to be visited, the particular manner of taken food, the specific type of food,
16
Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays