Spiritual Awakening and other Essays

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

Page 26

the giver of specific qualification, when he sets out to beg for food. In other words, the saint adheres to his predecided things; if the things conform literally to his predecision he would accept the food; otherwise he would go without it for that day. This is to uproot the desire for food. 17
(4) Rasaparityāga indicates the abstinence from the one or more of the following six articles of food, namely, milk, curd, ghee, oil, sugar, salt; and from one or more of the following kinds of tastes, namely pacrid, bitter, astringent, sour and sweet. 18 This is performed for the emasculation of the senses, subduing sleep, and the unobstructed pursuance of self-study. 19
(5) Viviktasayyāśana20 implies the choice of secluded place which may serve the real purpose of meditation, selfstudy and chastity and is not the cause of attachment and
aversion.21
(6) Kāyaklesa means the putting of the body to certain discomforts by employing certain uneasy and stern postures and by practicing certain other bodily austerities.22 The object of Kāyakleša is to endure bodily discomfort, to alleviate attachment to pleasures.23
We have so far explained the nature of external austerities, and have seen that the performance of these austerities does not merely aim at the physical renunciation, but also at the overthrow of the thraldom of the body and senses. In other words, the external asceticism is capable of being justified only when it contributes towards the inner advancement of man; otherwise in the absence of which it amounts to labour which is wholly lost. The Mūlācāra24 says that the external austerity should not engender mental disquietude, abate the zeal for the performance of disciplinary
Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays
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