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SPIRITUAL PRACTICES OF LORD MAHĀVĪRA
VA
His practices were sometimes supported by external objects and sometimes not. After offering his humble salutations to the Siddhas, Sramaņa Mahāvīra moved to Kurmagrama on foot and observed himself in meditation as Ācārya Hemachandra remarks :
नासाग्रन्यस्तनयनः प्रलम्बित भुजद्वयः । प्रभुः प्रतिमया तत्र तस्थौ स्थाणुरिव स्थिरः ।।
- Frofeo 20/3/89 i.e. He fixed his concentration on the tip of his nose, his hands were stretched and his body was as firm as a rock. His eyes were semiclosed i.e. half-opened and half closed. Generally our eyes are either closed or they are opened. But this description of semi closed eyes is a different kind of an experience. Eyes remain opened when we are awake and when they are closed they symbolize slumber.
When a person closes his eyes the tendons of the eye become inert and then the person falls asleep. And when the person opens his eyes the tendons become active and this state is an awakened state. Very often we come across people who fall asleep while reading a book and this is because the tendons of the eye are subject to much strain and so the person falls asleep. But meditation is a third state which is different from the states of sleep and wakefulness. In such a state of meditation, a person is conscious as in the state of wakefulness and relaxed as he is during sleep. Hence there is a natural co-ordination of consciousness of awakened state and relaxation of slumber in meditation and this co-ordination is easily brought out when one concentrated on the tip of the nose.
It is assumed that owing to the above fact, Lord Mahāvīra practiced this kind of concentration. His body was totally stable with his hands stretched down, feet closed and his face a little bent in the front. Attracted to this image of Lord Mahāvīra, Ācārya Hemacandra remarked, "O Lord! Your image engrossed in meditation, lotus like body and eyes fixed on the tip of the nose holds the secret of spiritual practices, which is worth practicing by one and all".
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