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276
TATTVĀRTHA SŪTRA
that is, auspicious meditation-or śuddha-dhyāna—that is, ultrapure meditation-and it is as such that is accorded a place within the fold of a religion of renunciation.
Question : Even in certain non-Jaina sects there was and is current the custom of putting an end to one's life and treating it as a religious act—e.g. the custom called Kamalapūjā, Bhairvajapa, Jalasamādhi etc.-; how does the custom differ from that of samlekhanā ?
Answer : So far as the gross appearance of destruction of life is concerned all these acts are doubtless similar, hence if at all they can differ from one another that can be only as to the mental feeling actuating them. Thus if at the back of Kamalapūiā etc. there is present no material aspiration or some other such greed but a mere impulse of devotion or a mere tendency to surrender, then a situation like this differs from that of samlekhanā—where neither an impulse nor a greed is presentonly as to the feeling of devotion built up on the basis of a metaphysics. Thus in conformity to the metaphysics lying at its back the Jaina devotion is aimed not at surrendering oneself before someone else or pleasing someone else but at a mere selfpurification. Thus a refined version of the various old established religious customs involving a destruction of one's own life—a version devised for the sake of fulfilling the aim in question-is present with the Jaina sect in the form of the vrata of saṁlekhanā. Hence it is that the vrata of samlekhanā has been recommended as suitable for particular occasions.
When the end of life appears to be drawing near for certain, when the religion and such other necessary duties are in the danger of perishing through non-observance, when no sort of vicious meditation is present there at all—these are conditions under which this vrata is deemed worthy of observance. 15-17.
The Aticāras or Failures of Conduct Connected with Samyakdarśana or Right-inclination :
Doubt, longing, inconstancy of understanding, praising
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