________________
CHAPTER NINE
objects and to make it grasp just one object-that is dhyāna. This description of dhyāna applies only in the case of a non-omniscient person-technically designated chadmastha. Hence it is that dhyāna so described is to be found only up to the twelfth guṇasthāna.
337
Even in the state posterior to the attainment of omniscience-that is, even in the thirteenth and fourteenth gunasthānas-the possibility of dhyāna has been admitted; but the nature of this dhyana is different. Thus when at the end of the thirteenth gunasthāna the operations of manas, speech and body begin to cease, and when in this connection after the cessation of the gross bodily operations there remain only subtle bodily operations to pursue their course then there takes place a dhyana designated 'sūkṣmakriyāpratipātin'-which is the third sub-type of the type called śukla-dhyāna. And in the fourteenth guṇasthāna when at the time of an absolute cessation of the operations of manas, speech and body the operation called 'saileśīkaraṇa' pursues its course then there takes place a dhyāna designated 'samucchinnakriyānivṛtti'-which is the fourth sub-type of the type called śukla-dhyāna. Now neither of these types of dhyāna, since each is characterized by an absence of all mental operation, is of the form of a mental concentration on some one object-as is the case with the dhyāna performed by a non-omniscient person; hence with a view to making it applicable even to these two types the meaning of the word dhyāna has been expanded in a particular manner. Thus it is maintained that an endeavour just to put a stop to the gross bodily operations-that too is dhyāna, and that a state of non-wavering assumed by the constituent-units of a soul-that too is dhyana. However, there still remains one question outstanding in this connection and that as follows: From the beginning of the thirteenth guṇasthāna right upto the time when the operations of manas, speech and body begin to ceasethat is to say, throughout that period of life when the career of an omniscient is pursued-does any sort of dhyana take place ? And if it does what sort of dhyana is that? The question is answered in two ways:
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
