Transmutation of Personality through Preksha Meditation

Author(s): Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

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is not sufficient for the fulfilment of the pledge. The mere acceptance of a pledge does not, cannot, end the fickleness of the mind. For the maturing of the vow requires the fire of practice. If someone wants to cook food, boil the milk, or make something out of gold metal, he will have to heat these materials on fire. Without the required heat, adequate results would not be forthcoming. The practice of meditation is also like a fire. It is on this fire that a man's mind matures. In a ripe mind alone does resolution mature, and it is through mature resolution that transformation takes place in life. Therefore, anuvrat and preksha meditation cannot be separated. Preksha is necessary for anuvrat and anuvrat for preksha. Both are mutually made for each other. To undo this connection is not in the interest of anyone.
Q. Anuvrat has a moral code of its own, which has been determined on the basis of evils prevailing in all classes. Similarly, has preksha dhyana, too, an independent code? What is its basis?
Ans. If preksha needs a code of conduct, it is anuvrat itself. Because preksha is a practical technique,
it can only be acquired through practice. From this viewpoint its practice is the realisation of every doctrine. One of the pledges of anuvrat is—"I shall not consider any person untouchable." For the realization of this pledge, a preksha sadhak will banish from his mind all feeling of hatred. In order to completely end all malice, the feeling of hatred subsisting in the inmost recesses of the mind will have to be annihilated. Without such purging, the pledge will not be fulfilled. The purging is done through meditation. It is through meditation that the heterogeneous elements accumulated in the mind are rooted out, its fickleness ended, meritorious deeds evoked, concentration and abiding faith enhanced. As
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