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AUTHOR'S PREFACE
"Observe the soul through the medium of the soul" --this saying of Lord Mahavir arouses in the mind an unquenchable thirst for self-knowledge. Even otherwise, the desire for self-knowledge is innate in man. Man wants to see himself as he is, and he wants to know what other people think of him. Until he learns the technique of inner observation, man's gaze is confined to the exterior organism. He wants to feel that his body is beautiful and he wants to display this beauty to others. For this he even resorts to the use of cosmetics. When, after a thorough make-up, he holds a mirror in his hand and looks into it, or sees his image reflected in a full-sized mirror, he stands fascinated by his own beauty. Man does not know that there is an element in his body which is naturally sublime, whose splendour never palls and remains unaffected by disease and old age. Physical beauty is transient, liable to be marred by the cruel stroke of time. Should we not then strive for a glimpse of that beauty which is beyond time and matter?
That inner beauty is the beauty of the soul. To witness that requires the opening of the inward eye. One with the eyes of the flesh alone can never approach it, because it is formless. Preksha is one of the ways in which that immortal beauty may be observed. The word 'preksha' is generally used in the sense of seeing but here we mean by it a special technique, which takes us from the gross physical world to the subtle world of the soul; which makes the unknown manifest itself. In fact, it is a method of meditation, the user of which experiences within himself a unique transformation.
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