Transmutation of Personality through Preksha Meditation

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

Page 85

remaining Agamas, books written after the Agamas, and a collection of experiences and results of experiments in meditation performed during the long period of 2,500 years since Lord Mahavir. It was after a comprehensive appraisal of these sources, that the present technique of sadhana, its title and nature, have been evolved.
Q. The technique of sadhana that you have evolved is based upon old elements scattered in the Agamas. During this long period of 2,500 years, old beliefs have changed a good deal. Many new scientific approaches are available to us today. In view of this, will it not be sheer conservatism to follow an ancient tradition? Is it not possible to harmonize it with new elements?
Ans. In order to make preksha dhyana system complete in itself, use has been made of modern scientific insights. Unless a method is in consonance with the scientific temper, it cannot prove very useful at present. Because modern man has developed a scientific outlook, it is becoming more and more difficult to recognize any element that is unscientific in its nature. Under these circumstances, if adequate use is not made in the development of a meditation technique of the latest discoveries in the field of physiology and psychology, that technique is likely to be dismissed as outdated and unscientific. Although there is nothing wrong in a technique being old, yet why should an ancient technique be deprived of contact with the new? Along with ancient elements, we have also made use of new facts and experiences. Thus, this technique, though old, is also new. Both the ancient and modern viewpoints have been harmonized in it.
Some people think that the advent of science has rendered sadhana or spirituality obsolete. However, our view is entirely different. We believe that sadhana, in
70