________________
386
The Unknown Pilgrims
• It conduces to an advance in sva-saṁvedana, the experience of the first degree of awakening of the atman to itself, the inner vision of the ātman in which the knower and the known are one.56
- The fruit of this experience is ekāgrată: attention, the concentration of the mind on a single point, and thence the unified, recollected being; invisible, hidden, indescribable joy; an acute awareness of the atman in its essential unity,57 and of its utter difference from everything else.58 This rare experience, which is so difficult to fathom when one has not reached this stage, even if the sages endeavour to describe it, conduces towards saṁvara and nirjarā.59
After the description of niscaya-dhyāna, a method is proposed to the ascetic as an aid on the journey towards the ultimate goal - an interesting method, for it presents now elcments. It assists in the siddhi (perfecting) and nirmalikaraņa (purification) of the piņda or deha (the body).60 This perfecting and purification are brought about by successive dhāraņās, i.e. the concentration of the mind on the cosmic elements one by one: maruti (the wind), taijasi (fire), āpyā (the waters), combined with the use of a mantra.61 Other texts teach
56 vedyatvaṁ vedakatvaṁ ca yatsvasya svena yoginaḥ
tats va-saṁvedanam prāhuḥ atmano' nubhāvam drśam. Tautvanu 161; cf. 162-169; PSa I, 27.
57 tamevānubhavaṁ cāyam ekāgryam paramscchati
tathā'tmådhinam anandam eti vācām agocaram. Tattvanu 170; the word advaita is used to express this unity, cf. 174.
58 Ibid., 173; it is also mentioned that, as confirmation in direct knowledge of the ātman occurs, so and proportionately do extra-ordinary phenomena proper to samadhi, the final stage of concentration, manifest themselves, but they are not described; cf. 179
59 Ibid., 181-182.
60 Ibid., 183.
61 Ibid., 184-187.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
