________________
Walk With Me
compassion, and love (kshayik bhava)* now govern all his responses.
This was only the first stage of Mahavir's successfully proven technique for sadhana. Mahavir's sadhana continued even after becoming immune to external events. His focus now was on eliminating his internal kashaya bhavn. He knew that the soul-polluting karmic particles were responsible for these passions (kashaya bhava). To be free from kashayas he needed to purge this karmic matter. His sadhana had to continue, but the focus had to be on the purification of the soul. Only then could he discover the pure, unadulterated real ‘Me'. Suppressing kashayas was easier than eliminating them, but to free himself of all kashayas, Mahavir had to stop fresh inflow (Samvara) of karmic particles and also eliminate (Nirjara) already attached karma. It took him 12 long years of sadhana for both – stopping the inflow of dravya karma by gaining control over his mind in the first stage, and getting rid of existing karmas, during the second."
It was getting late and Ganadhar Sudharma wanted to end the afternoon by asking some concluding questions. He said, “Respected Ganadhar Gautam, it seems that we now have a pretty good understanding of Mahavir's two-stage technique. Therefore, should we not prepare some guidelines describing his technique of discovering the Self? It would be a useful tool for our sangh".
* Although the English spelling is almost identical, the two terms are different. Kshayik bhava (our pure, non-violent bhav that elevates our soul closer to the liberation state), and Kashaya bhava (bhava motiited by our passions. This promotes bonding to keep our soul forever in the cycle of (ath and rebirth), the two must not be taken to be the same.
84
Jain Education Intemational
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
