Walk With Me

Author(s): Chandanaji Acharya, Vastupal Parikh
Publisher: Veerayatan

Page 87

"Ganadhar Sudharma," I said, "I don't think that we can really understand Mahavir's technique just by reading some guidelines. Perhaps no one can without personal experience. Mahavir discovered his path through focused practice and sadhana. Similarly, each individual must discover this technique by the self to realize the Self."
Though everyone needs to develop ones own technique through experience, Mahavir's path can be summed up in his own words; "Understanding the logical distinction between Jiva and Ajiva, (the living and non-living entities) is enlightenment." In other words, Mahavir asks us to understand the difference between Jiva our eternal live soul - and everything else that is non-living in this universe. Such understanding is truly achieved only when we fully know our pure Self.
Ch. 7: Sadhana
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Sometimes his sadhana involved practicing austerities and sometimes total silence to experience and understand the effects of strange events and hardships on the inner workings of his mind and soul. Such understanding enabled him to develop a personal technique to control or stop the influence of external events on his mind and to empower his kshayik bhava. He was thus able, during the first stage of his sadhana, to train his body, senses, and mind to stop negative responses to adverse events. After that, it was a long road to eliminate all kashayas. Nevertheless, Mahavir proved that it is not an impossible task. We too can achieve it through focused and sustained sadhana. Only then would we really understand the true process of liberation.
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