It is a question of Bhava only

When it comes to matters of Indian spirituality the English language is quite inadequate to express sufficiently. However hard I look for equivalent words, the choice is limited and really do not convey the subject. One such word is Bhava which means in Hindi as Parinaam. The equivalent words in English are feeling or thoughts or volitions or manifestation which touch only the surface of the meaning which is quite deep. This article presents the importance of bhava  on the path to Moksha.

In Jainism the bhava or the internal reflection is given more importance than the deed. One may be guilty of killing but still would not accrue karmas if the bhava or parinaam were noble. Pravachansar gatha 217 lays it down quite clearly.

“ whether a Jiva is killed or not killed, but for a person who conducts carelessly , he is responsible for the himsa definitely. Because those who practice the rules carefully do not accrue karmas even if responsible for external injury “

If a muni is walking slowly and  carefully , and if a flying insect comes under his feet and dies , the muni is not responsible for his death and do not accrue karmas on account of death of insect. On the other hand if one is carelessly walking, whether somebody dies or not, he accrues karmas. This gatha lays down the summary of entire Jain scripture in briefest which is quite opposite to that practiced in our society at this time.  If someone kills a person , he is guilty of the crime and would be penalized accordingly even if it was not his intent. The reason is that the internal reflections of the person are immaterial and it would be the final result which counts since it is visible.

But Jainism lays down very high emphasis on bhava only, which needs to be purer as one climbs the spiritual ladder. Without the purification of thoughts , one cannot hope to come out of worldly transmigration. Although people believe erroneously that the reading of scripture , doing bhakti, Pooja etc and knowing about 6 dravya and 9 tatvas denote right belief or samyak darshan, they mislead themselves in false belief. Because unless they know the self- the knower, they do not have the right knowledge without which the right belief cannot exist. For this to happen the role of bhava is quite important. He may be indulging in activities of charity , penance, etc but internally his thoughts are laden with kashay ( passions of anger, pride, deception and greed) of the anantanubandhi kind( Kashaya which binds for infinite period) then there is no way he can expect to know the self.

One normally thinks that just because he is not thinking of any misdeeds , his thoughts are pure. This is where bhava comes into picture. Even though the thoughts are not present in noticeable form there are thoughts present in unnoticeable form which are unknowingly present in his self. They represent his true mental state which may be hidden from the world knowingly. These bhavas or parinaam are present even at higher gunasthana of spiritual levels while noticeable ones may disappear. However at higher levels the passions are extremely low.

The Kashaya or passions are categorized into four types known as anger, pride, deception and greed and they have further four levels in terms of intensity. The strongest is anantanubandhi, followed by apratyakhyanavaraniya, pratyakhyanavaraniya and sanjwalan, the last being the weakest. It is the first one which prevents shedding of Mithyatva ( wrong belief) and acquiring right belief. While one may say that he does not get angry or may not have greed etc, this does not reflect his true parinaam. This is where Jainism really touches the heart of the matter. How you behave or practice does not truly reflect your bhava. Just as an employee does not voice his true feelings to the employer who may be berating him all the time, people tend to hide their true bhava knowingly and unknowingly. Internally one may be desiring to kick the employer but externally he is quite polite and docile. The kashaya represent those parinaam which are not visible. As described above the annantanubandhi is the strongest in intensity which may be present in a person even though he may appear to be very meek or docile. Till such bhavas are subsided , whatever he may practice , he cannot hope to attain right belief.

Can one modify his bhava ?

It is like asking if one can change his destiny or time of death. The bhavas are also controlled by the fruitation of karmas which were bound in earlier births.  Then what can one do? Truly nothing because Jiva by nature is knower only and not a doer. It is said in practice or Vyavahara  sense that the jiva having right belief would not be having anantanubandhi Kashaya. It does not mean that this jiva did something to destroy this Kashaya. His bhava were such that this Kashaya was low. The time was ripe for him to attain right belief. This phenomenon is also known as krambaddha paryaya or the law of sequential manifestation. Each of the parayaya of every jiva functions sequentially in preordained manner and one cannot modify or change it. If we realise it and believe it then the battle is won. Because then we have accepted that the nature of the Jiva is knowing only and not doing or changing things.

The important thing is for us to realise that the kashayas are not of the nature of the soul and are generated out of the fruitation of past karmas in an endless cycle. Once we give up the ownership and attachment to these bhavas , they subside themselves. People talk about controlling anger by different means, but that implies accepting ownership for it and once we do that, we may hide it in background but the wrong belief is persistent. Whereas for the one who gives up its ownership , he becomes observer of it. Although he may still indulge in anger but that would be of the Apratyakhyanavaraniya type which is of lower level which does not harm the right belief.

Coming back to the question of how to control the bhavas if they are due to fruitation of past karmas, it purely depends on our acceptance of the nature of the soul and understanding its qualities. It indirectly implies the detachment from the world, fear of transmigration and desire for everlasting peace. If a jiva contemplates on these matters then automatically it implies that his Kashaya are not so strong either. On the other hand if he does not even ask such a question means he is  desirous of activities of the world. Thus the actions themselves dictate the result. The one who is sincere would automatically have such bhavas.

Once a jiva is traversing on the Moksha Marg then bhavas would also include the nine forms of No Kashaya also which are three genders,hasya, Rati, arati, shoka, bhaya, jugupsa. Which imply three types of desires of the sex, laughter, love, hate, sorrow, fear, disgust.  These nine are also forms of manifestation which are not of the nature of soul which is ideally detached or Veetraga only. It may appear surprising that even laughter is a Kashaya form. But on careful thinking one can realise that laughter occurs at the expense of someone else hence it is a form of himsa only. These Kashaya become prominent on the spiritual ladder as one traverses higher from fourth gunasthana onwards. Ultimately they are destroyed by ninth gunasthana.

Why these kashayas harm the jiva ? The reason is that each of these cause perturbation of the soul and directs him away from the soul towards some external entity which prevents him from remaining steady within himself. The ultimate goal of Moksha is to remain within one’s own self steadily which provides the true form of bliss. Each of these bhavas prevent him from this goal forcing him to indulge in extraneous world.

All we need to do is to realise the nature of self then automatically the attraction towards the bhavas would wither away. Thus the bhavas are not controlled but it happens because the jiva is within his own nature.

For those who think that if karmas control the bhavas hence they are not in our control , so what can we do , they need to think in the following manner. True, we do not know if our karmas have subsided to a point suitable for attaining samyak darshan but why do we not think other way? Maybe the time is ripe for us to attain samyak darshan and accordingly the bhavas have subsided. Hence there is nothing preventing us to make an effort. In any case , if we do not make the effort then what else can we do ? Possibly indulge in sin only. Hence even in that case it is better to indulge in good deeds than otherwise.

Bhavas are quite deeper than the commonly used words represent since it represents manifestation for single samay which is the unit of time. On the other hand words like feeling , thoughts represents activities over several seconds hence are coarser in representation. It can be seen in the case of Muni belonging to 6^th Gunasthana that he climbs to 7^th gunasthana thousands of times and returns back within a short period of antarmuhurta which amounts to less than 48 minutes. How does this happen ? This happens because his bhavas keep changing so fast. The purity of shuddha bhavas takes him up but he is not able to sustain that purity for long and he is brought down by shubha bhavas. Although a muni may be walking or eating , his bhavas keep changing like this. This continuous purity of bhavas only keep him in that gunasthana otherwise he would come down the spiritual ladder.

The shubha or ashubha bhavas are always directed towards external objects whereas the shuddha or pure bhavas are towards inner self. The entire effort in Moksha marg involves purification of these bhavas in a continuous process on the spiritual ladder. As the bhavas are purer the steadiness in self contemplation increases and the karmas keep shedding accordingly.

Thus in short we see that the entire exercise of Moksha Marg is directed towards the purification of bhavas . In the lower spiritual levels they are shubha or ashubha but the process begins with experiencing the self which represents the shuddha bhavas. Once that starts the sravaka keeps making effort to experience self more and more often thereby purifying the bhavas. This alone is the path to Moksha.