On the occasion of Dus Lakshan Festival : Ten characteristic symptoms of the soul

In most of the religions miracles are treated as a means to promote the religion and to identify its uniqueness and greatness. However Jainism is quite different from this trend even though it may not have attracted more followers for this reason. What had been laid down by the Tirthankaras is meticulously followed and adhered to except for the fact that a large portion of the knowledge that he passed on has become irretrievable . However what has remained demonstrates the simplicity and distinctiveness of the sermons. One such uniqueness is  visible from the means to identify religion. Actually religion term itself does not exist because there is no such thing as “x” and “y” religions in the sermons of the omniscience. As per him six types of dravyas (things) exist in the universe and they are identified by their characteristics. The first is Jiva dravya which is recognized by its sentience. Other insentient ones are pudgala, kala, akash, dharmastikaya and adharmastikaya. Now  the principle characteristics of this Jiva dravya are described here as being ten. These ten are actually in his nature but the Jiva has forgotten his own nature and believes non nature to be himself. The objective of this exercise is to remind the Jiva of his true nature and become one with his own self so that one day he may also attain the same state as the omniscient one. Hence there is just one goal at all times i.e. to attain Moksha. At no time there is any consideration of riches and pleasures of the world. This makes the Jain religion miles ahead of all others. Every year the festival of duslakshan dharma is held to celebrate and rededicate ourselves to this objective by reminding ourselves of the ten characteristics of soul.

1.       Supreme Forgiveness ( Uttam Kshama)

·         Soul indulges in anger in his own  ignorant state without right knowledge of the self.

·         Anger arises because of non fulfillment of his desires and others not following his wishes. He can be angry even with insentient objects. Some people even think anger to be their great attribute and take pleasure in demonstrating it.

·         As a result he may vent his anger verbally by abusing, physically by attacking and even mentally by retaining  animosity to be settled at a future opportunity.

·         Non compliance of wishes may lead him to even committing suicide in extreme anger.

·         However the soul with right knowledge and right belief knows that his true nature is without anger or perturbation of any kind, which may be defined as forgiveness(kshma).

·         He also knows that due to fruition of his own past karmas, situations leading to conflict and anger have manifested.

·         Therefore even when he indulges in anger, he does not take pleasure in it. He considers it as his weakness of character and keeps trying to overcome it by recalling his true nature of blissfulness.

·         An ignorant person without right knowledge may also practice forgiveness but he considers it as his greatness and takes pride in it. He believes himself to be the benefactor of others. Therefore even when he indulges in punya bhava , he accrues karmas of Mithyatva due to his ignorance and passions.

·         Therefore the supreme forgiveness is practiced only if  accompanied with right knowledge, beginning in fourth gunasthana of the spiritual ladder. The same is practiced at higher gunasthana appropriately in accordance with the level of spiritual development. Thus it is applicable to Munis as well as householder.

·         Overcoming the passions of anger , the ultimate objective is to realize the true nature of self and experience the state of eternal peace and blissfulness.

·         Anger cannot be overcome by suppressing it by drinking water or counting up to ten. Those who do so, think anger to be their attribute which they can control. Actually anger was never theirs and nor their attribute. Hence no need to control but be one with their own selves. Automatically anger will vanish because there is no means to support anger.

2.        Supreme Modesty ( Uttam Mardav)

·         Pride is next such corrupted attitude which jiva indulges in worldly state out of his own ignorance of his true nature.

·         His own true form is purely detached( Veetrag) wherein he is supremely modest i.e. without pride along with true knowledge and right belief of the self.

·         Without realizing this he takes pride in his health, wealth, knowledge etc. Therefore Mithyatva accompanied with passions accrues anantanubadhi ( which last infinite time) karmas. This has been the case since beginingless time.

·         Many people cherish  pride as their greatness and nourish it. Pride can take many forms and shapes. It is  actually  a tendency to associate ourselves with non self and take credit for that.

·         Even lower order Jivas are not devoid of such passions and they also acquire these karmas.

·         On the other hand the Jiva with right belief(samyaktva) knows the pride not to be his nature and tries to be one his own true self. However he indulges in pride out of his own weakness of character which he keeps trying to overcome.

·         On the spiritual ladder the passions of pride and anger are destroyed in 9^th gunasthana. Till then from 4^th gunasthana onwards the Jivas keep trying to overcome it by taking recourse to their true self i.e purifying their thoughts.

3.       Supreme Simplicity ( Uttam Arjav)

·         For fulfillment  of various worldly desires Jiva takes recourse to deception of different forms. These deceptions are practiced by means of mind, speech or body. Lack of deceptions i.e. utmost simplicity is the true nature of  pure soul.

·         A pure soul does not have desires because he is totally detached due to Veetrag   nature , inherently because he knows all and sees all and enjoying his blissful existence at all times. Since he does not need anything more then why should he deceive? Actually he is immersed within his own self.

·         Deceptions are practiced from one sensed Jivas to higher order ones, appropriate to their form in various degrees. In accompaniment of Mithyatva , without knowing their own true nature, they accrue karmas accordingly and suffer the worldly bondage for ever.

·         Once jiva realizes the true nature of his soul different from that of other elements , then with the right belief , he does not accrue karmas of the same high potency as earlier.

·         Although due to weakness of character , he may still not practice high simplicity , but he is aware of the true nature and tries to overcome his weakness. 

·         As he climbs the spiritual ladder, from 4^th gunsthana onwards he practices purifying his own self by contemplating on his true nature and successfully destroys deceit by 9^th gunasthana.

4.       Supreme Contentment ( Uttam Shauch)

·         Fourth passion is greed which virtually is the cause of other passions since desire is greed .  Non fulfillment of desires lead to deception, anger and fulfillment leads to pride. Hence it may be called mother of all passions.

·         These four passions are named in this specific order because in 9^th gunsthana the destruction of passions occurs in the order of anger, pride and deceit. Still the greed does not go fully and is destroyed later in 10^th gunasthana only.

·         Lack of greed is known as shauch which is internal purity of the soul. After all a soul which is vitaragi and fully detached, cannot have greed of any kind.

·         These four passions are the root cause of lack of control in the Jiva because of which even if he attains right belief, he may still not be able to practice sanyam ( control) to climb the spiritual ladder.

·         Interestingly each of these passions are also associated with a specific Gati (birth) of jiva. Narak gati is predominantly associated with anger since jiva there have abundance of it. The tiryanvh gati( animal) is predominantly deceitful  because of practices in that state. Men suffer mainly with pride while Devas have the strongest of greed even with all the riches.

·         Uttam shauch denotes the purity of soul accompanied with right knowledge and belief. A person may give up all greed without right belief but then he believes himself to be the doer of such acts while in reality the greed was never his own attribute. This is the Mithyatva with which he is suffering from begininglless time. Hence he cannot climb spiritual ladder though he accrues punya karma for lack of greed.

·         Only with right belief the Jiva knows the passions not to be his nature but his corrupted state due to contemplation of material objects with disregard to self. He knows his true nature as knowing and seeing with blissfulness and peace which he strives to achieve by contemplating on his true nature. He practices control of character from 4^th gunasthana onwards and climbs the spiritual ladder till all passions are destroyed in 10^th gunsthana. In 11^th gunsthana he experiences the purest of blissfulness for the first time known as yathakhyat  charitra which is of the same class as that experienced by Kevali Bhagwan.

5.       Supreme Truth( Uttama satya)

·         Contrary to popular belief , supreme truth is not about speaking truth. It cannot be just about speaking since Sidhha bhagwan do not speak and it is their attribute also.

·         If it were only about speaking then even one sensed Jivas would be said to be practicing it since they do not speak.

·         Munis practice satya mahavrita, bhasha samiti and vachan gupti hence their speaking is severely controlled. Even house holder practices satya anuvrita . Beyond 6^th gunasthana there is no scope for speaking since munis are in contemplation only. Hence supreme truth is not about speaking truth alone.

·         Supreme truth is about knowing the truth. Not just knowing any truth but that of existence. Again mere verbal knowledge of truth is not enough but understanding and experiencing the truth.

·        " I am Jiva of the nature of knowing and seeing which is different from all other Jivas as well as all types of matters" is the supreme truth. "They do not occupy my space and similarly I cannot invade their space in the universe. Within my space I remain within myself at all times" is the truth.

·         Uttam satya denotes truth with right knowledge. Before this the knowledge itself is ignorance even if one is very knowledgeable about things. The right knowledge begins at 4^th Gunasthana , hence one who has experienced the soul is practicing uttam satya.

·         Knowing the reality of existence is the right knowledge and believing it to be  so is the right belief and speaking the same is the true speech. Experiencing all these in the soul is the satya dharma or supreme truth. Without this the Jiva cannot start the journey on the path to salvation.

6.       Supreme self control ( Uttam sanyam )

·         True nature of soul is with supreme self control , immersed in itself never once getting perturbed or distracted from self because of the blissful experience in self.

·         However in worldly state the Jivas have never experienced the same because of distraction of the mind and senses. He gets attracted to every possible object of senses and mind , with the result that he can never experience his own nature.

·         The process of realizing true nature of self accompanied with the practice of controls in a practical manner is an attempt to achieve the state of Moksha wherein he can become one with himself.

·         However it is not the external practices which are important but it is the internal disposition towards these practices that matters. The internal purity increases depending upon disposition.

·         The control is practiced in two ways: 1) Avoiding of injury to others 2) controlling the senses. The first one involves protecting of all Jiva forms while second one avoids indulgence of sensual pleasures of all types.

·         It may be noted that of all the four forms of jivas, the human state only can practice the control to achieve salvation. The jivas of heaven or hell cannot progress beyond 4^th gunasthana while jivas of animal state can at best reach 5^th gunasthana.

·         The reason for the above is that in human state only the internal disposition which is different than that of heavenly devas who may not have desires but still do not have internal capability of control.

·         The fact is that according to the internal disposition the external attributes would be of same type. For example , a person with lack of three levels  of four types of passions could only become Muni. Just adopting external demeanor of Muni without internal attitude does not serve any purpose.

·         In worldly state , the soul is attracted to objects of senses continuously one after another , such that he never gets an opportunity to experience the soul. Hence Jainism preaches strongly of controlling the five senses and mind for deviating from the objective of self realization. Even the sensory knowledge is not considered of any use towards the experience of the soul.

·         Therefore the path of self control accompanied with right knowledge and belief only can lead towards realizing  true nature of self.

7.       Supreme Penance (Uttam Tapa)

·         The process of discarding all desires and engrossing within own self is known as Tapa ( penance). Accompanied with the right knowledge of self makes it Uttama ( supreme), otherwise it would be an exercise in futility.

·         Another objective of Tapa for the muni is to harden the mind and body towards all untoward situations so that their resolve is not weakened by difficulties therefore they  impose difficult conditions on themselves knowingly.

·         On the other hand Tapa does not imply fasting alone. Unless the internal disposition is appropriately purified, the external acts becomes meaningless. For example one cannot take practice fast out of anger. The overall objective of being one with your own nature is paramount at all times.

·         Penance is divided into two categories , 1) Internal 2) external. The internal penance is of six types : 1) Fasting 2) Taking reduced diet 3) imposing conditions on self,  4) Not taking of six types of articles i.e. ghee, milk, curd, sugar, salt and oil, 5) avoiding company of others and 6) practicing hardship of body.

·         The external penance is also six types : 1) Repentance 2) Reverence 3) Service to other saints 4) Study 5) Renunciation 6) Meditation

·         The external penance is visible to others but is of no use unless accompanied with internal penance. The six types of each are in specific order of difficulty and importance.

·         Fasting is practiced in several predefined methods. However taking reduced diet imposes higher strain on will power. Munis test their will power by imposing difficult conditions to be fulfilled prior to breaking fast. Otherwise they continue the fast. Giving up different types of tastes in the food increases their control on will power even more. Staying lonely and practicing hardship of body without getting perturbed in the contemplation of self are the last two internal penances.

·         Repentance is practice of repenting upon past mistakes committed with an objective of giving up the attraction towards those actions. Reverence is respect to other superiors in knowledge, belief and conduct. It is definitely not for power or money. Service to other saints is practiced to relieve them of their tiredness with the objective of strengthening their resolve and overcoming momentary weakness. Study of scriptures is important practice. Renunciation is also practiced internally as well externally i.e. with respect to worldly objects as well as sensual pleasures. Lastly meditation is the highest form of penance wherein the contemplation of the nature of self is done with the objective of purifying the soul continuously ultimately attaining salvation.

8.        Supreme Renunciation (Uttam Tyag)

·         Renunciation of desires etc which had been accumulated in worldly journey is the nature of the soul intending to traverse the path to Moksha.

·         Chakravarty kings are known to renunciate  their kingdom to live as ascetic to undertake journey to salvation.

·         However renunciation is not giving up riches alone, but the desire towards them. In fact giving up objects without giving up attachment towards them does not serve any purpose. Therefore true renunciation is not giving up riches since they were never his own, but realizing it and therefore discarding attraction towards them is the renunciation.

·         Similarly renunciation is practiced by giving up anger, pride, deceit, pride also since they are not nature of soul. In this manner renunciation is practiced with respect to objects which were wrongly believed to be ours so that one could experience the true self.

·         Renunciation is practiced by all householders to become muni to attain 6^th gunasthana by giving up all worldly possessions as well as desires towards them. The emphasis is more on desires since the possessions were never his own.

·         People mistake renunciation to be same as charity or donation but it is not true. Renunciation is dharma i.e. nature of soul while donation is an act of punya which causes accrual of punya karmas hence very different.

9.       Supreme Detachment ( Uttam Akinchanya)

·         Giving up sense of oneness with other objects is detachment. Accompanied with the right knowledge and right belief, it becomes supreme detachment.

·         By realizing true nature of the soul, giving up attraction towards all thoughts of desire, anger , greed etc is the true detachment.

·         Possessions are   of two types : 1) Internal of 14 types and 2) External of 10 types.

·         Internal possessions are 1) Mithyatva ( wrong belief) 2) anger 3) pride 4) deceit 5) greed 6) laughter 7) attraction 8)aversion 9) sorrow 10) fear 11) disgust 12) Male passion 13) Female passion 14) Neuter passion.

It is important to realize that all these passions are considered as possessions and have to be discarded.

·         External possessions are 1) Land 2) Houses 3) silver 4) gold 5)wealth 6) grain 7) female servants 8) male servants 9)clothes 10 ) utensils. Giving up external possessions without discarding the internal possessions is meaningless. Once there is internal purification of soul , the external attachments are automatically discarded. Actually it is the sense of ownership which is the possession from which one has to detach himself.

10.   Supreme Celibacy ( Uttam Bramhacharya)

·         Bramha is soul and remaining within it is Bramhacharya or celibacy. Supreme denotes the presence of right knowledge and belief.  Only when Muni does not have any attachment towards body, then he practices true celibacy.

·         Coarsely speaking the celibacy implies detachment towards sensual pleasure derived out of touch sense but true Bramhacharya is remaining within the soul , for which objects of other senses could also prove to be hindrance  hence truly giving up all attachments for all senses is celibacy.

·         Actually Bramhacharya  denotes remaining immersed in soul. For that the possessionlessness automatically follows since one cannot be unperturbed if there are any desires.

·         However mere possessionlessness may be practiced by several jivas because of the constraint of their gati  e.g.  in hell one does not get opportunity for enjoying sensual pleasures , but that does not imply he is immersed in his soul or he is practicing Bramhacharya.

·         On the other hand , for the one practicing immersion in the soul, it necessarily implies that there is no perturbation due to desires which can only come if there are no possessions to worry about.

·         Only when the soul is immersed within self, then the activities of senses are absent. When he is not immersed, activity of some sense or the other is always present which keeps him engaged away from the self.

·         In fact all senses and mind are like doors which open towards outside world. They do not open towards inside of the soul. By keeping them closed only one can attempt to contemplate on the soul.

·         In reality Jiva does not have attribute of gender. Only in worldly state due to fruition of karmas does he take birth with three types of genders and experiences the desires accordingly. On the spiritual ladder, in 9th gunasthana , the karmas corresponding to three genders are destroyed and the Jiva becomes genderless( apagat vedi) which is his true character. Just as being passionless is his true character. 

·         Thus true Bramhacharya is discarding of all sensual engagement and then immersing within the self.

Thus we see that duslakshan festival is a unique festival of the soul wherein the characteristics of the soul are celebrated and remembered. It is an opportunity to rededicate ourselves towards the goal of life which is to attain Moksha. Everything else is a hindrance. Therefore with a single track mind we should traverse on it with all our capability.

Concept of Yoga and Meditation in Jain Perspective- II

Meditation is another word which is being used quite loosely now a days. People say that they go  for a walk in the morning then do meditation there which they find quite relaxing. Coaching centers are offering mediation classes. Is it as simple and ordinary as that? Here we take a look at the Jain perspective.

Meditation

To begin with, firstly it has to be understood that meditation is contemplation of something. So there should be a goal of contemplation. It does not make sense if we say that we just meditated on nothing. It may be pleasant or quite blissful but perhaps same effect is experienced when we see a beautiful scenery. But mediation without objective is an exercise in wilderness. In Jains meditation is a tool of progressing on the Moksha Marg. In fact the process starts in 4^th gunasthana itself but continues at all stages sunsequently. In fact all the time from 7^th gunasthana onwards is spent in the state of meditation only and nothing else. 13^th gunasthana is the intermediate result of that process. However it continues even beyond 13^th until Siddha state is achieved. Hence for any Jain , meditation is not an exercise, or a temporary solace from mundane daily chores but a goal of life.

Jain Acharyas have extensively elaborated on the goal of contemplation in scriptures. It includes also the non goals which are the paths of aberration. This is so because one will not know the right path without knowing the wrong path also. Overall there are 363 ways the beliefs may be wrong. Each of this would define their own objective of contemplation and path of liberation. While we need not go through each individually to find the mistakes, it suffices to see the basic flaw in thinking process to identify the correct objective. Some of the erroneous goals are described below:

1)      Contemplation on nothing: One of the contemporary religions believes that the soul does not exist hence is zero. The jiva which existed in previous moment is not the same in next moment. In this system the meditation is in the form of an observer who is watching the world. People claim to achieve blissful experience in such contemplation. But in reality that experience is due to avoidance of passions and such desires in that period. Since there were no perturbations within the soul, the experience was also blissful in general. In Jains it would be called shubha bhava but not shuddha bhava which is pure thought. Shubha bhava leads to accrual of punya karma while shuddha bhava leads to destruction of karmas, therefore the two are different. Actually shuddha bhava is experienced only when we identify our true nature of soul and try to be one with it. That is the process of right meditation. Therefore if we do not know the true nature of soul itself then how can we meditate properly? In Jains the meditation begins only after right belief / knowledge of self. Attainment of right belief is through an experience of the self. Therefore anyone who claims meditation but not knowing the nature of soul is traversing an erroneous path. True meditation is an experience of the self with its true qualities. Thus contemplation on nothing may be giving pleasant experience but does not lead anywhere.

2)      Contemplation on Singularity : Another religion believes in the singularity of the universe. There is no second being hence oneness with the universe is the objective of meditation. Just as a drop of water joins with ocean and becomes ocean so does the soul becomes one with supreme entity. However this is also flawed. Firstly it does not explain the observation of day to day existence in the mundane world since as per this theory , this world does not exist. After all there is nothing else other than the supreme. Even if we try to call it as hallucination , even that hallucination becomes something different than supreme which is not acceptable. Secondly it does not provide for the existence of self as unique. What exactly is being one with supreme? Do all experience the same pain or the pleasure of same nature at all times. In real world we do not see such a thing happening. Suffice to say that there are quite a few contradictions which cannot be explained. On the other hand in Jains each person is unique and on liberation also he is Siddha , different from others. In fact there are infinite of them. Thus each person has the freedom to achieve that state. Further the present corrupted state is also not denied. This state is present from beginingless time and will continue till the person makes an effort realizing his own true nature. This is logical as well as matches with the observations. Therefore the contemplation on singularity is a flawed goal for meditation.

3)      Contemplation on plurality:  Another variant can believe each one as individual but as pure self. The flaw lies in the universe but not the soul since soul is always pure. One wonders that if the soul is pure then why does one need meditation? Meditation was the process needed to purify the soul. If soul is already pure then one does not need to achieve anything more ! Anyway one cannot purify the non self by meditation. So the objective appears to be flawed. Without explaining the day to day existence of the world , one cannot venture into meditation on an unreal path.

4)       Contemplation on a God : One more possible objective of contemplation is the creator God wherein one meditates as himself as his servant. Thus the highest level desired to be attained is his servanthood. This raises a plethora of unanswerable questions. Whether it is worth the effort? Actually this appears to be an offshoot of the real world where one was servant to kings in his lifetime and after death he serves the almighty. It appears highly erroneous to assume that one finds it very pleasant and blissful. However mythology is full of such stories.

5)      Contemplation on true nature of self : This is the Jain philosophy. As per this the soul inherently is pure but in the worldly state, it is corrupted in conjunction with the material objects. He believes others to belong to him whether sentient or insentient. He experiences passions of anger, deceit, pride, greed with respect to them and accrues karmas. The fruition of karmas results in thoughts of similar nature and thus the cycle continues indefinitely. However his true nature is that of knowing and seeing all  which he has never realized. While his dravya is inherently pure, his paryaya or state is corrupted and therefore his infinite qualities are never realized or they manifest in impure state. This concept is logical and fits with the observations. Only when he realizes his true nature and try to establish his oneness with it , he would experience the self.

                The procedure for meditation is described by shri Nemichandra Acharya in Dravya Sangrah in sutra 56 as follows:

Do not act, do not talk do not think, so that the soul may be attached to and fixed in itself. This only is excellent meditation.

Herein all the activities of mind, speech or body are stopped , therefore all perturbations of the soul are minimized. Hence the attention is now within the self than to the external world. One does not have to think of the true nature of self. It is to be known and believed. At the same time the knowledge knows the present state ( paryaya) to be corrupted and impure. With this knowledge he establishes his oneness with the Dravya i.e. his true nature of knowing, seeing, blissfulness , strength etc. This results in experiencing the soul beyond senses, in true blissfulness which is never experienced before.

On the other hand contemplation of his impure nature only causes perturbation and passions which do not serve anything. By avoiding passions he may feel the peacefulness but that is not the same as experience of the soul. That is why all meditations do not lead to same result.

Once soul is experienced, it changes the life style of devotee and he tries to immerse himself in that experience the same again and again. However since he is still involved in worldly activities hence his concentration is weak and he cannot hold attention for long. This is the condition in lower 4^th gunasthana . To improve his concentration he has to give up involvement of worldly activities and practice better self control. This stage is known as 5^th gunasthana. Higher level is achieved by discarding the worldly activities altogether and becoming a muni. Since passions are very low, the experience of soul is much pronounced  and the muni continuously tries to indulge in experiencing the soul. This process of purification of soul continues till he climbs the spiritual ladder to attain 13^th gunasthana wherein all the soul harming karmas are destroyed and he achieves omniscience.

Interestingly the process of meditation still continues till all karmas are discarded in 14^th gunasthana and the soul attains Siddhahood  which is a permanent state of liberation.

Therefore we see that meditation in Jainism has very profound meaning and importance. It forms the basis of Moksha Marga without traversing which the soul cannot attain Moksha. 

Concept of Yoga and Meditation in Jain Perspective- I

Yoga as well as Meditation, both words have been misused extensively at present times, so much so that the actual meaning of the words have been lost. These have become bait for money making businesses, and are status symbols for people desirous of showing off their closeness to heavens. In casual talks people like to throw these words casually for effect and love to watch the listeners gape with open mouth at their proficiency. However this article is not concerned at criticizing others for what they are doing, but to describe and understand the implication of these words in Jain philosophy.

Yoga

Contrary to popular understanding , the term yoga in Jainism has nothing to do with exercise or even pranayama. However it has far reaching implications and is quite complex.  Just for comparison we look at the online dictionary meaning of the term Yoga:  “a school of Hindu philosophy advocating and prescribing a course of physical and mental disciplines for attaining liberation from the material world and union of the self with the Supreme Being or ultimate principle.” With this as background we proceed with Jain meaning.

Yoga in Jains is a property of soul i.e. quality of soul and belongs to its nature. Its definition is “ the vibration of soul space is called Yoga”. Actually it is a negative attribute. The vibration of soul space is indicative of activities which may be arising in soul  which results in  activation of mind, speech or body. Thus when a person wishes to speek, the soul space vibrates indicative of  bhasha yoga and with this as nimitta or catalyst, the vocal chords of the person activate resulting in speech. When the person thinks , the mana yoga induces the mind to function into corresponding thoughts. Lastly when he desires to carry out a body function, the kaya yoga acts as nimitta for the body to carry out the task. Thus the soul space vibrates every time the soul desires of a specific activity and with it acting as nimitta the Jiva carries out the task with  the mind,speech or body. Thus the yoga is of three types which gets further divided into fifteen types when detailed.  The desire to do something itself may be arising out of fruition of some karma. For example, karma particles pertaining to anger are fructified which causes a vibration of soul space , under the influence of which the person may desire to abuse or beat somebody. Thus yoga is indicative of the desire element within the soul. Even the desire to fast or prey causes corresponding vibration in the soul or the yogic activity. Thus we find that the meaning and characteristics of yoga are entirely different from the conventional one. It is yoga which causes influx of karma particles within the soul known as asrava, which get gets divided into eight  types of karmas and get bonded to the soul. Yoga decides the  nature of karma to be bonded as  well as the quantity of particles to be bonded. However the duration of bondage and its intensity is decided by passions.

Being vibration free is the true state of the soul implying perturbation free or ayogic state which is the true nature. However in worldly state the soul in accompanied with body which cause yoga of the three types within soul leading to influx of karmas and bondage. Thus the yoga operates in a negative manner to acquire karmas. Hence  yoga is vaibhavik or abnormal nature  of soul.

Why does the vibration of soul space occurs? Scripture says that it is from beginingless time that the soul is accompanied with a body and correspondingly there is fruition of Sharir Nam Karma. This acts as the nimitta  for the vibration of soul space for conducting activities of the mind, speech or body. These activities in conjunction with the ignorance, wrong belief of the jiva cause bondage of future karmas. Four types of parameters ( pratyaya) are responsible for bondage of karmas. These are named as Mithyatva ( wrong belief), Avirati ( lack of control), Kashaya( passions) and yoga. These four are named in specific order since on the spiritual ladder these parameters are overcome in the same order. Mithyatava is overcome in first Gunasthana or first step itself when a person starts climbing on spiritual path then Mithyatva would be overcome and it won’t be responsible for accrual of karmas. The Avirati is overcome in 5^th Gunasthana when person starts practicing controls to avoid injury to others. The Kashaya represents the anger, pride, deceit and greed which are overcome in the 10^th Gunasthana. Still the Yoga is present and is responsible for accrual of karmas at subsequent stage. Thus yoga is inherently present in all stages from first to 13^th gunasthana due to which karmas are accrued. Specifically speaking the yoga is responsible for nature and Pradesh( quantity) of karma particles accrued, while Kashaya is responsible for duration and intensity of the same. Interestingly we can now see that once the Kashaya is overcome by 10^th gunasthana , the yoga is the only parameter which is responsible for accrual of karma but  it controls just the nature and quantity of karma particles, but not the intensity and duration. Therefore the karma accrual at later gunasthana is more of academic activity since as soon as karma is accrued, it is discarded. This is why in 13^th Gunasthana the Arihant or Omniscient Jiva , in spite of having accrual of sata vedanaiya karma  has duration of one samaya , therefore it is discarded immediately. That is why it is compared to attachment of dust to a dry wall which falls immediately as soon as it is attached.

The 13^th Gunasthana is the last where yoga is still active hence it is named sayoga kevali gunasthana implying the yoga activity. This activity is of two types. One is the speech i.e. the divya dwani or the message of liberation which is characteristic of Tirthankara. By listening to this message only his disciples pass on the message down the order in the form of scripture. The speech is also assisted by presence of mana yoga which is considered to be present in a formal manner. In reality due to presence of omniscience , the Kevali Bhagwan does not need assistance of mind since he knows all simultaneously. However the yoga activity causes the divine speech for passing on the message of liberation to all.

This yoga activity is altogether stopped in 14^th Gunasthana named Ayoga Kevali, meaning that the kevali bhagwan is now devoid of yoga. The duration  of this stage is minimal and he discards the body and becomes Siddha or liberated soul immediately. The Siddha bhagwan also does not have any yoga and he enjoys eternal bliss in this form for ever.

Does it mean that lesser the yoga, the better it is for the soul? No, it is not exactly  true. Yoga represents the capability to induce influx of karmas , but that capability is also dependent upon the type of body he is having. For example an ekendriya jiva with just one sense alone, has minimal yoga but does not imply that he is a happier soul! His capability to bond karmas is also minimal ( duration of 1 sagar for Mithyatva , as against 70 crore crore sagar for the same in five senses humans). The yoga is definitely highest in five sensed jivas. It is in this state the process of overcoming karmas take place by climbing the spiritual ladder.   

Thus we see that yoga represents a negative attribute of the soul. Presence of yoga represents vibration of soul space resulting in accrual of karmas. The process of liberation involves overcoming the desires and passions etc so as to reduce the yogic activity more and more. Ultimately the liberated soul does not have any yogic activity which results in eternal bliss. Nevertheless yoga is an attribute of the soul , although in a negative sense since zero yoga implies peace.

How does it it compare with the conventional meaning of yoga ? It is difficult to compare , except the objectives are the same. Both lead to liberation. However in Jains the mechanism of yoga is pretty detailed with a clear definition of the term yoga as vibration of soul space. Therefore the objective is to reduce the vibration till it is vibration free. It is definitely not by carrying out exercises. The path to ayogic state is through right belief, right  knowledge and right conduct only.

                                                                                                                                                                Continued…..