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 9th gunasthana. Till then from 4th
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 4th
gunsthana onwards he practices purifying his own self by contemplating on his
true nature and successfully destroys deceit by 9th 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 9th 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 10th 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 4th
gunasthana onwards and climbs the spiritual ladder till all passions are
destroyed in 10th gunsthana. In 11th 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 6th 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 4th 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 4th gunasthana while jivas
of animal state can at best reach 5th 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 6th 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment