Acharya Mahaprajna
Circumstances are not everything. To put all the blame on it is not fair. Circumstances can be changed and they will change, but what happens to the emotional system within? How can that be changed? Bhagvan Mahavir was asked, "Noble teacher! Some people say one cannot meditate in the village.It can be done only in the forest, in loneliness. Is the place of meditational practice, binding?"
Mahavir said, "Child, Meditational practice can be done anywhere in the village as well as the forest. And yet it cannot be done anywhere either in the village or in the forest."
This is the anekanta perspective of meditation. One Acharya wove the same sutra or lesson into this language:
Ragdweshu vinirjitya kimrannye karishyasi?
Ragdweshu anirjitya kimarannye karishyasi?
If you have conquered passions, then what will you do going to the forest? If you have not conquered passions then what will you do going to the forest? The basic lesson is that we should reflect on all problems from the viewpoint of anekanta. Whether the problem is a practical one or a spiritual one, a social one or a political one, they can all be solved with anekanta. With uni-dimensional perspectives, problems become more complicated, more entangled. Man falls into a stupor. He begins to think, "I am not the creator of the problems. I am only trying to save myself from them. The problems are created by some one else." This kind of illusion envelops him.
The husband told the wife, "I can hear somebody calling from downstairs. I think my friend is calling me. You go down and tell him I am not home". The wife replied, "you never tell lies, but today I have lost that respect for you." To this the husband replied, "Oh no! I really do not tell lies. That is why I am telling you to tell them".
Where the perspective is only from one angle and the entire picture is not apparent then man gets into trouble. He is not sure what he is doing. He gets entangled in his own language.
We should try and understand the principle of anekanta. Anekanta is the third eye. It is even larger than the eye that rests between the two eyebrows. Till this eye does not begin to function, the principle of anekanta cannot be awakened and nothing can be seen as right. Our actions and thoughts will not be right.
