Acharya Mahaprajna
Central Chronicle
Friday, December 18, 2009
If the word 'Right Speech' is added to perspective and knowledge, the question of falling into tension (either mental or emotional) would never arise as enlightenment would be attained.
We have literature handed down to us from 2500 years ago. If you read the biographies of great personalities and seers, you will see how much tolerance they had. They were often abused and criticized. Sometimes, they were even punished or assaulted, yet they never got stressed or tense.
If tension is the nature of the man, then we could say Bhagwan Mahavir's life would have been the most stressful. History recounts that many people insulted him, used bad words in his presence, and made him suffer - yet he kept himself free of tension. See the life of Krishna, Rama, Nanak, Samarth Ramdas, etc. How much abuse and uncultured behaviour they had to face! Did they ever react by losing their peace of mind? A person who has held his emotions in check does not get agitated because of others' misbehaviour. Who are those who get tense? It can be said that those whose emotions are not in control get tension.
In the present generation, it is commonplace for one's mood to go awry. Even a small child will say, "I am not in a good mood." Both men and women face this problem. You will find very few people whose mood does not go off. Why is this so? This happens because they have no control over their passions. The very first step in Preksha Meditation is to learn how to control our emotions. After the session of Preksha Meditation, in general, people would say that they got peace of mind, happiness and goodness. That this happens is a sure fact, but these are mere formal truths. In fact, the point, which we need to focus on, is to gain control over our emotions and passions.
If we do not aspire to reach this point, it is worthless to practice Preksha Meditation.
Nowadays, there are many ways to manage stress. Many seminars and workshops are held for stress management. It is good to think over ways to manage our stress, but before that, should we not see how stress arises in the first place? That it should arise time and again, and that we should keep on managing it: how long can this go on? It seems like every time we fall down, we must put a bandage on the injured part. Should we not try to increase our alertness to the extent that we do not get hurt at all, so that there is no need to tie a bandage? Is it worthwhile to repeatedly get tense and then to make efforts to relieve tension, again and again? Would it not be better to try not to get tense in any situation? We need to distinguish between two points: the first is getting tense and then releasing the tension, while the second is to awaken that inner consciousness which will not allow tension to arise, in the first place.
Physical stress is not a very complex problem. By simple practices physical stress can be relieved. We should progress in the direction of mental and emotional tensions not arising at all. Our spiritual practice should be such that mental tension is not created at all. By hearing some words, if mental tension is created, our approach towards it has to be changed and we should develop the right perspective. The right perspective can be used to prevent the development of mental and emotional tensions. Three paths have been enumerated for attaining moksha (liberation). Acharya Umaswati has described the process of attaining emancipation (Moksha). He has written, there is only one path leading towards emancipation. It has three constituents:
- Right Perspective
- Right Knowledge
- Right Conduct
In my opinion, if the word 'Right Speech' is added to perspective and knowledge, the question of falling into tension (either mental or emotional) would never arise as enlightenment would be attained. Tension occurs only in the absence of Right Knowledge. By adding the word 'Right Speech' to knowledge, our perspective would surely change leaving no scope for tension. There is an important incident concerning Acharya Bikshu. Acharya Bikshu's Chaturmas (a period of 4 months stay in one place during the rainy season) was held in one of Rajasthan's famous cities called Pali.