Acharya Mahashraman
In Jain Agam it is said:
Nadansanissa nanam,
nanen vina na hunti charan guna Agunissa natthi mokkho,
natthi amokkhassa nivvanam.This verse from Uttradhyayan Sutra, giving a sketch of the technique of Jain austerity, says that the knowledge cannot be right until the faith is right. Right conduct is not possible in the absence of right faith and right knowledge. In addition, without having right conduct, the complete freedom from Karma is not feasible and without getting rid of Karma, liberation cannot be attained. Therefore, the foundation of salvation is "right faith".
Penance (tap) and spiritual practice (sadhana) both play a significant role in life, but in the absence of right faith both penance and practice are worthless. A spiritual practitioner should determine 'what is my perspective - spiritual or material?' In fact, he can be a true practitioner who physically lives in the world and maintains worldly behaviour but his consciousness is focused towards liberation. He while living in the outer world stays within.
A spiritual practitioner uses material goods, eats food, does many other activities and utilizes and consumes many objects. Material goods are necessary for survival. Without material things man cannot survive easily. But the consciousness of a spiritual practitioner should not get distorted in the materialistic world.
Man has two innate instincts - attachment (rag) and aversion (dvesh). These two engender many other instincts. If someone is jealous, quarrelsome, irritating or egoist; his emotions are the by-products of attachment and aversion, which distort the chitta (conscious mind). Therefore, emotional purification is a must to clean the conscious mind. If the emotions are pure and unbiased, then in spite of access and use of material items, the person can stay in the state of equanimity. In spite of not using material things, the mind becomes imbalanced if the emotions are impure due to attachment and aversion. The reason behind equanimity and non-equanimity is not the thing itself but the emotions or thoughts. Emotions are the inertia which can take a person anywhere.
Once upon a time, Maharaj Prasannachandra, the emperor of Potanpur after listening to the sermons of Bhagwan Mahaveer, detached himself from the material world and became monk after entrusting the responsibilities of his kingdom to his son. Once he went to Rajgrih along with Bhagwan Mahaveer. Outside of the assembly area, he was meditating in the sun in a standing posture with his hands raised up. Meanwhile, King Shrenik, with his soldiers, was going to visit Bhagwan Mahaveer. Two ambassadors, Durmukh and Sumukh, were also accompanying him. As soon as Durmukh saw the monk in meditation, he said, 'O Sumukh! This imposter monk is meditating, and his kingdom has been attacked by his enemy king. The kingdom will be seized. Now who will provide security to his son, wife and people?' As soon as these words from Durmukh penetrated in the ear of monk Prasannachandra, his meditative state was broken. Mentally, he started to battle with his enemies. In the anxiety of possibly losing his son, wife and kingdom he became entangled in emotional pain. Emotionally, he was becoming cruel and ultimately his thoughts became so deleterious that he had prepared the ground to go to the seventh hell in the next life. He was thinking to take off enemy king's crown off and imagining to kill his enemies in the war. When he put his hand on his head to get the crown, he suddenly remembered, "Oh! I am a saint! Whose kingdom? Whose son? These all relations are meaningless. Who is a friend or who is the foe?" These thoughts changed his feelings. Now the consciousness got highly elevated and in that very moment he became omniscient. On one end is the seventh hell and the other end is omniscience knowledge - both are extreme ends.
A spiritual practitioner should have a pure attitude along with emotional purity. Because of the mundane nature of life, one sometimes gets anger, sometimes lust, sometimes fear and sometimes ego, greed, hate and more. But a practitioner must have a goal to rectify his attitude. Achieving the stage of purification of such passions or attitudes is a great success in the field of spirituality.
There are two influxes (ashrav)
- kashay (passion)
- yog (activity of mind, body and vocal)
I pondered deeply over these two influxes and I realized that complete destruction of passions (kashay) or negative emotions in daily life seem impossible since passions reside inside the individual. Therefore, uprooting the inner impressions in the daily life cannot be expected. But what we can do is resist the transformation of kashay ashrav into yog ashrav. Anger when gets expressed in terms of mental, verbal and facial expression becomes yog. A practitioner should put his effort to not let the passion enter into the boundary of yog. If yog is pure; the mind, vocal and body are pure then consequently the consciousness gets purified. It is well documented in Sanskrit literature.
Chittayattam dhatubaddham shariram, nashte chitte dhatavo yanti nasham tasmachchittam sarvada rakshaniyam, svasthe chitte buddhayah prasfuranti
The body which is composed of elements is dependent on the conscious mind. After the destruction of chitta, all elements also are destroyed. Therefore, chitta must be protected all the time. Healthy chitta can lead to healthy intellect. And only then can the path of salvation be opened up.
