The three Guptis (processes of controlling the inner nature of a Jīva)

[Full title: Three Stages (1): Saṃvara (Self-restraint)—(B): The three Guptis]

Having regulated the external movements of a jīva in such a way as would help him to arrest comparatively the influx of karma; the sages have deemed it wise to lay down further rules for controlling his inner nature. Of these guptis or the processes of controlling the inner nature of a jīva we have first:

(1) Manogupti

Manogupti which means the controlling of the mind. If mind is not controlled and regulated at will to work in a particular direction, nothing great can be achieved. So the first thing one should try to do is to control the mind which could be done in three ways: viz.

(a) Asatkalpanāviyogī which means that one should not give himself up to excessive grief and the like at the demise of anyone dear to him or at the loss of anything. One should reflect within himself that all the pleasures of life and living are only temporal: they come and go like the fleeting clouds so there is nothing permanent to be gained thereof for the well-being of the soul which must strive and struggle on and on till the Highest Good is realized.

(b) Samatā-bhāvinī—means continuous thinking along certain line that will bring on the equanimity (samatā) of the mind. He must try to realize that for a mumukshin jīva, love and hate, pain and pleasure, have no value; for both are but chains, one of gold and the other of ore, which subject the jīva to go round and round the wheel of births and deaths. Moreover unless this equanimity of mind is attained, a jīva cannot expect to have a right vision into the metaphysics of ideas and ideals without which the veil of mithyatva cannot be torn asunder.

(c) Ātmārāmatā—means 'Introspection' or Self-reflection. By this the mumukshu jīva draws in the powers of his mind from the extramental world and concentrates the same upon the soul to study the different phases it passes through. Thus it gradually creates apathy to the things of temporal character by a comparative arrest of the influx and enhances the ardent desire for a speedy deliverance from the turmoil of the life of servitude.

(2) Vachana-gupti

Vachana-gupti means controlling the speech which can be accomplished in two ways, viz:

(a) By taking a vow of silence (maunāvalambi) for a certain period during which the mumuksha jīva should never open his lips.

(b) Vākniyami—regulating his tongue only to move on imperative occasions.

(3) Kāya-gupti

Kāya-gupti means controlling the physical organism by the mumukshu jīva in accordance with the various rules and regulations as lay down in the scriptures. Now from the characteristic indications of all the three guptis, it is apparent that they are meant to help a jīva in the arrest of his karmic inflow; for all these acts as an antidote to the poisons of temptations which the world abounds with.