Two types of Tapas (Austerities)

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Now if the jīva allows himself to be drifted from wave to wave surging in ever flowing currents of karma, his destiny will no longer remains his hands but the environment will become all in all in the making and molding of his destiny. For he will be under the complete sway of his own karma creating conditions of his being and will be reaping the consequences of his own karma without any will or individuality of his own to stem the tide of the influx. For karma-matter according to its laws and forces which it is instinct with will continually get into the jīva to be there in the state of satta for some time only to be awakened into kinetic energies whirling the jīva round through the different grades of saṃsāra, while others will indeed fall off yielding places to newer ones. Therefore, instead of leaving the life to chances, the sages have devised means and methods whereby the seeds of karma could so burnt as to wholly neutralize their effects and leave the soul free and pure to soar up and up into the regions of the siddhasila. Experiences have taught us that the karmic-seeds-the rootevolving of miseries—could be burnt up into naught in the glow of austerities— Tapas. Just as fire consumes the combustible so do the tapas-austerities burn up the karma-bija of the jīva and set him free from the turmoil of saṃsara.

These austerities are of various kinds and types which for the sake of convenience, have been classified by the Jain moralists, primarily into:

1. Bahya, exterior and
2. Antar, Interior austerities.

Exterior austerities (bahya tapa):

By bahya, exterior or physical austerities, our physical nature is so controlled as to work out automatically towards the furtherance of the end in view whereas by the antaranga tapas or Interior or psychical austerities mind is so controlled as to help the jīva in getting an insight into the real nature of things with a view of attaining to a right knowledge thereof and their values as well without which right conduct on the part of the jīva becomes a rarity. And mind and body being found to act and react on each other through the principle of concomitance, the relative importance of both the forms of austerities is quite evident.

Now of the two kinds of tapas, the bahya, the exterior or the physical consists in the processes of controlling the physical nature of the jīva in six following ways.

(1) Anushan vrata, i.e., the vow of fasting. Importance of fasting from time to time to give the physical system a rest goes without saying in these days of scientific culture and refinement. It is said in the scripture that fasting purifies the sense-organs and adds to their sensibility so much so that it makes them to respond to a any fine and delicate vibration that might be set up in the outside.

(2) Unodori—Avoidance of full meals. It adds to the agility of the jīva. Full meals bring on slumber and laziness and are the causes of dyspepsia which is very difficult to get rid of.

(3) Vritti sankhepa—Dietetic restrictions which can be observed in different ways from the view-points of dravya, kshettra, kāla and swabhava. As for instance, I am in the habit of taking meals consisting of nine or ten kinds of eatables and to observe the vow of vriti sankhepa from the stand-point of dravya, I will have to reduce the number of the eatables, say, to five kinds making up the meal would take. Then again I may put in further restriction to the obtaining of the meal from certain quarter from the view-point of kshettra. Thirdly, I may put still further restriction to the time kal of my taking meals. I may take once a day and that again say by 3 p.m. every; day; and lastly, from the view-point of bhava, I may put still another restriction in obtaining food from people with certain peculiar mentality and position. I may take the vow of having meals only from the chaste and pure passers by whom I may happen to meet on to a certain destination.

(4) Rasatayaga—Renunciation of palatable articles or dainty dishes, such as a variety of sweets, milk, butter, sugar, salt and the like which may awaken in me a sense of attachment to the pleasures of life.

(5) Kdyaklesha—Endurance of physical troubles. A mumukshin must ever be ready to undergo all sorts of physical discomforts without, in the least, losing the equanimity of temper. He must take both heat and cold (shita and ushna) in the one and the same light. To realize this, he may undertake to practice meditation either in the scorching rays of the sun on an elevated seat in the summer or in a cold uncovered place in the winter.

(6) Samlinata—Turning the senses from their respective objects. This will develop the spirit of renunciation in the mumukshin jīva and strengthen his moral rectitude in such a manner as to make one look upon things most charming to the worldly as of no use and avail to him. This is how the senses, we are told, guarded against all temptations (ndriya samlinata). Then again the mumukshin must control the passions and their correlates, such as anger, deceit, pride and greed (kasaya samlinata) as well as his thought, speech and body (yoga samlinata). And lastly, there is the viviktacharya which means previous ascertainment by a mumukshin as to whether anyone of the opposite sex is there at the place of his future destination where he will be next going.

These are the six forms of exterior austerities (bahya tapa) for regulating and controlling the physical nature of the mumukshin jīva.

Interior austerities (antar tapa):

Besides, there are six interior austerities (antar tapa) of which the first is:

(1) Prayaschitta

Prayaschitta refers to penance and repentance for the blunders committed through pramad or negligence. It often takes the form of a moral confession to the spiritual guru, or to an other sadhu instead, of the sins and crimes one might have done through commission or omission with repentance and accept the penalty to be imposed on him by the guru and act according to the regulations as laid down in the scriptures and repeat every morning micchami dukkadami, i.e., may my sins be forgiven!

(2) Vinaya (Humility)

A mumukshin soul must also cultivate humility, for this serves to kill all pride and saturate the mind with sympathetic feelings. "Of vinaya there are four kinds:

(a) Jñṇa vinaya, i.e., to be humble and respectful to all who are superior in knowledge and wisdom.

(b) Darśan vinaya, i.e., to be humble and respectful to those who have gained a real insight into the metaphysics of things and thoughts.

(c) Charitra vinaya—to be humble and polite to the men having a good moral stamina by the virtue of which he follows a right course of conduct.

(d) Mana vinaya—to be always in a kind of mental attitude as to pay respect to all the saints and sages of the world who live for others, and therefore, worthy of our reverence.

(3) Vaiyāvritya (Service to humanity).

It takes a thousand and one forms in and through which the acquired dirt of karma is worked off. Vaiyāvritya consists chiefly in services rendered to ascetics; feeding the poor, sheltering the helpless and the like forms of social services. In these days of flood and famine, the sadhus of the Ramakrishna Mission have been, it is important to record, seriously engaging themselves in the performance of this vaiya-vritya. Viyavritya brings on chitta-suddhi or purification of the heart.

(4) Svādhyāya (study)

Here it refers to the study Jain scriptures: following the rules of conduct as laid down therein for practical guidance; testing for practical guidance; testing the truth and validity of the Jain metaphysical conclusions and being convinced of the same, preach them out to the world for the good of humanity in right earnest and energy. This clearly shows the evangelical spirit of Jainism.

(5) Vyutsarga

Vyutsarga refers to discrimination between the soul and the non-soul. It is just like the nityanitya vastu viveka of the Vedantists.

(6) Dhyana

Dhyana refers to meditation, contemplation or uniform unbroken concentration of mind upon something. To be more clear, dhyana is an unbroken thread of thought evolving out of continuous thinking on an object or an Idea. This dhyana has been classified into four kinds according to the object or idea whereon a jīva concentrates his attention; viz: (1) Arta, (2) Roudra, (3) Dharma and (4) Sukla.

(1) Arta Dhyana, it is the most intense hankering with attachment after an object of enjoyment revealing itself as it does in four forms namely.

(a) Ishta viyoga—constantly thinking of the loss of what was dear to him; grieving too much for the dead and the departed dear ones or wailing and beating breast in grief for the loss sustained.

(b) Anista Samyoga—to be constantly brooding over entering on a new relation with of something undesirable and unpleasant, and thereby gradually sinking into despondency as if no more hope were left to recast his lot.

(c) Roga chinta—to be constantly laboring under an anxiety for some physical malady, or in other words always thinking of the physical ill-health.

(d) Agrasocha or Nidanartha—to be occupied with the thought of the future only, that I will do this, then that, next the thing will as a natural consequence and I have my objective fulfilled.

It is important no note here by the way that Arta dhyana is possible between the 1st. mithyatva and the 6th gunasthan and leads

jīvas to take birth in the Tiryak goti.

(2) The second of the Dhyanas is Roudra dhyana which means to be absorbed in the thought of wreaking vengeance for some loss or damage one sustained through the action of another. This thought of wreaking vengeance (Roudra dhyana) expresses itself into four forms viz:

(a) Hisanubandhi,

(b) Mrishanubandhi,

(c) Steynubandhi,

(d) Samrakshanu bandhi.

Arta and Roudra Dhyanas always lead mind to concentrate its energies on things extra-organic. These instead of dissipating the karmic energetic rather keep the jīva under such influence as to acquire karma-matter subjecting it to the repetition of births and deaths in the different grades saṃsāra.

(3) But the third one, Dharma dhyana which means constant thinking of the ways and means to and following the same in practice for the realization of the true nature of our inward self, helps the jīva to work out its own karma. Dharma dhyana has been analyzed into four phases, namely:

(a) Agna vichaya—to have a firm faith and sincere belief in the metaphysical conclusions as arrived at by the omniscient kevalins and in their teachings.

(b) Apaya vichaya—the belief that what is non-self is not only laid to the real self, but constant thinking of the not-self enfetters the self.

(c) Vipaka vichaya—the belief that from the ontological point of view, thought the self is a positive entity all pure and free, but viewed from the phenomenal stand point, it appears to be otherwise owing to the eight kinds of karma loaded with which the jīva passes through births and deaths.

(d) Samsthan vichaya—mental ideation or picturing in the mind of the fourteen worlds as well as the nature of the constituent elements of the same as taught in the Jain philosophy.

(4) Sukla dhyana. Sukla lit. means white which is but a symbolic representation of purity when it follows that sukla dhyan is nothing else than thinking of the soul in all its purity, i.e., to be absorbed in the meditation of the transcendental nature of our inward self as constitutionally free and potentially divine.

Such being the import as understood by sukla dhyana it expresses in four forms viz:

(a) Pritvakatva Vitarka Sapravichara—consisting as it does in the ideation of the substance as characterized with origination, dissolution, continuation (utpada vyaya dhrouva yuktam sat) as well as in the discrimination between such pair of opposites as jīva and ajīva; guna and paryaya; swabhava and bibhava tending to the formation of the right knowledge of the soul as it is in itself. This attitude of the mind becomes manifest when the jīva is between the 8th and 11^thGunasthan.

(b) Ekatva vitarka apravichara-consists in thinking of the unity in difference between the pairs of opposites and thereby to arrive at the knowledge of unity admist at the knowledge of unity admits the diversity of things and thoughts. It appears to develop in the 12 Gunasthans.

(c) Sukshma kriya Pratipati—consists in continuous thinking and striving to resist the yogas of mind, speech and body in and through which karmic matter flow into the jīva. This dhyana is possible to a jīva in the thirteenth gunasthan.

(d) Vicchinna kriya apratipati—By this type of sukla dhyana which is the last and final of the dhyanas, helps the mumukshin soul to tear asunder for good the veil and covering which so long stood in the ways of the jīva' s realization of the true nature of itself. It is a kind of mental striving which becomes more and more intense as the days go by to realize the siddhahood of the jīva. To a jīva in the fourteenth gunasthan this dhyana is possible.

It is important to note that Arta and Roudra dhyanas engage the mind of him people moving up and down between the 1st and the 3rd gunasthanas: Dharmadhyana between 4th and 6th gunasthanas; sukla dhyana is possible to the jīvas entering on the 7th gunasthan and onwards.

Besides the above way of classifying the dhyanas, The Jain sages have also otherwise classified them into (1) Padastha, (2) Pindastha, (3) Rupastha and (4) Rupatita. To take the first,

(1) Padastha dhyana—is the continuous meditation on the nature of the Perfect souls, the kevalins or the Panch Paramesti.

(2) Pindastha dhyana—is to think that the self within is in reality of the same essence with those of the arihantas and the like.

(3) Rupashta dhyana—is to think or meditate in the manner that this our inward self is not of the nature of pudgala whereof our physical constitution is composed; for vision, knowledge and delight infinite constitute the very essence of our soul. Be it noted here that all these three dhyanas come within the range of Dharma dhyana discussed here in before.

(4) Rupatita dhyana—This is to think the soul within as superphysical, eternally free, pure, without parts and desire. Essentially it is intellectual delight revealing itself as it does in and through its four quarternary infinite technically know as the ananta chatustaya.

According to Jainism, it is how to destroy former karma by austerity (tapa). As a large tank, when its supply of water has been stopped, gradually dries up by the consumption of the water and by evaporation, so the karma; which is acquired in millions of births is annihilated by austerities, if there is on influx of bad karma.

Two types of Tapa (Summary)

In Jainism the tapas (austerities) are of two kinds: external. Again the external austerities are of six kinds:

(1) Anaśana–fasting;

(2) Avammdrika–abstinence: gradual reduction of food, from a full meal of thirty-two morsels to one of morsel;

(3) Bhikṣācārya–collection alms;

(4) Rasaparityāga–abstention from dainty food;

(5) Kāyakleśa–mortification of the flesh;

(6) Samlinata–taking care of one’s limbs.^[1]

Then the internal austerities are also of six kinds:

(1) Prāyascitta–expiation of sins;

(2) Vinaya–politeness: it consists in rising from one’s seat, folding of the hands, offering of a seat, loving the Guru and cordial obedience;

(3) Vaiyavaritya–serving the Guru: doing service consists in giving one’s assistance as well as one is able.

(4) Svadhyaya–a study: it is fivefold: (a) saying or learning one’s lesson, (b) questioning the teacher about it, (c) repetition, (d) pondering and (e) religious discourse.

(5) Dhyāna–meditation: Abstaining to meditate on painful and sinful things, one should, with a collected mind, engage in pure meditations on the law; this is the wise call meditation.

(6) Vyutsarga–abandoning of the body: If a monk remains motionless when lying down, sitting or standing up right, this called abandoning of the body.

According to Jainism, the two types of tapas (austerities) should be practiced to destroy the karma that was acquired by love and hatred. If a sage truly performs these two kinds of austerities, he will soon by thoroughly release from the circle births.^[2]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Jain sutra 2-2, p. 175

[2]:

Jain sutra 2-2, p. 175