Mental Attitude (Leshya)
In the Jainism, there is a great deal of importance given to the leshya. A leshya refers to the state of mind, mental attitude. Our activities reflect our attitude. The following illustration shows how our activities vary with the states of our attitude.
Once there were six friends, who were going on a trip. Along the way, they got lost in a forest. After a while they were hungry and thirsty. They searched for the food for sometime, and finally found a fruit tree.
As they ran to the tree, the first man said, "Let�s cut the tree down and get the fruit." The second one said, "Don�t cut the whole tree down, cut off a big branch instead." The third friend said, "Why do we need a big branch? A small branch has enough fruit." The fourth one said, "We do not need to cut the branches, let us just climb up and get the bunches of the fruit." The fifth man said, "Why pick those many fruit and waste them, instead just pick the fruit that we need to eat." The sixth friend said quietly, "There are plenty of good fruit on the ground, so let�s just eat them first."
You can see that the states of minds of these six friends caused a range of thoughts that begin with the destruction of the entire tree and ended with the picking up of the fruits on the ground. The six friends� minds represent six types of leshyas.
Description
In the Jainism, there is a great deal of importance given to the leshya. A leshya refers to the state of mind, mental attitude. Our activities reflect our attitude. The following illustration shows how our activities vary with the states of our attitude.
Once there were six friends, who were going on a trip. Along the way, they got lost in a forest. After a while they were hungry and thirsty. They searched for the food for sometime, and finally found a fruit tree.
As they ran to the tree, the first man said, "Let’s cut the tree down and get the fruit." The second one said, "Don’t cut the whole tree down, cut off a big branch instead." The third friend said, "Why do we need a big branch? A small branch has enough fruit." The fourth one said, "We do not need to cut the branches, let us just climb up and get the bunches of the fruit." The fifth man said, "Why pick those many fruit and waste them, instead just pick the fruit that we need to eat." The sixth friend said quietly, "There are plenty of good fruit on the ground, so let’s just eat them first."
You can see that the states of minds of these six friends caused a range of thoughts that begin with the destruction of the entire tree and ended with the picking up of the fruits on the ground. The six friends’ minds represent six types of leshyas.
The first friend’s state of mind represents krishna (black) leshya.
The second friend’s state of mind represents neel (blue) leshya.
The third friend’s state of mind represents kapot (brown) leshya.
The fourth friend’s state of mind represents tejo (red) leshya.
The fifth friend’s state of mind represents padma (yellow) leshya.
The sixth friend’s state of mind represents shukla (white) leshya.
The first leshya is the worst and the sixth leshya is the best. The first three leshyas lead the soul to ruin, and the last three lead the soul to the spiritual prosperity. We know that our minds run into different states all the times for the better or for the worst. Therefore, we should strive for the white leshya, and not the red leshya. The story of King Prasenjit, who lived during Lord Mahavira’s time, illustrates how fast the surrounding can effect our mind and in turn our leshyas as well as our spiritual progress.
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