Selected 100 Letters by Shrimad Rajchandraji

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra,
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Prabhavak Trust Hubli
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/007693/1

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS Written By Shrimad Rajchandra To His disciples on Self Realisation and Liberation of Soul Translated from Original Gujarati to English by Late Sri Dinubhai Muljibhai Patel Retired Professor of Philosophy Elphinstone College Mumbai - 400 032

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First Edition : 500 PREFACE Cost Price : 50-00 Sale Price : 20-00 Copy Right: Reserved We are extremely happy to present this book of selected 100 letters written by Shrimad Rajchandra the great saint to his disciples originally in Gujarati in the book "Shrimad Rajchandra These letters were translated in English by late Shri Dinubhai M.Patel, retired professor of philosophy, Elphinstone college, Mumbai as mark of his utmost devotion towards Param Krapaludev "Shrimad Rajchandra." He was greatly influenced by coming in contact with Late Param Poojya Shri Brahmachariji Govardhandasji. Shri Dinubhai M. Patel also translated Bhawana Bodh, Mokshmala and Jeevankala in English which were published earlier. It was keen desire of late Shri Otarmalji K. Satiya the founder of Shrimad Rajchandra Prabhavak Trust that entire literature of Shrimad Rajchandra may be made available in English to the whole world. This book of Selected 100 letters will be a step in that direction. It is very difficult to translate religious Gujarati words which donot have proper English words with exact meaning. Therefore English text may convey the nearest meaning of the original Gujarati text. This text has been reviewed by Mrs. Neetu C. Jain C.A. who has helped in improving the text. We hope this book will be useful to all English knowing people to understand the philosophy of Shrimad Rajchandra which will lead them to the path of liberation of Published by: Shrimad Rajchandra Prabhavak Trust 31, First Floor, Akkipet Main Road, Bangalore-560 053. Umagchi Bldg. Second Floor, Belgaum Galli, Hubli- 580 028. A Religious Book Please deal with all humility while reading this book. Neither blot it. nor tear it, nor put it on the ground nor read it while smoking. Ladies should avoid reading this book during menstruation. Soul. Publishers

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Table of Contents SI.No. Letter No. Title Page No 1. 37 Salutation to Lord Parshvanath to Show the world as best. Infinite bondage of anger Infinite bondage of honour 10 Salutations to great non-attached saints action is material Do not search for any other thing. One whose mind is engrossed without any hindrance in the real self Dear brother, this much you should do necessarily To one who wants to speak less with proper understanding Discrimination cannot be in a state of infatuation First anniversary (Samvatsari) and till that day. At partial stages of strong desire for liberation five traits of Samyakdasha or right state of mind. Keep on Practising the following. 17 11 143 23

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SI.No. Letter No. Title Page No SI.No. Letter No. Title Page No 12 147 18 195 - 34 Without single mindedness in following the teachings of one's spiritual preceptor. O Lord! In this Kaliyuga (time) The nature of Kaliyuga adverse (time) 13 163 19. 200 14 166 Well wishing sentences... In every saying of the upright saint. 20 207 15 172 21 209 The firm belief of the devotee of truth- The ordinary man does not know who he really is and this is his condition from time immemorial. One who wrongly believes as to what he really is. The disciple who has a strong aspiration for true guidance for self liberation, gets the right preceptor who puts him on the right path to liberation. A series of sayings indicating that the living self has forgotten his true nature. Difficult self effort Right "Religion and Right Knowledge-Some type of activity. The highest reality described or called by infinite names. The great saints in their various expressions have ultimately manifested the same highest reality or truth. Truth is not at all far or away from us. Salutations to that truth. Desire or search for getting the truth - and the acquaintance of the right preceptor as the fruit of that strong desire of aspiration for the truth getting. These times are very obstructive to a spiritual aspirant for liberation Therefore, the highest means for liberation namely the acquaintance of the living self-realised soul is very difficult to achieve in these 16 183 30 22 211 40 23 212 41 Salutations at all three stages of time to one's true form or nature as you incarnate without any difference or sense of separation. The embodied migrating self has not yet realized its true unprecented permanent self. The living self has not obtained the real road to his liberation. Why ? Salutations to the self's indifferentiated true form and this feeling of the real self is always freely moving 17. 194 24 249 43 VII

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SI.No. 25 26 27. 28 29 30 31 Letter No. 254 262 271 273 299 331 334 Title obstructive times. Therefore one should keep constantly in touch of the sayings of the great saints, and this could lead one to the right path of liberation. Fearlessness is born of undoubtedness the biggest fault of man is that he gets stuck in the belief that the religion of his family is correct. Living beings in this world desiring contact of spiritually advanced saints are three categories. Only one real self is worth knowing or keeping contact with. Acquaintance of the right spiritual saint in this kaliyuga or obstructive bad present times, can be had by braving illimitable hardships. Adopt any means either incantation, religious activity or reading religions scriptures So long as one is finding pleasure and happiness in the worldly activities he cannot find his self within him, and where he believes in the truth of the sayings of the saints he should try to transform the affection to the unworldly. Letter to Shri Subhagya who is like my heart. The ultimate aim of all Page No 45 49 51 52 52 53 53 VIII SI.No. 322 333 34 35 36 Letter No. 347 373 384 403 416 37 432 Title contacts should be the contact of one's true self. A person even in embodied state can be a truly nonattached soul. Page No 55 Towards Shri Subhagya who is an embodiment of rest of my heart as self. Here mostly in my self same state I experience constant natural meditation or Samadhi, Even the free mind finds bondage in the contact with truly realised saints. All this happens because of the mind some of our sayings may result in 57 the best reward namely self realization or liberation. The Kaliyuga is called difficult time because in it all living beings strive 58 for securing the objects of their five senses and they continuously keep on desiring to obtain them. If in these times, one is found free from such hankerings, he should be regarded an second Shri Rama. By whichever way our living soul 59 may realise its true nature i.e. self. Many kinds of Meditation the best kind of meditation. Three great defects of 60 a living being and of these three, swachhand is the greatest defect. For taking one's soul away from all non-self activities. 62 IX

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SI.No. Letter No. Title Page No Si.No. Letter No. Title Page No 38 436 44 486 45. 491 39 437 46. 504 40 438 Equanimity, joyfulness, constantly 63 thinking of higher stages of one's soul, Thinking of Tirthankar, doting on tirthankara's sayings, remembering and desiring to follow the spiritual guidance given by the Tirthankara and the addresses and instructions given by the Tirthankara for our spiritual progress. In this world only the soul in its human embodied condition can think 04 of the pure self and it can be described to some extent in speech. Equanimity, Joyfulness, constantly thinking of higher stages of one's own soul meaning of all three qualities. Definition of the soul's duty, Shri Tirthankara says that to substance called Jiva in a this world. If the living soul wants to enjoy worldly life with clear affection then. Oy He should consider physical or zu bodily pain as the nature of the physical body and then he should settle his intellect into the resort to the all-knowing saint and thereby become fearless. He should confirm that he has obtained the right religion from his all - knowing preceptor and also feel the teachings of such a preceptor as satisfying. Tirthankara Bhagavan calls sloth 76 and idleness as karma. Tirthankara repeatedly advises the 77 afflicted worldly people to realise that on getting the human birth they shall certainly try to realise liberation that all four categories of souls birth are fraught with danger and that ignorance cannot lead them to proper discrimination. I am engaged in mental, bodily and 79 speaking activities more than I would like. Even if one correctly knows the all knowing saint directly facing him, such knowledge is very beneficial to him. If we know the all- knower then we should address him as such. The binding modifications of our 81 mind should be completely silenced and one should learn the method of doing so. Whatever efforts this living soul has 82 made in his previous life to obtain liberation are seen to have not been made under advice of a right allknowing preceptor. If that had been done then he would already have been liberated by now. Just as water by nature cool, adopts 86 heat in contact with fire, similarly the living self, by nature free, adopts 47. 510 41 454 460 48. 511 43 466 49. 516 XI

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SI.No. 50. 522 51 52 53 54. Letter No. 55 534 537 539 560 Title Page No bondage of actions by contact Lord Mahaveer Swami while leading worldly life knew firmly well the futility of worldly life. The living being after recognising the 88 all-knowing saint can see that his binding actions gradually get loosened but due to ignorance of one type or another he does not follow his preceptors advice and so he does not get liberation. The living being has missed its 90 direction under the strong influence of infatuation (Maya) The thoughtful soul desirous of liberation is confounded by 92 ignorance of the soul's true nature and also by variety of different objects of perception and under these maleficent influences, it feels like continuing in the condition of stupor. All living beings are same from the standpoint of their all knowing selves. 94 O living being! Try to see your real 95 self by fixing your internal sight on it. This is the invitation to the worldly soul who has acquired right perception and right behaviour. If you have acquired the contact of a 96 right religious all knowing preceptor, then all right means for liberation are XII SI.No. 56. 568 57 58. 59 60 Letter No. 61 569 570 575 588 593 Title Page No easily available to you. Therefore first wish for the right but most difficult way of liberation. This living being has from the 97 beginning of limitless time made a mistake of misunderstanding timing its real nature. It is here that the truth telling by Jin Bhagavan can be positively effective in removing this basic misunderstanding. Self knowledge is the only and sole 99 means for achieving liberation from all afflictions and miseries. As you go on renouncing the 103 unnecessary adjuncts you experience real happiness and ease which can be called the happiness experienced in Samadhi or right resolve of the true nature of the self. In this process you gain discriminative knowledge or right vision. This should go on till your real self 105 illuminates you completely. Shri Jin non-attached Saint has 106 repeatedly advised his disciples to be free from the contact of the living selves with physical matter and mental aspirations. By this process of liberation your self 107 will regain its original nature of ease and permanent stability. This is the XIII

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SI.No. Letter No. 22 63 64 65 609 613 622 677 Title sum total of all knowledge and it is the dissolution of all knots that find the soul in the form of steep ignorance of one's own nature and consequent experience of stupor and infatuation of bonds of maya resulting in Kama, Krodha etc. In following this process one gains valour and victory over the not-self. Page No The Jin Saint's Sayings advising the worldly soul to seek the shelter of the path of liberation advocated by him. The living soul by seeking this shelter begins to live as his true self and this is liberation. 108 The very faulty understanding and consequent wrong behaviour which 112 brought the living soul into the unending cyclic rotation of innumerable births and deaths. The second type of special meaning of the unending binding knots of the 113 living soul. The all knowing saints don't try to abridge their instructions to their disciples. They feel like so doing only when they feel that the spiritual preparedness of the hearer has not come to the stage of his full faith in the truth of these sayings or when the hearer feels that he knows all what is said by these all knowing saints or when they feel that the 114 XIV Sl.No. Letter No. 66. 67 68 69 71 692 72. 693 702 70 728 719 751 771 Title Page No hearer is slow and slothful in implementing the all knowing saints instruction for his spiritual welfare. The human birth is very difficult to 116 obtain. One who feels he is a friend of death 117 or one who can successfully run away from death or one who feels he would never meet with death such a person may sleep in peace. Thinking or reflecting spiritual 119 aspirants behave as if their death is very near them and this they carry on their life till they attain the condition of Kevaltatva or state of absolute existence unfettered by any bondage. How should a spiritual aspirant 121 repeatedly read and grasp the meaning of Atma Siddhi? Who can rightly appreciate the spiritual knowledge contained in Atmasiddhi Shastra ? All embodied living souls experience 123 their shelterlessness when they are facing death. Three kinds of right understanding 124 (Samkita) are mentioned in Atmasiddhi Shastra. Any of the above stated three kinds 125 of right understanding can effectively XV

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SI.No. Letter No. Title Page No Sl.No. Letter No. Title Page No 80 810 73. 779 74 780 81 813 75. 781 76. 783 lead a living being to his ultmate goal of self realisation either in the same life or in two or three births or at last after fifteen births, The pure self is quite unaffected by 127 any other distinctive differences. One who has no feeling of 128 attachment or hatred towards any other being or thing in his environment is a great saintly soul and all our salutations to him time and again. Description of the state of the 129 highest self. One who regards gold as filth. The state of spiritual aspirant Shri 131 Sobhag bhai and his wonderful determination to follow the path of liberation chalked out by the enlightened saints of the past. All living beings desire happiness and ease. The all knowing saint approves all 133 stages of a spiritual pilgrim for liberation starting from a desire for general welfare to the ultimate stage of feelinglessness of the pure self. Salutations to the unfathomable and 134 obtainable with great effort the restraint of the great religious saints. The spiritual contact of the 135 disinterestedly devotional saints. XVI Whatever is impermanent from the 135 highest philosophical point of view, becomes the source of affection and attachment to a living soul. Why does it so happen, is worth reflecting about. The difference between worldly viewpoint and the all knower's view point is like that between the east and the west. In the higher stages of spiritual 136 progress the aspirant many a time is shaken by his long standing and attracting worldly emotional aspirations. In these difficult times, the spiritual aspirant should plod ahead like a brave soldier and work for progress setting aside his dejection and sloth. He should repeatedly read spiritual texts and keep contact with instructions of spiritual saints and enjoin undaunted faith and devotion to what they say. He should read Yogdrishtisamuchaya. The path of the great spiritual saints 137 is that of turning one's soul to his internal self. One should not allow dejection to 137 overpower him and on the contrary he should boldly follow the instructions of spiritual saints. Without equanimity we too cannot 138 advise unfetteredness. XVI 77. 785 82. 816 83 819 78 808 79.809 84 823

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Title Page No SI.No. Letter No. Title Page No SI.No. Letter No. 85826 93. 901 86 832 87 833 94. 913 88 843 95. 915 spiritual master and certified by their own self - experience. The serial order of this fundamental path. The spiritual guide is the Lord of 146 other saints and he possesses very high spiritual merits of mastering spiritual discipline necessary for self realisation. All worldly souls experience some 147 ease and some difficulties and afflictions and pain arising from them due to their own actions good and bad. The valiant spiritual soldiers fought 149 more forcefully and more enthusiastically against their internal enemies in the form of attachment, anger honour, infatuation, ignorance etc., and came out victorious in the battle and realised the stability in their own permanent selves. They liberated themselves and opened for the whole world the royal road to liberation of all worldly souls. Rightly viewing, this living body is the 151 idol of pain and misery. Where the material, place, time and mental state are all favourable the 152 path of liberation becomes simple and surely fordable. This is the fine road for automatic extinction of binding actions. 89 Every living being should keep in 138 touch with the divinely revealed saints and follow them scrupulously. The main obstruction to spiritual progress is the souls indecision. Your real self is self illuminated and 138 illuminates all other things. Those who are unattached to all 139 objects and all areas of space and are well settled in their real or true selves deserve our salutations. The path successfully followed by the highly spiritualised non attached 141 saints is the path of self realisation. It should be accepted and adopted by all. The strength of strong desire for right 143 liberating knowledge, the strength of good thinking or reflecting power, and the strength of one's adoption of complete non-attachment to all worldly aspiration or acquisitions. The highest achievement of a living 143 being is to realise his true self it is called Dravyanuyoga. Ultimately one has to know and be in his true permanent all illuminating self. Oh! How wonderfully effective are 144 the nectarlike teaching of the great unattached self realised saints ! Though inscrutable this simple path 145 of liberation prescribed by the XVII 856 90866 96 927 97 937 91 875 92 887 XIX

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Sl.No. Letter No. Title Page No 98 943 154 99. 944 155 100 949 One, should every day experience highest retirement from all worldly activities. Instruction about the study of Yoga shastra. Under the influence of infatuation, a living being has made all efforts to harm himself. One whose standard of successful life is the approval of worldly people, whatever wealth, power or position or acquisition of large family and groups of friends he acquires he should realise that all these acquisitions are the source of his utter unhappiness and endless misery 156

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OM The Greatest philosopher Shrimad Rajchandra His nectarlike Teachings / Sayings 1(37) Mumbai Port Aasovad Second Thursday V.S. 1944 Salutations to Lord Parshvantha - The Great Soul Dear Satyabhilashi Ujamsibhai at Rajnagar I received your handwritten letter yesterday evening. I am especially pleased and satisfied, by your philosophical inquisitiveness. One has much tried to show to the world as the best for infinity of times. But nothing really good has resulted therefrom. Because inspite of these efforts of showing this world in its best form, cyclic rotation of living beings and causes of the same are still remaining. Therefore even if one life is spent or utilised for the good of this living soul then such an effort will well reward the highest good of the living soul irrespective of the misuse of interminable previous endless series of its births and deaths. This is my humble

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS understanding and all my effort is directed to this end. I strongly hold to adopt all means or instruments as best for me that can help me to be free from this great bondage. Therefore why should I at all consider what is agreeable or disagreeable to this worldly opinion? Let the world say as it likes, but if I feel that my soul world be free from all it fetters or bondage and would attain to a state of right understanding (Samadhi Dasha) by adopting some means, then it is my duty to adopt the said means and attain there by the high state of my soul. By accepting this way of thinking one can be free from all consideration of fame or defame for all time. At present whatever he and men of his thinking following him, say about me or opine about me, is already known to me and the matter is in my memory but I try to forget them all together and that is quite good for me. You remain fearless about it. If any person tells you something degrading or praising me you only patiently and quietly hear it and keep quiet and do not feel either sorry or pleased at hearing the same. Remember that the person whom you strongly love with honour and high regard, is following as his guru the great Jineshwar the greatest of the spiritual yogis such as Parshwanath and the rest. So as far as possible become free from moha or infatuation and cultivate a strong desire to be totally free from all worldly considerations. Do not imagine anything about the nature of life or perfection of life. To keep your mind, speech and activity faultless and forget all worldly opinion about it. You constantly remember the state of life of the great masters such as Parshwanath and other who were master yogis. Try to become a yogi like them. This is my repeated instruction to you coupled with my blessings. This little knowing soul of mine desires to achieve the state that was enjoyed by the above said spiritual masters, and is humbly and constantly engrossed in the devotion to the lotus like feet of these great masters and so he instructs you to be similar to him. Whatever lord Mahavira has stated by his own experience about the nature of Dravya - Matter and self sphere or space, time and mental aspiration or Bhava, is perfectly correct and true and so do not forget it. In case you have opposed or insulted in any way the teachings of these great masters, repent for it and humbly request the said masters to forgive you for the same. From the stand point of the present time, dedicate devotionally your mind, speech and body in the lap of this great master Lord Mahavira from the bottom of your real self, and this is the only path to your liberation. Forget all your faith about all different world religions, also forget all your ideas about the Jain religion. Only direct your mind to settle in the spiritual characters of these great saints namely Parshwanath and the rest and Lord Mahavira. Do not feel sorry or pleased for this person accepted by you as your elder adviser. He only desires to be free from all thoughts about the world in all ideas and their opposites. He has nothing to do with this strange world and its everchanging quixotic

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS further, religious striving consists in serving the lotus like feet of the great religious saintly master. This also, I must stress to you for your benefit. opinions. Therefore whatever they think about me or say about me, I do not direct my mind to consider them at all. Whatever minute atoms I have collected from this world I wish to turn them to it gradually and to be free from its obligation and debt and this is my highest desire, always useful to me, always dear to me and the best one. Besides I do not know any thing nor do I ask for or desire anything else. I move in this life as per the fruits of my previous births deeds. Try to understand this and enjoy perfect satisfaction by understanding me thus. Please keep this as quite secret. It is not necessary to show to this world how and what do we believe or how and why do we act one way or another. What is necessary is only to ask our inner self that should it desire liberation, it must leave aside all imaginary ideas and doubts etc., all attachments and hatreds and if in doing so it has any obstruction then it should clearly say it to you, By this way your self will accept your desire to be free and so it will abandon all what you do not want. Keep all what you call yours in the atmosphere of the real self. Try to meditate on this religion. It is not proper to feel pleased or pained about any worldly objects like relatives, family members and friends. Our all accepted religion is to strongly desire for perfect and highest peace and by constantly desiring it, you will surely achieve it. Therefore be assured of what I have said here. I am not in any of the Jain religious sects. I am only in my own spiritual self. Never forget this. One who utilizes his living body only for religious purposes and tries to maintan it only for this purpose, is doing so only for the maintenance and development of this religion of self realization. - Respects from Rayachandra My only religion is to be free from attachment and hatred by whatever way I can and it is this religion I advise you to follow. When we meet in person. I shall try to show you the method of being free from all attachment and hatred. Therefore what I have stated above is the real religion and try to adopt it in your day to day life. To constantly remember this religion and to strive to succeed in realizing it, is the real Sadhana or progressive religious development. Still

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS 2 (47) Vavania Port Maha Sudi Fourteenth Wednesday, V.S 1945 Salutations to spiritual Saints These seven knots have overpowered this illuminated self and so the living being has moved towards outward acquisitions and solution of external problems and with such series of experiences it has not been able to turn its gaze inwards towards its illuminated self. The right thing is well-deservedness. But I have the reason to be happy that I became instrumental in helping you to destroy or quell down the said obstructions by the right advice of the great spiritual saints administering the Jain religion. I received their blessings and I directed them for helping you to destroy your knots and clear the path of your liberation. This way I feel joyous that I shall be blessed more and more by these great spiritual masters. Whatever the enlightened say is always the truth. Wise, You must have received my letter. I reflected on the contents of your letter. I feel the change in your mental attitude is benefial to your self development. Right understanding of the self is not possible till seven forms of obstructive nature in a human being such as interminable anger, interminable sense of honour or self praise, interminable infatuation (Maya) and interminable greed - these four plus false sense of self, Mishra Mohini - faulty appreciation of truth and untruth, and faulty appreciation of the right and the true; in all, these seven obstructions are not gradually diminished or silenced or destroyed or negated completely. The rise of right understanding of the real self is graded with the gradual elimination of these above described seven obstructive mental attitudes or trends. To destroy these seven knots is almost a difficult task. One whose above stated seven knots are destroyed can easily obtain his self. All philosopher saints have advised the destruction of these seven knots. Any living soul who will attend to destroying these seven knots, hindering self illumination with assidous effort, will assuredly and undoubtedly attain his illuminated self. In this cyclic rotation of the world, at no time in the past, did one realize the value of devotion to these spiritual Lords, nor did one have an opportunity to rightly recognize, respect and follow the great spiritual saints, nor did one study their scriptural teachings. If these were obtained by the living soul, then his condition would be quite different from what is found to-day. But now, one should believe that the morning starts from the time one is awake, and so without feeling dejected towards what one could not do for his self advantage in his endless past, he should from the moment of his right understanding, start to follow the teachings of the great spiritual masters and attain thereby his self illumination. This is the only way to succeed in liberation, by turning the failures of innumerable past lives into the opportunities for successful self realization in the present life, beginning from the dawn of right understanding.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS occur, will never occur. Then why should one be slothful or indifferent in his right religious effort at self illumination? Though this is a fact, one should also consider the country, time, merit and mental aspiration. In the past this could not happen because one could not get the guidance of the right preceptor and partly because of his unpreparedness for contacting the right preceptor for self illumination. Therefore one should seek the right preceptor and falling at his lotuslike feet, follow his guidance and bring peace to his troubled soul afflicted by worldly aspirations. This is what one should do to make his present birth successful. To this end your intellect has now turned and it is really your good fortune. I bless you for success in it. May the Yogic power of spiritual masters, bring the welfare of the whole world. Wishing this and requesting you to address to me your reply by return of post, I close this letter. My salutations to the series of unattached saints. Respects from Religion has remained a great secret and it cannot be revealed by external research. By unique self-reflection or self search, religion can be discovered and this one takes to, only by the grace of a great spiritual preceptor. - Raichand Ravajibhai I stop expressing my hearty appreciation towards the changed attitude of your thinking with proper reason. Please meet Chi. Dayaljibhai and let me know what he says. Now a days I feel tired at writing and so I cannot write even one eighth of what I have in mind to reply to you. Please keep in mind my following instruction in the end. The spiritual saints do not try to suffer infinite unhappiness of infinite births and deaths for the sake of limited happiness of only one human birth. The religion of Syadvada - Probability, also admits that what is ordained will surely happen and what is not to

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 3 (55) 10 Vavania, Falgun Sud Nineth, Sunday, V.S. 1945 Salutations to Non-attached great saints Karma is a material entity. To the extent the living soul keeps contact with karma, the living soul becomes different from the real self and becomes influenced by ignorance. This is undersood by my experience. How wonderful it is that karma being material by nature, it tries to demonstrate the sentient soul as insentient. Sentient soul forgetting its sentience, believes that it is insentient karmas. It is quite reasonable to hold that the human beings who do not regard the contact of karma with the sentient self as the real nature of self and suffer these contacts due to previous deeds of the living soul, to be free from them for ever, will surely realize their pure selves in a gradual high order. True reason to say this is that it has so happened in the past, it so happens in present times and it will exactly happen so in all times to come in future. Any living soul, while suffering the fructified karmas, will enter the serial order of equanimity and 11 SELECTED 100 LETTERS will become free from all binding actions and will realize his pure conscious self. The living soul will act humbly and respectfully, will experience simplicity and lowliness, taking shelter, falling at the feet of a spiritual saint and will finally achieve the stage of spiritual development that is reached by his spiritual master or guru. In the endless past, either a living being has not acquired proper spiritual qualification or has not been able to contact the appropriate spiritual guide who combines in him the quality of being a spiritual saint capable of highly spiritual contacts and at the same time capable of proper verbal guidance. If he meets a proper spiritual guide, it is certain as day light that such a soul would easily obtain self realization or liberation. This way only the already self realized Siddhas are known to have flourished on earth. All scriptures admit this fact and you are advised to reflect on it. What I have said here is true in all the three stages of time in the past, present and future. ***

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 4 (76) 12 Mumbai, Aso Vad Tenth, Saturday, V.S. 1945. Do not search for anything else. Only you search for a true spiritual saint and when you get him, surrender to him with all humility to his command, offer all your mental trends to his lotus like feet and scrupulously follow his guidance. If after doing this you do not achieve liberation then demand it from me and you will surely get it. A spiritual guide is one who always lives in his true self. Whatever he says, is ripe with self-experience, though it may not have been said by any scripture or it may not have been heard from any other source. Such a spiritual guide's internal activity is without any expectation or desire. Or else it is indescribable and you will never attain liberation without following what I have said above. Take this as a standard instruction based on my own experience. If you spend your whole life in propitiating a right spiritual guide or saint, pleasing him by all devotional ways and praising him by all possible words then take it from me that you will gain liberation in the best of fifteen successive lives. - Respects from Raichandra 13 5 (80) SELECTED 100 LETTERS V.S. 1945 May that powerful spiritual man be always victorious whose mind moved where it lists, whose thoughts and doubts have slowed down, who has sprouted in him the seeds of non-attachment to end all worldly consideration, who has destroyed all root causes of conflict and afflictions, who walks on the path of single-minded devotion to the real self while accommodating all various differing points of view, whose mind treads always on a purely single and sure path to self realization. We should try to be a person like the one described above. *** 6 (84) Dear brother, this much you should essentially do : 1. The thinking one is sitting in your living body. Is it quite different in nature from your body? Is it happy or full of misery? Try to take care of that thinking reflecting self. V.S. 1946 2. You may feel unhappy and pained and you will clearly see the causes of that unhappiness and misery. In case you do not see these causes then read some of my letters to you and you will approve of what I say. The

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS only remedy to remove those causes of unhappiness is to become indifferent to all these internal or external causes of unhappiness. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 14 8. You can remain aloof from all these miseries and their causes and you can experience such a state of total indifference or aloofness and this I state on oath. For such a state of indifference, it is necessary to abandon all contacts of all kinds. It is also necessary to seek the shelter of the lotus like feet of a nonattached spiritual guide or master. First you decide to always maintain the same reverence and respect throughout life since the time you fall at the feet of your spiritual guide. If you feel your previous deeds are very powerfully obstructing you in doing so, then you do not renounce the world, but you shift your living to another convenient place or area but do not forget for a moment your spiritual objective. At first by whatever means you know your life. To know it, will help you in your future meditation. At present do not fall prey to sloth or idleness. Really speaking not to know your real self is itself ignorance, idleness or sloth. Mentally utilize your life span in thinking of achieving your enlightened self. Life is very short, adjuncts obstructing your path of liberation are many and strongly opposing you, and they do not allow you to renounce the world, then in 15 these condition you constantly and repeatedly remember the following points : Cherish always a strong desire to achieve selfenlightenment. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. SELECTED 100 LETTERS 9. Consider worldly life as bondage. Go on following a good religion and observe your duties believing that you do not carry with you the burden of your past births deeds. In spite of this attitude if the past deeds harm you, then bear them without any worry or anxiety. Try to take care of your real self infinitely more time than the care you take of your physical living body because you wish to nullify the evil effects of all your previous births in only one present life. If this is unavailing, be committed. From all these ways whatever you can follow do it in the best way possible. Try to think result orientedly. Behave as if you are not answerable to any living being except to your spiritual guide. Do not overlook the final result of all you do. Always remember your ultimate goal of liberation. This is my only recommendation and that is proper religion.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 7 (85) Mumbai, V-S 1946 One who understands and speaks less has hardly an occasion to repent. 16 O lord! I would have preferred the suffering in the worst of the seventh hell to this infatuation of this worldly life. If you feel sorrow in the suffering of fructification of your past deeds, you should also bear in mind as to whether your new deeds are not so binding? If you wish to know your self, you should keep contact with it and leave contact with all that is (not-self) others. All who desire their materialistic greatness are lower to that degree. Be devoted to the spiritually renowned person, remember him always, recite his virtues and reflect upon them. 8 (112) Mumbai, Chaitra V.S. 1946 You cannot expect discrimination when you are in a state of infatuation. Otherwise discrimination applied to determine the truth is quite good. Keep very minute observation. Let truth be always truth. Say only what you can do. Do not hide your incapacity or any impossibility. Be single minded or attached to only one thing. Keep fixed faith in any well established order. The nonattached Vardhaman Mahavir has rightly said it. 1. 2. 3. 4. 17 5. 6. 7. SELECTED 100 LETTERS O Self! come to your original state. Where should I tell this unhappiness? and how should I avoid it ? The living self is its own enemy. How true is this strange fact ! 9 (128) Vavania, First Bhadrapad Sud Sixth, V.S. 1946 Brothers desirous of religious life! Please forgive me if on the first Samvatsari (anniversary) and till that day my behaviour towards you in the form of my mind, body or speech may have been impolite, immodest, injurious or harmful, disturbing your concentration or meditation. I beg repeatedly your pardon. By reflecting with my spiritual internal knowledge, I do not see or remember any time when this self may not have roamed about or when this soul may not have indulged in thinking and desiring many objects and thereby may have missed concentrating or meditation of the self's real nature. I constantly remember this matter and it helps in leading me to great renunciation or non-attachment. Besides I think as to why did my soul not get upset or experience a feeling of avoidance of such thinking when it roamed about at its whim? Why did I not know that it was wrong and bad to get angry with someone, or to behave with others with pride and false sense of honour or when I was

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 18 19 SELECTED 100 LETTERS infatuated or lost in attraction towards many persons or things or in behaving with greed or in any such other manner ? That means that I should have known these activities as they really were and still I did not know all this and this develops in me my non attachment towards all these cyclic rotational experiences. Besides I remember that the fact that I continued to live after losing my wife and children without whom I had felt that I would die in many of my previous lives, is itself a matter of great surprise. This means that whatever love I showed towards these attractive objects of pleasure was really misplaced and a matter of clear misunderstanding and ignorance meaning all this and similar behaviour was only a figment of my wild imagination and not factually correct. When I repeatedly ask myself as to why I was attracted towards and affectionate to these objects and the more I ask these questions to my living soul, the more I am turned towards non attachment. Besides one about whom I had strong hatred and for whom I had vowed that I would never like to see their faces nor would I accept them as mine any time in future, I took births in these people's houses, either as a son, or as a wife, or as a servant or as a maid servant or even as a small insect. Why did this happen this way? It means that because of this hatred towards these objects I was forced to be born and stay with them in one form or another, Tell me would I not feel a sense of contempt towards such love and hatred ? Of course I would and do feel so. What more need I say about this matter! All these past wanderings of my living soul and their futility make me reflect as to how should I mould my life so that I may not have to suffer similar trials and tribulation in future. I now strongly and firmly feel that I should not repeat my past mistakes but still I face some helplessness in some of these matters. Though I am firm about not repeatedly taking births and facing deaths, I feel that I should steady their firmness and behave as I now feel right. I have to remove all obstructions and obstacles in my way of this new life, and this takes some time and my precious life gets diminished. And how should I act that my time may not be wasted in removing the said obstacles and before I breathe my last I must achieve success in my spiritual journey to liberation? Suppose I start acting this new way then my problem is to find out the appropriate religious place where I can go and stay, carrying out my spiritual objective. Besides my other problem is to find out the presence of such spiritually advanced masters, under whose guidance I may fulfil my goal. Under these circumstances what should I do? I now decide that I must proceed to work on my chalked out way of self realization no matter whatever difficulties come my way. I will suffer them gladly and with spiritual courage and fortitude. I have decided not to detract from my path with a firm belief that there is no escape from this strong resolve of mine. To these problems I receive from the unknown the following answer : I do not need momentarily changing mental aspirations, Till certain period I need nothing but pure void. If this is not possible then I do not need any thing but saintly contact. If this is not possible. I do not need anything but the modes of spiritual activity performed by the noble and morally great persons. If

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 20 SELECTED 100 LETTERS even this is not possible, then I do not need anything other than my mergence in pure devotion of Jin Bhagavan Lord Mahavira with the utmost purity of my heart and if even this is not available to me them I have no desire to ask for anything else. Without proper understanding of the scriptures they bring only harmwithout contact of spiritual saints, meditation turns out to be a mental wandering. Without the help of a spiritual saint, the final truth cannot be grasped at all. By popular opinion of these saints you can never go ahead of these people. It is next to impossible to achieve the right type of non-attachment without abandoning worldly consideration. Is it really wrong? What? Whatever wandering is done, can never be undone. Suppose we try to retrace the steps of this wandering? Yes that can be done. This is also wonderful. This much for the present. Next time we shall meet at a proper moment. Please note this and oblige. Respects from Raichandra. 10(135) Vavania, Second Bhadrapad Sud Fourteenth, Sunday V.S. 1946 Brothers desirous of religious life. Your heart pressed by elements of strong aspiration for liberation, gives me highest satisfaction. Your strong desire to end this aimless and endless wandering, is highly benefactory. Some day some appropriate moment will arrive where you will achieve liberation that you strongly ask for or desire. Please keep me informed of your day to day mental progress. Try to encourage your strong desire for liberation. You might have heard what I write below namely the stages of religious development leading to self enlightenment. However you constantly remember the same religious story. There are five characteristics of a right state of mind of a spiritual aspirant and they are as under :1. Shama - retiring of anger. 2. Samvega- or no desire except the one to enjoy total freedom from the world. 3. Nirveda - A decision to stop the worldly wandering under ignorance. Aastha - Complete faith in the sayings of the self realized non-desiring spiritual saints. 5. Anukampa - By all these four above in combination and co-operation, the living soul treats all other living being as he treats self. Understands the nature of the real self

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS and this is called Anukampa,. The above four working together leads to No. 5 namely Anukampa. 1 2 3 4 22 5 To quell the anger etc. afflictions or the slowing down of the excited anger, love, hatred, greed etc. to such an extent that these excitements can be returned to their source easily by such spiritual development of the living soul or all modification of the human mind of endless time, quell down. Samvega means the absence of any desire or aspiration of achieving any kind of greatness except the only desire to be totally free. The moment one understood that he roamed endlessly and aimlessly in his infinite past, one should be addressing himself that he should stop this wandering under steep ignorance of his true self. This is known as Nirveda. Complete mergence with faith in the soul saving instructions of spiritual masters is known as Shraddha or Astha. The confluence of these four qualities bringing about interminable intellectual right understanding of soul's pure nature, is known as compassion towards all living beings. The above mentioned qualities or characteristies are worth deep reflection, constant remembrance, worth desiring, worth experiencing. More some other time. -Respect from Raichandra. 23 11 (143) 2. Keep Practice of the following: 1. 3. 4. SELECTED 100 LETTERS 5. Vavania, Second Bhadarva Vad Thirteenth, Saturday V.S. 1946 Try to quell down all the afflictions that have arisen or are to arise in future by all possible ways. Try to retire desires strong or weak and be free from them. Retire from all you have done till this time and stop repeating it. Believe that you are perfect to the core and bless all other living beings. Search out any one of the spiritual saints and keep firm faith in all his sayings whether acceptable to you or otherwise. The steady acceptance and performance of the above five studies will make you quite fit for liberation and essentially accept that the first four are covered by the fifth one. What more shall I say? At no time the end of the cyclic rotation of a soul in worldly life is possible without accepting or realizing the first four are helpful to achieve the fifth. I do not find any other path of liberation than the fifth one stated above and all other spiritual saints must have and have actively found the same path. Now do whatever you like or think proper. I know you desire all these five means but

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 25 SELECTED 100 LETTERS make your desire more and more strong and do not try to hurry up. Hurry indicates unripeness and unripeness shows immaturity. Remember this well. Respects from Raichand who carries out his life as determined by destiny. 12 (147) Vavania, Aaso Sud Sixth, Sunday, V.S. 1946. Wise brother Khimji, Received your letter expressing your acknowledgement of gratefulness for the instruction given to you. The securing of the path of achieving the highest objective of a living soul without single minded acceptance of spiritual instruction, is very difficult and this single minded acceptance is also very difficult. How have you thought of achieving it? Have you thought of it either? What more! At present this is enough. Respects from Raichand. of seeming pleasures. Faith also seems to have been destroyed. None respects the elders. Even the rules of religious life are meeting with scorn. What is Satsang or contact of the spiritual saints which is the only duty for a man to be good - all this is already forgotten. Even to recognize the contact of a saint when it is available has become very difficult. Living beings repeatedly pass through occasions of infatuation and activities relating it. Ordinarily when a living soul hears the teachings of spiritual preceptors even once then he would really enjoy spiritual freedom and realise your real nature. But in these adverse times, these very spiritual teachings are repeatedly told time and again to persons but they are totally untouched or uninfluenced by them. Such great is found the unfitness in them. Spotless honesty or total micro uncrookedness is in the decline. The living being feels that to raise doubts about the truth of the religious scriptures is a kind of knowledge. To achieve a worldly gain, a man does not feel sinful in cheating your devotee. The same person loves his relatives who are the cause of his acquisitiveness so much that had he directed the same love towards getting you or had he loved your devotee, then surely he would have achieved or secured you. The highest religion or duty of man to show mercy towards all living beings and to see you in all living beings and therefore to be a servant of the whole humanity has vanished. The internal knowledge or right understanding of the great men that as you are same in all living beings, the feeling of petty differences between man and man must be abandoned, is totally absent in the world of today. To me who only desire with extreme love to be your humble servant, you offer me the contact of the effects of the adverse time. 13 (163) O Lord! In these adverse times even a moment of undisturbed love for you is difficult to find. This type of retirement people have already forgotten. So engrossed in ceaseless activities, they have no knowledge of what is retirement. All effort is directed towards achieving various kind

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS Now O lord! I cannot bear this sight or plight. I cannot bear even hearing of this decline of religious life. It is proper for you not to allow us to suffer this decline of religious living. However if you wish that we should go through these troubles then inspire us so that we will accept this adversity as happiness. If you think it proper, bless me seeking your shelter in such a way that the persons or other living beings who have contacted me, may in no way be distressed by me nor may they hate me or pain-me on my score. What I am extremely unhappy at, is that living beings are repeatedly engaged in getting away from you and your soul-saving instructions or laws and when they come in my contact, I advise them to return from their wrongdoings and turn to you for shelter, but they do not hear my advice. If what I say now to you is felt properly by you, then O Lord you are mighty enough to avoid this and bless me so that many living beings may be brought nearer to you and serve you as I do. O Lord I beseech you to solve this problem and put me at ease. I have believed the following sentences with consent of innumerable spiritual saints as the most excellent causes of self realization or liberation and therefore extremely beneficial to all spiritual aspirants for liberation :1. A spiritual aspirant must abandon all desires or worldly happiness at one time or other. Therefore from the moment this saying is heard, it is proper for him to understand that he should start studying the method of abandoning all such worldly desires. By any means he should search out his spiritual guide, and once he gets him, he should surrender himself to him by all his might - by body, mind and speech and by as whole living being. He should always follow his advice in letter and spirit, quite undoubtedly. Only this way he will surely drive out all infatuating strong desires from his being. This he must understand well. In the soul's wanderings through many cycles of births and deaths, it or he has for innumerable times heard the religious scriptures, prosecuted studies of various scriptures, received initiation many a time from the Jina saints and he has also worked many a time as the highest priest or acharya of the Jain religious orders. But inspite of all these workings, he has not reached the truth, nor heard it, nor has believed in it with full faith as the goal of his religious search. And from the bottom of his spiritual self, his self will express approval and satisfaction only when he finally accepts and meets with the truth with firm faith and determination. Thus he will be liberated and the self in him will accept him as one with the real self. 14 (166) Mumbai, Kartik Sud Sixth, Tuesday, V-S. 1947 Unending spiritual scriptures are contained in every saying or sentence of a spiritual master. Further they are contained in every word of such a master. How is it so?

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS The path of liberation is not outside the living being. It lies only in his inner self. One who has successfully gained his self within him will show others this path by which they will be liberated as their advisers. 4. 5. The path can be shown only in two letters and now reflect as to why the two letters namely Atma is not secured by you till the passage of unending or beginningless period of time. 15 (172) 28 *** Mumbai, Kartik Sudi Fourteenth Wednesday, V.S. 1947 Truth Seeker and obedient intellect, Khambhat I received your letter yesterday suggesting highest devotion and I experienced great joy after reading it. From times immemorial one has always misunderstood himself. This life is a place for unprecedented self search, self reflection, which is beyond verbal expression. Where intellect cannot reach how can speech succeed? Always follow the order of unconcernedness. Merge your mind and being in all-round service and devotion to your spiritual preceptor. Try to remember the behaviour and actions of the spiritual saints, reflect and meditate on the excellent qualities and merits of the spiritual saints. Try to see by your whole heart the physiognomy of the spiritual masters. 29 SELECTED 100 LETTERS Repeatedly remember every mode of the spiritual master's mind, speech and bodily behaviour. Approve without doubt or hesitation, all what is approved by him. What is said above was accepted in their hearts by all enlightened spiritual all-knowers and so theirs highest secret of spiritual life must be accepted by all who desire Nirvana or liberation or total freedom of the self. This should be made the spiritual aspirants fundamental article of faith, it is worthy of repeated reflection and meditation, one should every moment, be engrossed in it. So this is the royal road to grip the secret of getting to God's home, it is the essence of all scriptures, it is the core of the hearts of all saints, and the cause of all these is the acceptance of the living spiritual master with full faith and complete unfailing whole hearted surrender to him. What more need I write? Either today, or tomorrow or at the end of even hundred thousand years of time or either earlier or later to it, a person desiring his final good has to accept it and realize it completely. At all times and places this is approved by me. I shall keep in mind to write to you occasionally. Do carry on talks about knowledge among persons who meet you and go on meeting them and talking to them on spiritual matters so that they may derive benefit from the same. It is possible that Shri Ambalal will understand more this letter. You may observe or mark the details of this letter in his presence. And if he and Shri Tribhovan and others need, you can give this letter to them for getting copies. This is all I have to say today.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS Respects from Raichand who always desires to live in the same way as described in this letter. that all activities like performance of yogic practices, incantation of the name of the Lord, practices of penance etc, are going through by you only to liberate your true self and therefore you must be prepared to leave them when you gain yourself. These practices should not bind you or keep you enchained in them. They are all means to the final goal of liberation. So they must be left when the goal is reached by you. Respects from one who is bearing a fictitious name. 16 (183) Mumbai, Magasar Sud Fourteenth V.S. 1947 * * * 17 (194) I bow down at all three stages of time to my true self as totally identical with or same as my self which is the embodiment of Anand or bliss. I received your religious letter full of highest desire for spiritual benefit day before yesterday. I am happy reading its contents. Mumbai, Posh, V.S. 1947 This soul has not yet obtained the path of liberation, What is its reason? Reflect on this question and when you think proper, you read the accompanying letter. Whatever desires you have indicated in your letter are all beneficial but the inspiration of all such desires can be obtained from as service to the lotuslike feet of a spiritual saint and in many ways it lies in spiritual contact of such saints and their teachings. This undoubted truth which is approved by omniscient saints is intimated to you. At present I have nothing more to write nor I am in a state to advise you further. Yet lest your mental condition may stop feeling upset or disturbed in the least whatever I felt proper at the time, I have written to you. We feel that the path of liberation is very straight and simple but the occasion to get it, is very difficult. The wandering soul from times immemorial to the present time, has not realized the Apurva or unprecedented. Whatever he has till now obtained, is only a result of a series of his past deeds. Therefore try to study abandonment of all these acquired desires. Strong love and highest joy will bring you success in this study and it will eventually bring you in contact with a great spiritual master who will guide you to realize the truth which you had never experienced in your past. Remember Salutations to the right spiritual self, without any feeling of separateness and with unique devotion to it. The realization of the spiritual self is difficult without experiencing the unswerving love of the lotuslike feet of the enlightened spiritual guide who always moves freely and

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 32 SELECTED 100 LETTERS fearlessly in this world with deep feeling of doing good to the devotees. Once such a guide meets you, you serve his lotuslike feet and you realize the state of the real self as he has himself experienced. All enlightened all-knower's have followed the same path of liberation and this is what every one of the same kind, is following now and will follow in future. I acquired illumination or spiritual knowledge in the same way and in the present or future times, same is the way for spiritual enlightenment. All scriptures advise it and so man or any living being desiring liberation should propitiate or scrupulously follow or adopt the same path of liberation. The troubled soul has wandered whimsically in his endless past without following this path. Till he is blind folded by his own whims he cannot find this royal path so he should reflect about it, to eliminate or destroy his blindness, he should be actuated by a strong desire to liberate himself without any idleness or sloth and then only he gets this path and his blindness gets away. This you must believe in undoubtedly as the living soul has followed the wrong path from times immemorial. Though he has many times chanted the names of many religious enlightened souls of the past, he has practised penance, he has studied the spiritual scriptures etc., yet he has not done what he properly must have done and this is what I have told you at the start. Lord Rishabhadevaji in his couplet numbers 31 and 32, second cento of the first Shruta Skandha of his Suyagadanga Sutra or aphorisms wherein he has advised his ninety eight sons and led them on the path of liberation, has given same instructions as under :- you long-lived sons! This soul has done everything without the right one. Now what is it? Then we tell you definitely in reply that he has not accepted or grasped the teaching of a spiritual guide nor has he heard his spiritual advices or he has not acted scrupulously according to his instructions and this is termed by us as the Samayika of the monks and this in other words, is the acquisition of the nature of one's true self. Sudharma Swami instructs Jambu Swami that Bhagavan Mahavira who has envisioned the whole world and its contents has instructed us thus - Innumerable devotees who followed their preceptor's instructions in letter and spirit, got the real path of their liberation and achieved liberation successfully. Not here but at all places and all scriptures have preached the same path of liberation. 'Aanaye Dhammo Aanaye Tapo' Spiritual guide's instructions are the real religion and also real penance. This is also stated in Aacharanga Sutra. At all the places the spiritually great men have given similar advices but the living soul has not well understood it and the main cause of it is his whimsicality. Whoever has straightened his whimsical behaviour of thinking, speaking and acting has secured the best and unfailing remedy to remove or destroy pratibaddhata or strong bondage of worldly opinions, of his family ties, of his false sense of self honour and pride of his body, and of his desires, wishes and imagination. Think more on this matter and while reflecting on it, you ask me any thing you wish me to clarify. If you become fit spiritually following this instruction, then permanent peace and quietude you will secure from all sides. This is what you should secure and search for a person who can bring you near to it.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS You may follow other means of spiritual benefit after securing the one I have stressed above as after serious reflection, you will never find any other path of liberation. However if you think there is another equally effective path of liberation, then let me know it so that what I think proper may be told to you. 18 (195) 34 Mumbai, Posh V.S. 1947 Salutation to the right spiritual self without any distinction or difference and with singleminded devotion. One who has a strong desire for liberation should set aside all other thoughts and repeatedly date on the following thought - Inspite of repeating the endless cycle of births and deaths why has this wandering soul not yet received freedom from this world or liberation? And which way can this be achieved? In these two questions there is a vast meaning implied and without thinking out the solutions of these two questions, one cannot even find the faint direction of the path of liberation. One has not only to aspire for it, but has to take all troubles for searching it out. In the past, one has not achieved any concrete result by following other ways of thinking nor will one achieve anything about it by them in future. I have known this truth firmly. So all of you who take me as your guide, have to think the same thoughts and reach solutions such as I have reached. After this, nothing else remains to be known. Accept this as certain truth. *** 35 19 (200) 1. 2. 3. 4. SELECTED 100 LETTERS Mumbai, Maha Sud V.S. 1947 Series of Spiritual Sayings The living soul has forgotten his own nature and so he is far away from real happiness. This is approved by all religions. This ignorance or self forgetting is totally removed by the dawn of proper knowledge and this you should believe without any doubt. Knowledge can only be had from one who has it i.e. from the enlightened person. Naturally this is a fact and yet the living soul, afraid of public criticism such as loss of prestige, does not forsake the resort to an ignorant preceptor and this is the root cause of many unending binding forces such as anger, love, hatred, pride, greed etc. One who aspires for right knowledge should necessarily follow the instructions and advice of his enlightened teacher. This is said by all scriptures beginning from those of Jaina religion to many other ones. This soul has fruitlessly wandered at his own whim a number of times in the past without attaining the final truth. 5. Removal of ignorance is not at all possible without following the instructions of a right spiritually enlightened preceptor.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 36 SELECTED 100 LETTERS 6. Only he can clearly follow the right preceptor's instructions when he has devoted himself to all what his master says or directs, without any attachment of body, mind or money. 13. This is the serial order of the path of spiritual knowledge. Without following this path, no liberation can ever be attained. 14. One who propitiates this secret path gets real nectar and becomes fearless. Remember Lord Shiva or the unqualified goodness. Though the enlightened teacher does not expect unquestioning following his instructions by his disciple but without following these instructions do not bring the desired result to the devotee and so the devotee's mind does not set rest all doubts nor does it firmly concentrate the preceptor's instructions. Therefore all spiritually advanced saints have stressed this point- unswerving devotion to Guru's guidance by the devotee for achieving liberation. 20 (207) Mumbai, Maha Vadi Fifteenth, V.S. 1947 8. 9. 10. All scriptures agree or are unanimous on this point. Rishabhadevaji gave the same advice to his ninety eight sons desiring liberation. Shukadevaji has similarly advised king Parikshit whose death was fixed in the very near future. However a man tries on his own to instruct himself in spiritual matters he does not suceed in getting self-knowledge but the strict follower of his masters spiritual advice can obtain absolute soul saving knowledge in a wink. The instructions of the religious scriptures are indirector remote as their givers have already left their living bodies and these instructions when properly followed can qualify the follower for meeting a right enlightened preceptor in his own time. But for actual liberation, one must surrender in all humility to a living spiritual master and follow his day-to-day guidance. Any type of activity though not challenged by any, must have behind it some definite reason for doing it. It is desirable to avoid that reason. As a result you try to hear occasionally their story of self renunciation or of their practice of non-attachment which they liked most as described by them as their effort to attain truth and in the end capable of bringing truth near to the hearer. By this way their contact will also develop your welfare and the cause of your disturbance will also be removed. 11. 12. The study of Vaitaliya and its spiritual sayings will increase your spirit of non-attachment more than the sayings in which this earth and all other external elements have been described elaborately. And other persons holding quite different views about religion do not dislike these spiritual sayings about non-attachment. The saints that follow you, should be told on proper occasions that a religion is right when its following bring you to right religious

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 38 SELECTED 100 LETTERS consciously try to forget all what he has gathered during his endless past as it is all ignorance which we do not want. Truth is always truth, simple, easily obtainable, available everywhere but the indicator of truth must also be truth and never untruth. Endless are the ways of thinking and seeing. Even every object possesses infinite qualities and so it can be seen in endless ways and from endless points of view. Then how can we properly describe any object in two three or four ways only? Therefore when there is controversy of the few points of views of seeing or knowing anything, we should hear it with equanimity and ease. The speech of the enlightened saints remains indifferent or unaffected during the talk about the Nayas or ways of thinking and knowing the same thing my salutations to such speech of the enlightened souls? More on some other occasion. development; that real knowledge must develop in the knower the appropriate illumination or enlightenment. At present what we do as performing ceremonies or as regularly reading religious texts at the appointed hours of the day, are all sham if you do not understand the meaning of what I propose to tell you. Saying this you inform them that something slips out from what we read, do or say in these religious orders by which what we do or say does not fructify or appear to our inner self nor by this method our enemies in the form of anger, affliction, hatred, love, greed, infatuation, ignorance etc. do not in the least diminish or get destroyed. Therefore it is proper for us to rethink the other way of welfare of our soul and if we do so we shall surely gain the desired results. We try to know everything but we do not try to know the way of removing our doubts. Till we do not search out the cause of our doubts how shall we be able to remove them once for all? Till the doubts remain, sure knowledge does not dawn in us. Therefore we should direct all our efforts to remove all doubts such as is this living being great or lowly? Is our sight wrong or right? Is the self simple to understand or difficult to understand? Is the soul considering worldly life as fruitless or is it engrossed in more worldly living ? We should know the solutions of these problems or questions. You are advised to keep them engaged in such enlightening discourses rather than getting cross with them. For developing love towards the highest welfare, good spiritual contact is the best and incomparable means but in these difficult times such contact is very difficult to secure and so a spiritual aspirant should use all his good energies to gain such spiritual contact with a living enlightened spiritual master, and for this the living soul should 21 (209) Great saints have described the same truth by various names and by various forms and that very tuth is worthy to be known, and the same truth deserves to be well demonstrated, it is worth experiencing by all spiritual aspirants, and the same truth deserves to be propitiated by all love. I also desire devotional affection to the same highest truth. Call it by any name - highest truth, highest knowledge, or highest love, or of the nature of truth consciousness and joy or bliss, or call it self or call it the all self or call it one many or of one form or of one universal form. After all, truth is always truth and it is to be expressed or explained in various ways. It is mentioned or described

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 40 SELECTED 100 LETTERS or expressed in various ways. Ultimately it is the same that all try to speak of in their own ways. All therefore refer to the same truth and nothing other than it So the same truth is variously described as highest truth. Purushottama, Hari, Siddha, Ishwar, Niranjan or without any anointment, beyond logical understanding, highest Brahman, Highest self, highest Lord or Ishvara, the enlightened or full of light etc., other infinite names. Whenever we refer to the highest truth, we mean the same as described above by various great spiritual saints and no other. These sayings I have written above, are the spiritual aspirants best friend, best protector, and taking in the right way they will lead him to the highest spiritual stage of his being. These sayings contain the seed of the spiritually enlightened souls teaching, the whole Dwadas hangi or statement of twelve aspects of truth and the best essence of the six systems of philosophy. So I advise you to refelect on them repeatedly meditate on them understand them well or try to understand or grasp them well and be unmindful of anything serving as a hindrance to this understanding and concentrate all your attention to these valuable sayings about the truth. This I tell you as the best secret and it is to be kept as a secret by all spiritual aspirants desiring liberation. They contain the truth and you spend as much time as possible for clear understanding of the above said sayings. 22 (211) * * * Mumbai Maha Vad Fifteenth, V-S-1947 Truth is not far from us, it only appears to us as far away from us, and this appearance is the infatuation of the living soul. Truth is only truth simple, easily understandable and it can be realized everywhere. But how can a deluded soul reach it? No variant of darkness can ever be luminous and one who is deluded under the spell of ignorance, no idea of his mind can be truthful nor can it be nearer truth. Truth is not delusion, it is always different or distinguishable from delusion it is far away from an idea or imagination. Therefore one who has determined to search out the truth, should start with a clean slate admitting that he knows nothing and in this state of mind he should seek the shelter of an enlightened spiritual saint with a view to know and experience the truth from him. This is the only way he can follow for his enlightenment. 23 (212) Mumbai Mahavad V.S. 1947 Salutations to truth The word Kama is used to convey the meaning of desirewish; it is also used as the object of enjoyment by five sense-organs. One without a second means it has no equal, it is unique. the best of all; the unequal devotion means a high state of devotion which has no equal. I know that the spiritual aspirant Vaijnath is well acquainted with the path of yoga; he is also a truth inspired soul. But he has not obtained truth realization about which you have asked me. I have heard from his own mouth that he moved towards the north in the past but I cannot at present write to you any thing about it; yet

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS please note that what he has said to you is not wrong. The living soul has many a time come in contact with living spiritually enlightened souls by the strength of whose spiritual guidance he could have got the path of his liberation but he did not recognize them, may be such a living soul might have tried to recognize these enlightened souls as their saviours but his dormant prejudices about acquisition of types of excellence such as prowess, powers of doing wonderful things might have obstructed his clear sight. If this sight is blurred or deluded the spiritual aspirant sees such an enlightened saint as an external living person quite different from him and so making any effort of complete surrender to him next to impossible. This way proper understanding is not done. And when he gets proper or correct understanding then that very soul is so overpowered with extreme unprecedented love and affection for him that even spending a moment in separation of such an enlightened saint becomes a waste or in vain or fruitless, or he becomes indifferent to all other things cherishing a strong desire to be near such an enlightened master. He believes that getting other objects in separation from his spiritual master is only like death. When he passes through such a state of life then he knows that he is very near his path of liberation. To experience such a state of pangs of separation from his master, the contact of maya or infatuation or allurement to worldly objects of happiness serves as a strong observation. But inspite of this, if the spiritual aspirant continues to aspire for union with his spiritual master, he secures such a stage of union with his master very soon or in a short period of time. All of you by your continuous contact with me, have become a binding force to me. I do not know how can I be free from it. By advising you that a contact with a living spiritual guide for liberation is a sure path of liberation you all have begun to feel that I am one such living master for you and so I have invited your continuous contact with me. You tried to apply my teaching on me but really speaking I am only a lowly servant of the living spiritually enlightened master; I am only a few particles of dust of the lotus like feet of such a master. Besides where is such an excellent spiritual stage in me by which you can find in me your desired spiritual guide? Such an excellent spiritual stage must be accompanied with total non attachment and it is not to be found in me. You already know how worldly consideration are around me and I am occasionally passing through them. These two last points I have written for all of you. I request you all to lessen your attachment to me. One other point I should like to state to you is that please do not say to anyone else that you all take me as your spiritual guide. My present position you already know. * * * 24 (249) Mumbai, Jeth Sud Seventh Saturday, V-S-1947 Om Salutations Because of horrible present times, where the mind should really concentrate it does not do so. Mostly true religion is conspicuous by its absence in these times. This is why this time is called Kali Kala. True religion cannot be there in the absence of the spiritually enlightened guide as truth cannot exist or manifest in untruth. Mostly in these times there is no

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 44 45 SELECTED 100 LETTERS appreciation of his day to day instructions. The living spiritual saint is liberation itself or the embodiment of liberation or self realization. The reflection of the liberated Arihants by passage of time gives the fruit of liberation. The living soul realizes the truth of his self by deciding that the enlightened spiritual souls have realized truth and by acquiring spiritual fitness as is found in the enlightened saints of the past. possibility of the presence of a living enlightened soul or any contact with such a soul. How can a spiritual aspirant find a true religion? And passing a long period of the absence of true religion and that of a living enlightened soul, the aspiration for liberation can also not be found in these obstructive times. Mostly whatever is known by a living soul from his environment he feels it is his only accompaniment and he is influenced by his surroundings. If a soul takes birth in an unaryan family, he strongly feels he is a non-aryan, and he does not even feel that he should be an Aryan. This is why great men and following them, I have also like them decided that contact with a spiritually enlightened soul is the best means of securing liberation. Good or saintly contact is what a spiritual aspirant enjoys when he meets a spiritually enlightened saint or when he meets similar spiritually advanced aspirants. When a spiritual aspirant lives under the shelter and guidance of his spiritually enlightened master, I call it best spiritual contact, as in this world there is no other beneficial means than it for spiritual progress either seen or heard by me. The thinking of a great man flourished in the past is though beneficial to us but it can not help us to realize our self i.e it cannot be the cause of realizing our true self because such thinking does not practically guide the spiritual aspirant in solving his day to day problems arising in his spiritual march. On the other hand mere presence of a living spiritual guide can help us more even without his effort of explaining to us why should we follow what he says. Therefore I am certain that liberation directly results in an aspirant by his contact with his living spiritual guide and by his continuous 25 (254) Mumbai Ashadha Sud Eighth, Tuesday V-S-1947. With no doubt about anything, fearlessness is born and with it non-attachment is obtained. By expansion of nature the life's works follow the strange ways and so appear endless many kinds of faults and the greatest of these faults is that under the influence of which the living soul does not develop the strong desire or aspiration for its liberation or there cannot arise any desire for liberation. Mostly a human soul is already found in some religious fold or another and so he always tries to follow that religious belief accepted by his family and this is called by him as his desire for liberation but in fact it is not a desire for real liberation. A desire for real liberation is that in which a human being feels enmeshed or entangled in infatuating attachments and throttled this way he tries to liberate himself from all attachments and a strong desire for liberation means living from moment to moment progressing

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 47 SELECTED 100 LETTERS on the path of liberation with all unique love and desire to reach the goal as early as possible. Here I do not wish to refer you to what is strong desire for liberation. I only wish to tell you what is desire for liberation and its characteristic is presence of impartiality in seeing one's own faults and only by this impartial acceptance of, one's own faults one's own whimsicality is destroyed. experiences some joy even in a state of desiring liberation, and because of this one loves even the causes of external ease or joy and by this one feels that one should desire for worldly happiness even though short-lived and by this condition of the living soul he blocks his development of fitness for realization or liberation. All the enlightened saints have called the understanding of the spiritual guide as the highest Godor Parameshwar, the highest religion and this understanding suggests the highest humility in the devotee by which the devotee feels he is the humblest servant of the whole world in general and of his spiritual guide in particular. Only this way the devotee develops his fitness for liberation. Till the human beings highest humility is covered by many obstructive factors, his fitness for liberation is delayed by obstacles or his binding knots of his mind. Wherever this whimsicality has been hurt or removed to a degree, there a proper background of unqualified acceptance of the guidance of a spiritual saint is prepared. When one's whimsical nature is suppressed to some extent, then I know that there one has to face three causes obstructing the obtainment of the path of liberation and they are: 1) Presence of even a small desire to secure worldly happiness. 2) 3) Absence or want of extreme humility. Indecision of the true self. In future I will tell you the way to remove or set aside all the above named three causes obstructing the aspirant's march towards liberation. But I describe below in detail the above mentioned three Suppose the two of the above causes obstructing the desire for liberation are removed, but the spiritual aspirant has not yet decided about the nature of his absolute or true self because of some want in his fitness to know or attain the true self, then also he feels much disturbed and uneasy as neither here nor there and in this condition a false equanimity is experienced by him. He lives in a belief of an imaginary object as his true self and so by passage of time he does not develop undiverted love for his true self which he must realize in future and this absence of true love for the true self is destructive of his highest fitness. In most of the spiritual aspirants I have met till now, I have seen these three obstructive causes; only in few of them I have found; the lessening of the second cause namely want of extreme humility and if they develop more then extreme humility towards their spiritual guide they may quickly be fit for getting the path of liberation. Extreme causes. A slight desire of getting worldy happiness mostly precedes the birth of a strong desire for liberation. The causes of this desire for worldly happiness are: That the true self is there is not undoubtedly accepted by the aspirant human being, or that the same true self is by nature full joy or happiness is not finally decided or the aspirant

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48 SELECTED 100 LETTERS humility is the most powerful of the three ways to reach liberation and the source of all these three means or ways to get liberation is the singleminded devotional love for the spiritual guide-complete surrender of the disciple to his master's guidance. What more need I say to you! After infinite stretch of time this is the only way to liberation. To remove the first and the third obstructive causes one should try to remove the second obstructive cause, and contacting a great spiritual saint one should try to realize or recognize his master's spiritual form or nature. If you strongly desire to know him, then he will disclose it to you. The eyes of the spiritual aspirant recognize their master. Once the aspirant decides who is his true guide, he gets him and removing his infatuation, he determines his goal to reach his true self and this way his pain of wanting this true self gets less and less and ultimately lost. Once this firm decision about the true self is made, the aspirant becomes fearless and then he develops total unattachment. And this is the correct procedure. Only for the benefit of all you - aspirants for liberation, all this is said in brief you should reflect and discuss amongst you more and more on what is written above and expand it to understand it completely. This is my advice to you all. I have tried to explain much of the hidden or secret teaching of the sayings of great religious saints in their scriptures. You repeatedly reflect on what I have written to you in this letter. At proper time when we meet, I will elaborately explain it to you. At present you cannot contact me or our personal contact does not seem to be possible but we can arrange it in the dark half of Shravan month but at which place? This I have not thought of. 49 SELECTED 100 LETTERS Because the present time is Kaliyuga or very obstructive time the great spiritual saints have advised the spirituals aspirants not to pass their time even for a moment without thinking about the nature of self. 26 (262) *** My regards to you all Mumbai Shravan Sud, V.S. 1947 Due to some worldly work, I could not reply to your letter. Please forgive me for it. I am still busy with that work so that it is difficult to arrange our meeting. Contact with spiritual saints or their teachings is very difficult in the fourth stage of time, naturally then in our present, worse time it is still further difficult or next to impossible. Knowing this well, a spiritual aspirant should develop acting in such ways that he may rear in him favourable qualities during this absence of spiritual contacts. This he should do repeatedly, in season and out of it and on all favourable occasions. Besides he should keep alive his hankering for good spiritual contacts and keep totally indifferent to all contacts non-spiritual and he should at the same time think of the causes of non-attachment. While writing this to you, I clearly remember that you must be feeling in your mind, what to do? Or why what you want is not done by any means? Even then it is proper that a man thinking that all other kinds of thoughts need not be harboured in the mind, cherishes only to keep on thinking about the good of his own living soul and feels sorry for not being able to do what he should have done, the

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS very good of his soul gets manifested or illuminated in him or the very form of his having done the right thing is realized in him. The enlightened spiritual saints have shown three kinds of spiritual defaulters:1) The kind of men who are unconscious of the fact that they have not been able either to think of their defects or merits for their liberation. continuously keep thinking in that way. You are advised to be like this third kind of defaulters. A good thinking man can easily aspire to be in the third kind by his intellectual clear insight, by getting in touch with spiritually good contacts and by reading right religious scriptures and thereby gradually he begins to be spiritually on the right path free of spiritual faults or defects. This point should be doted upon by all of you from time to time while sleeping and waking and during other moments of your conscious life. 27 (271) 3) Vavania, Bhadarva Vad Fourth, Tuesday V-S-1947 Om Truth 2) The second kind of men who ignorantly think under the influence of non-spiritual contacts by their having received wrong teachings that whatever they do is done only for their spiritual benefit or is spiritually beneficient to them. Those who feel that they live only to suffer the result of their past deeds and therefore they are only the witness of other people's work and therefore they appear only as the performer of their actions being quite indifferent to what they do. These are the rightly informed souls. Thus the enlightened spiritual saints have seen and known the above three kinds of men. Mostly in the first type of such souls are included those who completely identify their souls with their wives, sons, friends, and wealth. In the second type are included the souls who are scrupulously following their family religious beliefs and activities at their own whims and thinking that to be the only way to their liberation. The third type of defaulting souls are those that are nonattached to all thoughts about their wives, sons, friends etc. and their whimsicality has been reduced to the minimum and they I wish the unobstructed and undivided devotion of great Lord or invaluable best purusha endowed with all spiritually good virtues or qualities. Only one such object is worth keeping acquaintances with and it is that by contacting which all other undesirable contacts are destroyed or nullified. What is that contact and how can it be achieved is what the spiritually aspiring souls are constantly inquiring about. Written by one who is not different from truth.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 28 (273) 52 Vavania, bhadra Vad Fifth Wednesday V.S. 1947 I have read details written in your letter. It is our duty to have patience and feel happiness in God's will. In Kaliyuga it is very difficult to recognise self realised saint. Still our infatuation with wealth and woman does not allow us to follow such saint. Even after recognising, it is natural for soul to remain unchanged. In this Kaliyug, who do not get infatuated are worthy of salutations. 29 (299) Vavania, Kartiks Sud Seventh Sunday, V-S 1948 By whichever activity, incantation, penance or study of the scriptures only one thing is to be achieved and it is the forgetting of this world and keeping oneself in the feet of truth. And by acting on this one point or aim, a living soul understands clearly what is proper for him to do and what is not worthy of his doing. Without forwarding this one aim, incantation, penance, meditation or charity none of the these means can bring the desired result, and till then, meditation etc. are of not much values. Therefore whatever of the above means you can adopt, follow them to help your concentration on the one goal mentioned above. Incantation and penance are not to be 53 SELECTED 100 LETTERS neglected but they are helpful for realizing the above stated goal of spiritual self realization or liberation and in the absence of this goal, the soul connot get the right view of the self. What more shall I say? All scriptures have demonstrated the same goal and they guide the aspirant to achieve it. 30 (331) *** Mumbai Maha, V.S. 1948 Salutations in all humility and with total non-attachment. A man cannot see his spiritual self till he loves worldly objects and occasions and he finds them bringing happiness to him under the spell of steep ignorance, and also it is impossible for him to acknowledge the greatness of satsanga or contact of spiritually enlightened souls. One should make the right spiritual effort to develop the worldly love into the spiritual love with assiduous concentration of thought and action. I have written this fact to you knowing it to be consistent with truth at all times and so without any personal desire or wish of mine. 31 (334) Om *** Mumbai, Falgun Sud Tenth Wednesday, V.S. 1948 Towards Shri Subhagya who is like my heart. My devotional salutation to you. I shall write to you next time. I shall write to you again-saying this repeatedly I have not been

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS Mostly I shall not be able to write replies to your questions as my mental condition continues to remain as described above. Please write to me occasionally what at present you read or reflect on or what else you do now. I wish renunciation but I am not able to do it. Even if I make this renunciation as agreeable to your desire, yet even that much is not possible at present. Salutation to you from non-different knowing self. ** 32 (347) OM able to write to you for a long time. You should forgive me for it because my mental condition is like that of a non-attached or a disembodied soul and so I experience want of arrangement in all activities so there is no go from such condition for some specific period of time. Many enlightened great men have been in the past but amongst them very few have been having worldly life like mine and at the same time experiencing indifference, extreme indifference to all mental and bodily worldly activities. Because of worldly actions I am not undisturbedly thinking about my real self or it is done as secondary and so much of my time is spent in carrying out worldly activities but in that too developing total indifference I cannot steady my mind. Therefore the enlightened saints abandon all attachments and move in the world spiritually without any let or hindrance of any kinds. The final meaning of all contact is that contact with the world which principally hinders keeping one's mind or attention to self meditation or self knowledge. This is stated by me in short. And I constantly aspire for total abandonment of all worldly contacts both externally and internally spiritually. Even in the very embodied state a man can be totally non-attached this is my irrevocable experience. Because I am definitely going to achieve the same state of total non attachment in this very living body of mine. My self continuously tells it to me and it is a fact necessarily it is the fact. Let the dust of the lotus like feet of the totally non-attached Lord Mahavira bless my head day and night. This is my strong desire. Extremely difficult total nonattachment is extremely surprising, still such a state of life is secured in this very embodied life-this is indubitable. My life can secure it as it is completely fit for it. My indifference to the world cannot get away without realizing the same total non-attached or non-embodied condition. This is possible and it will be so. Mumbai, Falgun Vad Fifteenth Monday, V.S. 1948 Towards Shri Subhagya who is an embodiment of rest and who is like my heart from the point of view of my real self, let my salutation in all humility reach him. In the state of my real self I experience natural Samadhi or right state of my mental concentration. Because of external adjuncts, I have to steady my mind in concentration of myself i.e. samadhi. I know that these extemal adjuncts have come to me in order that I can with my firmness achieve in a short time what I may achieve after a long time without them. I have received many letters from you and I have mostly read the story about knowledge written in them and I acknowledge that I have not written replies to all your questions of your letters. I should be excused for the same you have occasionally written in your letters

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 56 SELECTED 100 LETTERS have been replied by me too but even then you should excuse me for not answering your questions about them. 33 (373) some worldly story but my mental condition has made it difficult to read it carefully and nothing by way of reply to it suggests to me, and for it also I deserve to be pardoned by you. At present I am carrying out much worldly acts and in them I pay my full attention but my mind does not get fixed in these acts and it tries to remain fixed in thinking about my spiritual self and so all worldly activities are felt by me as a burden. The enlightened souls have regarded the whole world as burning with all sorts of pain and misery and in such burning world my living self acts. The present period of time is very difficult and obstructive to all spiritual aspirants. The saintly contact a cause of complete rest and peace, is not possible to gain in all times and so in these adverse times of ours it is still more difficult to obtain and it is not at all surprising. My mind has not been mostly hindered by anger, pride or self-respect or honour, infatuation, greed, laughter, love, hate, fear worry, desire to know bad things, or words etc. it is nearly liberated from family ties, wealth, sons, prosperity, wife, or body, even for such mind I feel it to be kept more and more engrossed in contact with religious good books. In spite of this you and I directly feel separation from it. This also seems to be prearranged. My present mental state does not allow me to pen down replies to your questions to me about knowledge of the self and so I am unable to satisfy your desire in the matter. I beg your pardon for the same or it is proper for you to pardon me for the same. I already know some worldly matters mentioned in your letters, they were as you have described. Some of them should Mumbai, Vaishakh Vad Fourteenth Wednesday, V.S. 1948 Best wishes to you from one who is uninfatuated by infatuating city Mumbai. The decision by you till date that all this is because of matter written in your letter, is read by me. Usually what you have written is correct to the hilt, Even then 'mind' because of it and all this and the decision about it: these four parts of this sentence can be understood as they are, after a long passage of time and this I already know. Those who understand them, their mind behaves under their control and this is a settled fact. Suppose sometimes it does not behave as controlled, still it is turned to the nature of the self. The reply which contains the matter of control of such mind is written above and that is the most important of all. The sentences written by me deserve reflection by many ways. The body of a great living soul behaves in the present by two reasons - (1) for suffering the fruits of his previous deeds and (2) for the benefit or good of all living beings. Even then in doing so he behaves as totally indifferent and this fact I know well. By meditation incantation, penance etc. all activities like these, if you feel that any one sentence written by me is productive of the

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS highest spiritual result definitely if you feel like that and after feeling this way if your intellect does not like to refer it to any worldly saying or any scriptural saying to test its authenticity, and supposing it behaves in that way, if you feel that such of its behaviour is only due to delusion or illusion, or if you think of reflecting my sentence by all sorts of patience then I desire to write to you. I still feel more important to write to you about the brief spiritual decision. But my mind does not behave as free and so whatever I have written to you here, you firmly accept as true and proceed accordingly. 58 All worldly entanglements must be removed at all cost. But if such engagement is designed for gaining spiritual contact with saints or the mental state feels any possiblity of it then the engagement is worth doing for your good. Free salutations to you. 34 (384) *** Mumbai Ashadha Sud Ninth, V-S-1948 In these times more living beings are guided by their strong desire for acquiring the objects of five senses such as sound etc. and therefore they behave as more unsettled and ruffled and they are many in number and so this period is called difficult Kaliyuga. One who has no doubt about his highest spiritual goal, nor whose mind has suffered from many disturbances to its peace, nor has it been led away by different activities because of any contact with bad person nor whose mind is attracted to love any thing else than his own real self nor whose mind has any faith in any other causes 59 SELECTED 100 LETTERS for liberation such a person is second Shri Rama. Therefore I find with pain and surprise that even a few persons partly possessing the spiritual qualities mentioned above are not seen by me at present. of the time apart from sleep, excepting only one hour, is spent in worldly matters by mind speech and body. There is no remedy for this malady and therefore to bear it with equanimous mind is only proper for all spiritual aspirants. Many wonderful objects such as water, wind, moon, sun, fire etc. with their respective characteristic qualities are not normally observed by many persons but quite insignificant in their comparison, the small objects such as one's small residential house attract them and calling them wonderful they are lost in their keeping. Looking to this miserable condition of many persons, I feel that their infatuation is not yet gone and nobody is attracted towards remedying such miserable state of affairs-none of them knows even a little about the remedy and if some one occasionally comes to know the remedy, his mind works whimsically. Knowing this way of behaviour of many living beings in present times, it appears that such times will prevail for an indefinite period. One should know this well. 35 (403) -Salutations. Mumbai, Bhadarwa Sud Tenth Thursday V-S 1948 By whichever ways the living soul realizes the pure self, they are the ways of religion, By whichever ways the living soul engages itself with the not-self they are not the ways of religion. The faith you have adopted after hearing my instructions, will bring you spiritual

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 60 benefit. A firm spiritual aspirant strengthens his faith gradually by more contact with saints and gets fixed in his real self. The living soul should not think of or follow or adopt a religion by his own imagination or by the guidance of his imagined spiritual saint. He should hear it from one who is well fixed or settled in his pure self and then he should propitiate it. *** 36 (416) Mumbai, Aaso, V.S. 1948 There are many many kinds of meditation The best of them is one in which the pure self principally manifests and that only deserves to be called meditation and such meditation mostly can be performed only after self knowledge. The self knowledge can be correctly obtained from the enlightened saint who is the embodiment of self knowledge, by seeking his shelter or contact and by appreciating his contact with great honour and affection or love. A man has contacted such spiritually self knowing saints many many times in the past but he unfortunately did not recognize them nor did he decide that he should surrender whole heartedly to them for his liberation because such saints are self realized enlightened saints, and this is the real cause of his migration from birth to birth. About this I am quite firm. The three main faults or defects of a living soul for not allowing him to recognize the enlightened spiritual guide are to my knowledge the following. 1) The pride he feels in believing that he knows and understands the path of liberation (Under this influence he does not feel the need of surrendering to any self-realized saint for his liberation) 61 2) SELECTED 100 LETTERS He loves his belongings more then the love and affection for the spiritual enlightened guru or guide. 3) He prefers to keep away from the enlightened saint, afraid of public opinion, afraid of being defamed by people around him or being humiliated by them. So he does not meet the saint with the honour and respect he deserves. Above three causes keep a living soul quite uninformed about the greatness of spiritual guides. He feels he is like them and he values the teaching and scriptures of the enlightened saints from his own wrong standard or imagination. By only superficial study of the scriptures he tries to explain them to others in many imaginary ways. This defect is already covered by the above listed three defects or a man obstructing his clear path to liberation. The material cause of the source of all these three defects of a person is his whimsical nature and non-contact with spiritual guide and contact with uninformed so called teachers or spiritual guides. I who do not desire from you any thing but that you may anyhow get spiritual knowledge and experience, want to inform you clearly that you still love these three defects to more or less extent and specifically the first one that you know something you understand something about real religion and you still cherish greatness in acquiring many worldly valueless things. These defects lead you astray in your knowledge and meditation for securing the guidance of the enlightened spiritual saint. Therefore turn to your real self as best as you can and remove all the defects I have listed above and be indifferent to all worldly consideration. This is for your benefit as known to me.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS 37.(432) Mumbai, Falgun Sud Seventh Thursday, V.S. 1949 I received a letter from Ambalal. The only way to dislodge the living soul from wrong attachments and to fix it in the true self is the devotional contact of the spiritually enlightened person who is well set in self realization full of peace and ease, with no desire for worldly things. It is a matter of good fortune to contact such a guide in a quiet place of retirement and there are many obstacles in the way of getting such a place and such a guide in it. Therefore feel repeatedly that I am quite near you and with you and read and reflect on those books describing indifference to this worldly life. The highest indication of all spiritual scriptures is that the living soul should act as the real self and one should constantly think and desire that way. This is the only goal of every living soul The very fact that a living soul has not known its real self inspite of spending endless time in worldly living shows that it is a very difficult task or that proper occasion has not yet arisen for it. It only feels from indefinite time that it knows something or that it is not that it does not know something and it always remains in forgetfulness of its real nature. This matter should be reflected upon in many ways and the remedy for it should also be considered in many ways. 38 (436) Mumbai ,Chaitra Sud First V.S. 1949 Samata Ramata Uradhata Jnayakata Sukhabhasa Vedakata Chaitanyata E Sab Jiva Vilas Meaning: The bliss of the self is expressed in its equanimity, beautifulness, upward march, knowability by experiencing of happiness, enjoyability and conscious existence. The Tirthankara God Shri Vardhaman Mahavira has described the self truly as best as it can be described in the above couplet. To him I bow down setting aside all other kinds of expectations. I bow down to the teachings of the Tirthankara Bhagavan which helped me to be devoted to the spiritually enlightened master as a result of reflecting on many religious scriptures in the past. I bow down to the instructions about the path of liberation given by that great Tirthanakara who after many ways of my thinking about the pure self definitely fixed my faith in the fact that the real self cannot be known by anyway other than the help of the person who has become the pure self.. Ibow down to the teachings of the great Tirthankara whose aim was to explain to me that the real self can be easily known and experienced by surrendering to the guidance of a spiritual saint and by no other means no matter how one practises yoga and such other means to realize the pure self. - Incomplete

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS 39 (437) OM Only a human being is more fit to think about his welfare or good as he is capable of thinking and speaking. Even then, this man getting human birth many a time in the past, has not been able to secure his ultimate good and so till date, he has been wandering in the path of cyclic birth and death. In this infinite world, there are innumerable kinds of living beings. Every moment, good many of them fall prey to death and get reborn leading worldly life. In proportion to the number of living beings only a few of them have sought for self realization or have secured their real self. This is the sorry state of affairs to-day and it is likely to continue in future too. This means that acquisition of human good or welfare has been difficult to attain in all the three phases of time, past, present and future. This teaching of the enlightened souls such as Tirthankaras is perfectly true. The delusion of the mass of living beings in this matter is of two kinds (1) regarding the highest good and (2) regarding the ordinary worldly life and these two types of delusion are agreed in holding that the living being has not attained the stage of a spiritual aspirant. Not even one iota of truth has resulted in a man's life. He has not any appetite for seeing a spiritual guide and in the contact with such a guide his vision has been obstructed by one powerful defect or another and the most important cause of this plight is his own worldly desires born of his longing for wrong contacts and his delusion that his wrong path is the true path for his spiritual advantage. Such delusion is expressed in many ways as under-There is no substance like self (Charvakas):what is known as self is only an adventitious substance born of the contact of many elements; the self is no other than one's own body (Chanvakas) and it will be destroyed at death of the body (Charvakas), the self is only atomic (Vaisesikas); the self is spread every where(Vedanta) the self is only a big cypher or zero (Boudhas) the self is having a form; the self is only luminosity; the self is not free at all: the self is not a doer, the self does actions but does not suffer their results, the self does not do anything, but suffers the fruits of actions done by some one else: the self neither performs any action nor suffers any results there of; the self is only lifeless material substance; the self is only a make belief of some persons - it is only a figment of a man's fertile imagination etc etc., such many opinions on the nature of self prevail at various times in this world. Only wrong understanding of the real truth is the cause of the varying opinions on the nature of self listed above By following this delusion the soul has not been on the path of self-realization. Led away by this delusion people have strongly believed in the wrong understanding of the self and sometimes called the self as Ishwara or Lord of everything capable of doing everything both consistent and inconsistent. Under this wrong position of one denomination or the other as a result of wrong contact, his own wrong desires and beliefs, and under illusion of right perception, many men are found to suffer. Till a man gets free from the above mentioned wrong beliefs, he cannot be on the right path to liberation; he cannot be free from worldly affliction and he cannot realize that he can expand to any length he wants and contract to any size he wants. And only for setting aside this delusion and wrong contacts one is advised to search for right contact with a spiritually enlightened saint, to accept whole heartedly his advice or guidance and know thereby the philosophical nature of his own real self. In the past the great non-attached Tirthankars, the enlightened great men, thought about this delusion and meditated on the nature of pure self by introspection and intuition and by singleminded

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66 SELECTED 100 LETTERS devotion and then realizing the pure self, have described it as it is found by them. They have put in herculian efforts to know both the self and the not self as they really are. They have tried to separate the pure self from its bodily and other external adjuncts in the state of their living bodies and they have seen their self as self living, self existing self-luminous and illuminator of every thing else. The Tirthankaras who saw their pure self became their pure self. Though distinguishing their self from their pure self is not possible, it is said because of the limitations of speech. Tirthankara has described this conscious living soul who is worthy to be known by all kinds of thinking soul and reflection in two ways, knowing which by the guidance of enlightened soul and welcoming it the living soul can settle itself in its true nature. All objects are of two kinds according to Tirthankaras and other enlightened saints. 1) Describable and 2) Indescribable. Whatever nature of the self is describable has been fully described by the Tirthankaras and other enlightened saints. Whatever they could not describe has still remained indescribable about the self. The describable qualities of the pure self and fully described in the couplet given at the beginning of lesson No. 38 before and also the same is elaborately explained in lesson No. 40 below. This is the nature of the soul. By the study of pure self, the definition of its qualities gets clearly understood by the spiritual aspirant and when so understood, the self manifests well. Still I have tried to explain the said couplets meaning below. *** 67 40 (438) SELECTED 100 LETTERS Mumbai, Chaitra Sud First, V-S 1949 "Samata Ramata Uradhata, Jnayakata Sukhbhasa Vedakata Chaitanyata E sab Jiva Vilas. Samata --Equanimity Shri Tirthankara says that in whatever ways the living soul or the self may have been described by any body let it be there but I am indifferent to all these descriptions. But I have described it as I have known it and my description is free from all defects and all characteristics of pure self are correctly described by me as I have seen them in all their fullness. I have known the self, seen it, clearly experienced it. I am the same manifested self. This self enjoys equanimity meaning that its qualities remain the same at all times showing no increase or decrease by any circumstance. The self is infinitely conscious at all places and times. Since it remains the same always it is called equanimous. Its qualities are inalienable from it. It cannot be separated from them or they never leave it. Ramata --Enjoyment Whatever attractive beauty we see in an animal, bird and man's body and in the trees etc or by which quality all these become source of inspiration to those who see them by which they appear beauty embodied - this quality is seen clearly in the self, the one without whom the whole world looks like a zero. The self manifests this beauty in full. Uradhata-Self Predominance: No knower can know anything without its own existence. All forms of knowing presuppose their knower. First the knower and

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 68 SELECTED 100 LETTERS then is all that is known. The knower's existence is presumed in all acts of knowing, acceptance, renunciation or indifference. The self is therefore the starting point of all knowledge. Leaving it aside, nothing can be known. This is called the soul's or self's predominance, or quality of uradhavata. hot, cold, happy or unhappy and such knowledge of feeling by the senses. This is called knowledge of experience and it can only be in the self and it is called a living being animal or a human being because it or he is capable of feeling sense-experience. This quality of the living self is known or called Vedakata on Vedanjnama and it is what the great Tirthankara has experienced. Jnayakata - Knowing That by which the material objects are separated from the spiritual self is known as the quality of knowability of the soul. Without this quality, the soul cannot know or understand anything and therefore this quality of knowability cannot exist anywhere but in the soul or the self. This knowability is the cause of all experiences of the self. Thus only the self knows. Sukhabhasa - Happiness Whatever feeling of happiness a living being experienced while in contact with all objects of sense, has its source in the conscious self; so no happiness can ever be experienced in the absence of the self. In the day to day life of a living human being or animal, one expresses that he or it slept happily. Thus in sleep, one is totally free from all contacts with worldly objects and yet the living being expresses happiness enjoyed in sleep. This even in sleep the sleeper the self is the source of happiness. Thus quality is therefore called sukhabhasa. Nowhere else in any object of not-self, this quality of happiness can ever be found. Hence the self is the base of all happiness. Chaitanyata - Consciousness While considering the nature of the self it becomes clear that it is self illuminated and it illuminates all else e.g the lustrous or luminous candle, jewel, moon and sun etc. All these are incapable of lustre in the absence of the luminous self. Only in the self presence these objects spread lustre. All the above characteristics of the self should be reflected upon in many ways. By knowing these qualities the nature of pure self can well be known and understood. This is clearly said by the great Tirthankara Vardhaman Mahavira. *** 41 (454) Mumbai, First Ashadha Vad Fourth, Monday, V-S 1949 A man desiring clearly to lead worldly or family life with love has either not heard the teachings of a spiritually enlightened saint or has not seen him. This is what Tirthankara says. One who has a broken waist loses his bodily strength. One who has been struck by the stick of the teachings of the enlightened saint has only diminishing or deteriorating strength or attachment to worldly life. This is said by Tirthankara. OM Vedakata - Experience Only the conscious self or soul is able to say that he or it experiences the taste like tasteless, sweet, sour or pungent, or feels

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 70 SELECTED 100 LETTERS You know that the man, who is attracted to a woman after meeting an enlightened saint, has not really met him. After meeting an enlightened saint, and hearing his spiritual teachings, a man cannot but see a living woman as a corpse. Really he would consider all wealth as the deterioration of earth. His soul would not desire or experience rest and ease and stability any where except in the shelter of an enlightened saint. This and such other teachings were given by the enlightened saints to their disciples, and following such teachings simple human beings used to proceed for their liberation. Even on occasions of death they would stick to these soul-uplifting teachings. There are many other matters worth remembering constantly by spiritual aspirants. In brief total indifference of a spiritual aspirant to worldly life, affection for even a small virtue of another man, much affliction towards a small vice in him, much strength in removing such vice, all these points are worth grasping firmly from the teachings of enlightened saints in an attitude of total surrender to them. As far as you can try to adopt retirement and look for such a time, select a proper place for spending your retirement from worldly work; accept only those substance suitable to your retirement in peace and keep always your mental liking for such retirements. Tirthankar Lord Mahavira also advised his disiciple Gautam who was also an enlightened saint, not to spend even a moment in infatuation i.e. to constantly think about his spiritual advantage. 42 (460) Mumbai, Second Ashadh Vad Tenth, Monday, V.S. 1949 Brother Kunverji, At Shri Kalol. Your bodily pain, taking it to be the nature of a living body and also as a result of your past deeds should be suffered with equanimity. Many a time bodily ailment gives unbearable pain which even good men are not able to bear with equanimity but one can maintain it by thinking in ones own heart that the real self is permanent, indestructible, impregnable and is free from old age, death etc. One definitely sticks to the fact of distinction between the permanent self and the changing but unbearable pain of bodily diseases. Remembering the great troubles borne as trifles by the enlightened saints and taking courage from such experience of great men, one is helped much in bearing all sorts of bodily and mental pains and all these pains vanish after their time is over and they never return to such a man. The best thing is that when a man is bodily healthy and capable of braving hardships, he should realize that his self is quite different in nature than that of his body and that his body is only temporary and bound to die out and so he should renounce all his attachment of affection and love to his body and all external objects of the world. Suppose a man has not developed such an attitude towards his body, then he should do so even when he faces bodily troubles. Then also he is not that much bound by his deeds. So when he is facing the advent of deadly diseases then even, he should set aside the possessiveness of his body and he should follow scrupulously the instructions of enlightened saint. This is the finest - Salutations

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72 SELECTED 100 LETTERS remedy. Though to throw away the sense of mineness of one's body or to lessen it is very difficult yet it can be done sooner or later by a person who is determined to do so. So long as one's living body is the best means of knowing that he is quite different in nature from that of his body, some care of his body is beneficial to him in obtaining his liberation. And believing this relation of means to the end there is no harm even to use medicine to remove bodily pain, but this should be done only with the sole aim of utilizing his regaining health for surrendering himself to the will of an enlightened saint leading him to liberation. To this extent the sense of mineness for one's body is permissible. Thus in the end, such a man will enjoy equanimity of mind both in the condition of happiness or sorrow, pleasure or pain, life or death. At no time a spiritual aspirant should think of his body as the source of bodily pleasures of sense enjoyment or think that he has to abandon such source with distress. In all occasions of bodily troubles, a spiritual aspirant should always feel that he was given human body only to think of his permanent self shining in his body. This is the way to his spiritual good or welfare. Shri Tirthankara and great saints like him have said that a man should draw his intellectual powers to obey the guidance of the enlightened saints and live fearlessly and remorselessly, and I say the same thing. For no reason one should be afflicted by this worldly life. Want of proper thinking and ignorance of one's infinite past are the main causes of all his afflictions, infatuation and adverse fortune or wrong life. The cause of one's return to his real self is good spiritual 73 thinking of ultimate truth and self-knowledge. The most effective way to my mind to achieve it is to meditate on the teachings of spiritual saint. 43 (466) 1. SELECTED 100 LETTERS 2. -Salutation from me Petlad, Bhadarwa Sud Sixth V.S. 1949 Think with a steady mind, a saying that you should make certain whether the person has attained religion from whom you have asked for it. You only ask for religion from one whom you have already known or recognised as a spiritually enlightened saint, and you should consider yourself fully fortunate that you have contacted such a great person that your meritorious deeds of the past have brought about this spiritual contact. You accept his teachings whole heartedly and without any suspicion or doubt and by such following you can abandon faith in wrong perspective difference of religious opinions, loss of faith or deception. and saying of untruth etc. In other words, you should not accept any of your prejudices or your preconceived notions of religion. The religion of the self is in the self itself and the teachings of a self realized person show the path of reaching the self. Do not engage yourself in any other religious path. 3. If you after doing all what is said above find yourself unable to leave your preconceived religious notions or ideas and wrong

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 74 SELECTED 100 LETTERS religious beliefs, then you should not expect to be liberated at concentration of mind on some point or a yoga of some kind may do him spiritual good but by none of these imaginary means, his good can be realized. His spiritual good is always thought of by an enlightened saint and it can be well grasped by coming in personal contact with him. Therefore all imaginary ideas of self liberation should never be entertained by any spiritual aspirant An aspirant for liberation should clearly bear in mind that whatever spiritual teaching he has received from his contact with his spiritual master, he should try to prove it true and effective by his complete surrender to him and by following him in letter and spirit and thereby get free from prejudices of all kinds in such a way that no other person has any occasion to mistrust those teachings of enlightened saints The enlightened saint has said quite enough by way of guidance to all spiritual aspirants but only the hearer disciple has not followed it well or has not acted accordingly, very rarely it happens that a spiritual aspirant has met an enlightened saint and has followed him completely. The devotion to a great saint is always effective as it never fails its end. Once you desire to meet a geat soul with a view to be his faithful disciple and accordingly you secured him then whatever results from it is beneficial as compared with the fruitlessness of meeting a wrong spiritual guide. If in that time you show firmness in the nature of a great saint his contact will be beneficial to you by passage of time in leading you to a clear path of liberation. At some time I felt much restrained in this matter but keeping the good of a spiritual aspirant in mind, I have forgotten to keep or harbour any such restraint or dejection I do not say of my own that one should do this or that for liberation, but when somebody repeatedly asks me about the religious path then only what things as said above are in my memory, I recite them to him. Till now, to none coming in my contact, have I said you behave this way or you do this or that. What I have said to them is only repeating the teachings of Tirthankara Mahavir helpful to all aspirants for self realization or liberation. My nature is such that I stop speaking about my practical spiritual guidance. To normal questions by some one, I give replies by speaking to him, but my speech returns to me when there is an occasion of giving religious advice. Innumerable spiritually enlightened great men of the past, though exceptional experts in self-realization, can not effectively remove the spiritual faults or defects of the spiritual aspirants or devotees of the present time. This means that they of the past, cannot come now to the present, and point out the aspirants defects but only one who is an enlightened person now can show the present disciples fault and help him to get it removed from him. It is just like the scene of sweet water or milk at a great distance, cannot quench the thirst of water or milk of a thirsty man near here. What he requires now is only a tumbler full of milk or water here that can satisfy orquell his thirst. A living being by his imagination, may think that a sort of meditation will do him spiritual good, or by Samadhi or right 5. 6.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 9. I complete this letter by advising you to proceed in your path of surrendering yourself to the lotus like feet of an enlightened saint which will quell all your defects and bring you everlasting peace and quiet-the enlightened saint who has let off his ego-sense after acquiring absolute knowledge of self realisation by merging all activities of his body, mind and speech in his absolute experience of the self. 76 A little displeased or indifferent in these troublesome times by feeling alone!!! 44 (486) *** Mumbai, Falgum Sud Eleventh Sunday V-S 1950 Lord Tirthankar calls pramad or infatuation karma or act or deed, and non- infatuation is called non-karma or self and by this kind of difference the nature of the ignorant or non-enlightened is distinguished from that of the enlightened soul. Suyagadanga Sutra-Virya Adhyayana Pamayam kammamahansu Appamayam Taharvaram! Tabbhavade saovavi Balam Pandiyamevava !! The family in which a man is born and in whose contact he has lived the unenlightened soul develops the sense of mineness and, gets engrossed in it. (Suyagadanga Prathamadhyayan) Jessin Kule Samuppanne Jehin Va Samavas Nare! Mamai Luppai Bale Anne Annehi Muchhie 77 SELECTED 100 LETTERS Sutrakrutanga Shru. 1st Adhyayana Fourth couplet. The enlightened men that have been in the past or those that will be in future - all of them called peace -as getting tired by wrong action and returning from the same as the foundation of religion. As earth is the support of all living beings or that the living beings get their position on earth or that their first support is earth, similarly the support of all welfare is peace like this earth. This is declared by all enlightened souls. Suyagadanga. Jeya Buddha Atikkanta, Je ya Buddha Anagaya! Santi Tesi Paithanam Bhuyanam. Jagati Jaha!! Sutrakrutanga Shru. Eleventh Adhyayana Thirty sixth couplet. 45 (491) *** Mumbai Falgum V.S. 1950 OM Lord Tirthankara repeatedly advised the following: O human beings! You understand preaching, the right preaching. Human birth is very difficult to get, yet in all four kinds of birth there is fear for a living soul - this you must know well. True discrimination of the souls nature is difficult to have by ignorance. The whole world is burning alone with miseries. Also know well that all living beings get on the wrong path by their own acts and as you should reflect on your true self. Suyagadanga-Seventh Adhyayana Eleventh couplet

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 78 One who has determined to be free from all sorts of miseries, should inquire thoroughly about the nature of his own self and such a person setting aside his faith in all means such as yoga or restraints and niyama or instructions give prominence to search for spiritual contact of an enlightened saint and getting it, should surrender to him completely and for this purpose he should never think of going after worldly life. Leaving aside all his personal beliefs and opinions and prejudices he should stick to the spiritual good contact by all power to his command and surrender to his spiritual master completely and follow his instructions unflinchingly. Tirthankara says that any one who follows such advices or instructions, masters the spiritual contact and in the end propitiates his self and the researcher of his self becomes free from all pain and misery. Sambujaha Jantava Manusattam Datthuim bhayam Balisenam Alambho! Egantadukhe Jarie Va Loe Sakkamana Vippariyasu Vei !! Even though I behave totally free, from all kinds of trouble agony and disease natural, spiritual and phenomenal, I still have devotion to spiritual contacts and leaving it, is difficult for me. The uniqueness of spiritual contact impresses me day and night. Still some times some obstacles come in my way and still though mostly in me. I do not feel sorry for any thing else but I do feel sorry for these obstructions to my spiritual contact. All lands, all men, all actions all talks etc. appear to me unknown to me, unattractive, not belonging to me, quite indifferent to me. non-beautiful to me, not evoking any infatuation in me, and totally and naturally uninteresting to me. Only the enlightened men the spiritual aspirants or those who are my camp followers on the path to liberation and their contact appear well 79 SELECTED 100 LETTERS known, my own, worth loving, beautiful, attractive and full of spiritual interest to me. Thus, my mind mostly enjoying freedom feels attracted to and affectionate to spiritual aspirants like you. *** 46 (504) Mumbai Vaisakh, V.S. 1950 The work of my mind, speech and body has these days increased more than expected and therefore I am not able to write letters etc. I do not wish increasing this work still it comes to me and I am going through it. It also appears that in some way this is proper because by such increase of work one day it will stop in its source and I shall be relieved of it well. In case I oppose it, such opposition may result in my dejection, if it does not slow down by my opposing it and as the pure self may not enjoy peace and manifest illumination as desired by me. Therefore I have decided to go through whatever work of mind, speech and body comes to me uncalled for and such attitude seems to me to be more proper to adopt. It is a great good result that if owing to some present cause one recognizes correctly a spirtual saint well known in the past and if that is not accepted as true then to call such a saint as all knowing or self luminous, does not benefit a spiritual aspirant at all and this is quite experienced by me. If one has not recognized the spiritual saint in direct contact with him by one reason or another in thought, obedience or in right appreciation then such non recognition is not helpful to him in his path to liberation. In such a condition either service or want of service to the present spiritual saint does not put him on the right spiritual road i.e, his human condition does not

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS change for the better and so the spiritual guide cannot be said to have accepted it at all. Many present occurrences indicate the most troublesome nature of our present time and so it is called adverse Kalikala. Many a time adverse times, have been in the past in the rotation of time but such troublesome and adverse time is found rarely. There is a traditional talk in the people of Shvetambar sect of Jainism that the great Tirthankaras have considered the time as totally harmful when rogues are worshipped and the illumined saints are not even recognized at all - this section of time is called Panchamkala or fifth stage of time rotation which is extremely surprising to spiritual aspirants. I experience this matter in many ways. I see it actually (i.e. the adverse time) as it really is. Not only the present adverse time is very bad but also the area over which it rotates is also very adverse and unsuited for spiritual progress so can be called very low or Anarya. In such adverse circumstances of time and place we find ourselves to-day. Therefore occasions of spiritual contact may be simple or easy but many people consider it very difficult to find in the present times. Hence a spiritual aspirant should devote himself to a known spiritual saint he meets with, irrespective of public opinion that at present worshipping one's pure self under the guidance of the spiritual saint contacted by him is most difficult. What other way is there? One should surrender himself to his present spiritual master without any consideration of matter, area, time or mental sentiment. 47 (510) Mumbai Ashadhsud Sixth, Sunday, V-S 1950 My request to Shri Tribhuvandas possessed of all good wishes and staying at Khambhat that: The study and practice of quelling down the shut up mental desires or modifications and of getting totally relieved of them is worth keeping up. Because without thinking of being relieved of them and without making any effort for doing so, how can they be removed from the living soul? Because there cannot be any effect without a cause. Therefore one cannot expect a relief from something without putting an adequate effort for such relief. Many time a man has in the past, taken pride in telling that he has been free from his wrong wishes or desires but he has not actually worked for getting such result and he is not yet in the present working for getting relieved of them nor does he find or take any active interest in doing so. Feeling this well and suffering bitterly from oppressive desires and bad wishes he does not start any positive action for relief. This matter a living soul must reflect on repeatedly or he will have to suffer adverse result of his negligence. This he should not forget any time. The way a man gets infatuated in his possessions like family, sons, friends and weather etc., is quite uninteresting and worth sensuring from the point of view of his spiritual welfare. On a little self reflection a man can clearly see that one has done incalculable harm by considering another human being as his son or his father and no two living beings have ever been really as father and son or a son and father. In worldly life people are called related as father and son or as son and father. All souls are in fact quite independent entities and all worldly relations are only make belief or external * * *

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS impositions. This living soul is really unborn, indestructible, bodiless, permanent and ever present or eternal as pure self. So imposing such relations on him is sheer madness or infatuation and no aspirant for liberation should fall prey to it. 82 The kind of infatuation etc. you wrote to me about, will put both the parties in continuous transformations and therefore an occasion for misery for both the souls. If an enlightened soul behaves as infatuated by accepting such relations, it amounts to putting one's feet on the knowledge or illumination he has acquired and it is the source of his night of ignorance. Knowing this well, both the parties should realize their independence of each other and get free from any bond of relationship. For their ultimate good both of them should think rightly and feel their real selves keeping aside their worldly relationsip. This way they should spend no time in realising. As far as possible you and other spiritual aspirants near you should retire from all such talks of relationship and thus be on the path of your spiritual progress. This will be for the benefit of every living soul. *** 48 (511) Mumbai, Ashadha Sud Sixth Sunday V-S. 1950 To my affectionate friend Shri Subhagya at Anjar (Kutch) I received your detailed letter and a postcard too. Every spiritual aspirant should think of the questions written in your letter. Whatever means of liberation followed by an aspirant living soul in his past do not seem to have been followed according to the instructions of his spiritually enlightened master and this appears to 83 SELECTED 100 LETTERS me an undoubted fact. If it had been done so then such soul would not have been still. roaming in this cycle of birth and death. The instructions of an enlightened spiritual saint are a strong stopper of the worldly cycle of birth and death. An enlightened spiritual master has no other end or aim but to guide his disciple to what illumination or liberation he himself has reached or obtained and after selfrealisation his living body continues only to go through the results of his past deeds. Such a self realized spiritual guide or master's instruction inspires a spiritual aspirant to his liberation only. And his living soul has not at all known in his past what is self-interest only his self-interest continues with his transmigration only by way of his loss of memory of it. Such an ignorant human being by following his own imaginary means for liberation can never achieve liberation but on the contrary he develops a false understanding full of pride that he proceeds on the path of liberation and such pride or misunderstanding cause him to continue in the cycle of birth and death. If one considers that he has attained self-realization - an experience which never comes in dream or which is not possible even in his dream then he cannot gain any spiritual advantage. Similarly this living soul has been blind to his real self and as such he has passed through many lives in his past yet believes something as a means to liberation by his fertile imagination, then it is quite easy to believe that he can never be successful in getting the right way to self realization. Thus it appears to me that there is no other means of liberation for such a blind soul but the unique or unprecedented spiritual knowledge and such spiritual knowledge cannot be attained without unique thought about it. And realizing that such unique thought cannot come to a man without propitiation to an enlightened spiritual guide or master and strict adherence to his instructions, the principle is proved that the best way of being an illuminated spiritual saint or

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84 SELECTED 100 LETTERS a self-realised being is to propitiate by all ways the instructions of one's spiritually enlightened master. Only when this fact is admitted undoubtedly by a spiritual aspirant then only the quelling of his faults or defects of all kind begins. Shri Jin Tirthankara has defined a soul's ignorance in many ways and in them on various occasions or places he has been described as the dealer in various infinite kinds of deeds, and these deeds have bound him from times immemorial and this statement is perfectly correct. But here you ask whether relief from such bondage of deeds of an impending past is ever possible even though the means of its removal may be extremely strong or powerful? If what your question suggests is really true then what you feel that freedom from such bondage of deeds is not at all possible is also correct. By way of reply to your above stated question the great Jin has said that this bondage of one's deeds though of a long past has till date continued but he has also said that by right knowledge of his self he can stop suffering future bondage as all his past deeds can be suffered in sum total by an enlightened person and he can be released from this bondage by scrupulously surrendering to his spiritually enlightened master. Since ignorance of true nature of the eternal self is the root cause of this bondage of deeds of an endless past and spiritual knowledge and guidance of an illumined saint can totally remove it and he can stop for ever this flow of deeds and consequent cycle of birth and death by such guidance. The enlightened Jin has not said that the fruits of his actions the soul will have to suffer for infinite future. He has kept aside the talk of a spiritual disciple. He only says that so long as a soul's ignorance of identification of his embodied soul with his real self continues till that time only he has to suffer the fruits of his past 85 SELECTED 100 LETTERS deeds. But the moment he starts receiving the guidance of his spiritual saintly master he stops performing new binding actions and he starts getting relieved from the fruits of his binding past deeds and when that retiring cycle continue, he feels greater and greater ease and relief. The light of his self shines in his getting stronger and stronger day by day by the grace of his spiritual master, his infatuation and body sense get fainter and fainter. It is well known that even a spark of fire can burn a big hay-stack, similarly guru's guidance as a spark helps his disiciple to get clear off all his past deeds performed by him in ignorance. Whatever the disciples past, his future is bright when he surrenders to his spiritual guide. This soul may have to continue to take births and deaths in future if he continues to behave under the influence of his ignorance of his self as he has done in the past. The nature of the effects of ignorance, is that they die out on the rise of illumination of the soul's real nature as self. It the soul gets permanently bound by his deeds done under infatuation of a long time past then there will be no scope for his liberation. The Jin therefore clearly says that the soul can be free from his deeds by receiving knowledge of his true self from his spiritually enlightened master or a saint An ignorant soul cannot perform binding actions of the same harming kind in a serial order as he has no such time to perform them, otherwise before he gets relieved of previous binding deed he would have created another bondage for him and this serial order would keep him always bound with no chance of his release. Besides the Jin has said that lifebinding action is such that when a living soul finished two thirds of his life, then on the remaining one third of his life he performs binding action for his future birth, supposing he does not do so and he does not perform binding actions for his two further births - this is possible. Therefore a soul can perform such relieiving actions by which he can remove the

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 86 87 SELECTED 100 LETTERS efforts of binding action by getting enlightened regarding the nature of his self as different from that of his body and the other non-self. The Jin has very minutely described this part of his findings and it is worth serious consideration by a spiritual aspirant. From this stand point, the Jin has explained the possibility of the release of a living being from all binding actions of his past. I have written the above matter in brief and by repeatedly thinking about it, you will get satisfactory solution of your doubt, and when we meet I shall further explain it to your satisfaction. Good spiritual contact is a powerful force to burn all passions. All enlightened saints have said that conquering one's passions is most difficult and it is quite true proved in many instances. But as a spiritual aspirant merges himself in understanding the teachings of his spiritual master, he slowly returns from his attachment to passions and his self force becomes so strong as to throw away all his overpowering passions. Since living soul has not known the nature of his passions he does not normally try for his relief. If he had known it, he would find no interest in those passions. - Salutations to the nature of self. Shri Vardhaman Swami knew that his own family life was meaningless, was not worth, doing or going through. Still he left his home and family and adopted the living of a monk and even in that monkhood, knowing that more than the power of his monkish efforts for liberation are necessary, to acquire such extraordinary powers, he observed silence and sleeplessness for nearly a period of twelve and a half years by which the fire of worldly life could never touch or involve him at all. Shri Vardhaman Swami was a non-enjoyer of household life while he was already a householder and a family man yet he lived as completely aloof from family attachments, he lived desirelessly and lived like a monk even in his family life. He constantly thought of his permanent self while in his family life. Such a man like Shri Vardhaman Swami knowing fruitlessness of worldly life, finding no interest in all worldly activities he went away and lived as a recluse. Now if a soul knowing all this, wants or expects to enjoy samadhi or mental case and meditation by keeping himself engaged in worldly life, how is it possible? One should seriously think about this matter. On the other hand one should remember the life and activity of Shri Vardhaman Swami mentioned above at every stage and on all moments of his living and thereby try to set aside all interest in and attraction to worldly life. If man doesn't do it, then it appears that he has no proper desire for liberation or that he wishes his welfare based on public opinion. But this means that he doesn't really want his welfare. Because it is not possible at all times that two persons one of whom behaves like Shri Vardhaman Swami and the other behaves as an ordinary householder having only a pious desire for liberation can realise the same result and still one may feel himself bound and the other may feel totally free from worldly life. 49 (516) Mumbai, Shravan Vad First V-S. 1950 As water by nature is cool but putting it in a vessel under fire it would get hot even though it is against its nature, similarly the man by nature quiet in his meditation gets ruffled by engaging in worldly deeds, this I feel, clearly.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS 50 (522) Mumbai, Bhadarwa Sud Third, Sunday, V.S. 1950 When a man knows well a spiritually enlightened saint his long standing afflictions like anger, pride, delusion or infatuation and greed begin to soften down or lose their force or attractive powers and gradually they are on the path of elimination. In such saintly contact growing stronger, a man knows more and more his spiritual guide and thereby his prejudices, wrong beliefs etc. get weaker and weaker and he begins to see his own faults and he feels no interest in wrong statements, talks or beliefs and he develops an understanding of their fruitlessness. He considers all worldly things as impermanent and as he withdraws himself from them and, collecting all strength to his command becomes firm about the evanescence of all worldly objects. This means that he after knowing a spiritually enlightened saint, reasons that he then does not feel attached or attracted to enjoyments of the objects of his five senses as he did before meeting the said saint, and gradually all such attractions fade away and as a result he develops total non-attachment to all worldly life and he realizes that after meeting his spiritual master, self-realization or liberation is not difficult to obtain. Still a man cannot think of his self without keeping full faith in his spiritual master and in his instructions. He should love him and his teachings and also his intentions behind his teachings. He should be devoted to this in all ways; and if he does not act this way, then it is difficult to admit that he has really contacted a spiritual saint. After meeting a spiritually enlightened master a man must feel that all his previous efforts for welfare or liberation were misleading, fruitless and they were like arrows released without aim. He should feel that only now his efforts for liberation under the guidance of his living spiritual master will bring success in his joumey to self-realization or liberation. He should realize that whatever means he adopted following public opinion for liberation was a fruitless toil and now he should keep awake to his spiritual master's instructions and knowing this well, he should be bold enough not to waste the golden opportunity he has got and proceed to realize his permanent self. He should avoid the obstructions in his spiritual path such as I know everything; I have pride of my learning and knowledge of the scriptures, I know my family religion well and how can I stop doing what my predecessor have done as a part of their religious life, following public opinion about devotion to spiritual master and withdrawing affection, respect for his spiritual teacher on finding some undeserving or wrong or faulty action of his spiritual master and believing that he should follow such family action as he found in his teacher etc. etc. All these obstacles of spiritual path are summed up under indefinite anger, pride, delusion, and greed. All this should well be understood by a spiritual aspirant. Here I have written about it what I could About Quiescence, stoppage of destruction and Kshayik Samyaktva. Whatever brief definitions I had given similar to that is already remembered by Tribhovan. Wherever this living soul has taken birth he has adopted or assumed the various kinds of worldly life and there he has behaved with pride of that birth, without removing such pride the soul has left his body and objects related to his body. Therefore he has not eliminated his pride by the help of self knowledge and such wrong dispositions of his, still continue to work in his present birth and this

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS is the cause of his worldly life and this has not been written here in detail. I shall think of regularity in my writing letters etc. 51 (534) To, *** 90 Mumbai, Kartiksud Third Wednesday, V-S 1951 Salutation to the spiritual saint Shri Lalluji worthy of spiritual contact with a mind full of nonattachment staying at Suryapur (Surat) May you receive greetings from Raichand from Mumbai and desirous of the state of liberation in this life. I have received your three letters at short intervals of time. The present soul has lost his right direction and gone on the wrong path because of the covering of steep ignorance or infatuation so the spiritual path does not come to his sight. Besides he firmly believes that the (wrong) path he has adopted is the correct path he should follow and so when he meets a spiritually enlightened saint he does not feel he should surrender to him and follow his instructions. Describing such precarious plight of himself he should in all humility pray as under : O Lord! I now do not see any correct path of liberation as I have chosen a path for getting looted of all I had and inspite of my easy godliness and after making all efforts accordingly I have acted on quite opposite lines. So I pray you relieve me of all my previous effects and let me grow in me a spirit of complete surrender to a spiritually enlightened master. Please grant me what I pray for and 91 SELECTED 100 LETTERS oblige or bless me. The twenty couplets composed by me expressing the above desire of aspirant for liberation must have been memorized by you - the first of these twenty couplets starting with the words; Oh God oh God what shall I say to you? You are the great protector of all miserable souls, being extremely merciful yourself etc. try to appreciate these twenty couplets in your heart so as to develop in you extreme humility and all round surrender to the will of the great enlightened master. Other eight poems in trotak meter in which I have shown what a spiritual aspirant has wrongly done in the past and what he should rightly do now and that he should realize the futility of his previous efforts and accept the appropriateness of what he should now do - all this he should appreciate and understand in detail. Only this way he can start in the right direction leading to his liberation. If you have completed reading Yogavasishta then keeping it aside for some time read Uttaradhyayan Sutra. You should inquire whether your family religion can deliver the spiritual good. Normally one does not doubt it and follows his family religious practices believing them to be bringing him to liberation. Thus he misses the bus and goes on wandering aimlessly. Therefore it is desirable for a spiritual aspirant to work for contacting a spiritual master in a short time and surrender to him completely and he should realize that the study of Yogavasishta and Uttaradhyan Sutra etc. are to be read for developing in him a spirit of non-attachment and complete quelling of all worldly desires for enjoying the peace of his self and such reading will help him to see perfect consistency in all teachings of his master leading him to his liberation Salutations from the real self ***

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS SELECTED 100 LETTERS 52 (537) Mumbai, Kartaka Sud Seventh Saturday V.S. - 1951 Salutations to spiritual saints, To The spiritual aspirants staying in Khambhat (Cambay) Best wishes to you all from Raichand at Mumbai keeping the memory of my real self. I acknowledge receipt of one letter from a spiritual aspirant Ambalal.It is natural for you all to feel sorry seeing the flickering mind of Krishnadas. If possible ask him to read Yogavasishta from its third chapter onwards or you read it before him so that he can hear and think about the reading material and arrange spiritual contacts often in your spare time from your other religious movements, It is better to arrange a spare time by day for spiritual thinking, reading and discussion about spiritual matters. I shall think over your desire for my spiritual contact with you. I think such meeting can be arranged in the last half of Magasara month or in the beginning of Posha Month. Krishnadas should remove all conflicting thoughts from his mind because a thinking soul can have no fear other than the fear of ignorance in this world. He should only desire the removal of this ignorance and should not entertain any other desire. Suppose he finds in him any other desire excepting the desire for his relief from ignorance, then also he should stick to the idea that this worldly life is like a prison of his soul that all worlds are burning with all sorts of miseries and full of fear and burning with fruits of attachment and hatred and all this serves as an obstacle to his acquisition of right spiritual knowledge of his self. Therefore he should realize that early relief from worldly life is the way to remove all fear and dejection He should therefore retire from all worldly contacts. The Great soul Shri Tirthankara has advised the non-attached souls to bear whatever adverse times they have to pass through. Describing the nature of adverse times he says two kinds of adversities, one ignorance and two wrong sight or perception. Supposing some adverse circumstances face us powerfully and in spite of surrendering to a spiritually enlightened guru or master, we do not dare to remove the cause of our ignorance then in such adverse condition too we should maintain patience and increase our contact with our spiritual master only this way the ignorance will weaken to self and gradually get eliminated; or gone for good. Because our soul has a strong determination to destroy our ignorance and so such ignorance will lose all support and so will have no reason to continue with us. Its only support is the effect of our previous deeds and this effect will also be abandoned by us as we have no interest in any worldly actor in its results. Thus we should patiently bear the mental disturbance. We may suffer from knowing well that they will go away for good after some time. Therefore even such sufferance is also called a part of Paramartha or the highest good of our soul. Here I have stated the nature of both the above said kinds of troubles of our soul. But this patient bearing of adverse times is not identical with pramador a mental condition of making no effort to remove these sufferings. This all of us should bear in mind. Shri Tirthankara and others have repeatedly advised spiritual aspirants not to be deluded by any wrong ideas about their liberation Where a soul desires to remain in delusion then there is no salvation for him. They have repeatedly said that if a soul strongly desires his liberation he can quite easily achieve it. But by other ways he can

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 94 SELECTED 100 LETTERS reaching his pure self, and the spiritual master who does not change his nature while instructing his disciple to get the self-knowledge, deserves all praise. Till the spiritual master reaches such a perfect stage, he deserves leaving his mastership and trying to behave towards his disciple as the disciples disciple never achieve liberation. And this is quite easy to understand because one is asked only to understand the nature of his self as it is and not in any other form and this too is not the talk about revealing the nature of any other self. We ask him to understand his own nature and therefore misunderstanding in this matter is not possible under instructions of a self realized spiritual master. How is it possible for one to keep concealed about his own nature ? But as in a dream one believes in what he sees in a dream as real, though nothing of it is really there, similarly one soul finds entangled in worldly rotational life though after realizing his own self, finds that he is quite disembodied pure sentience or consciousness ever luminous and enlightening everything that is not self. Once imaginary ideas of one's self are gone the soul manifests its own nature and that is liberation, Once the pure self is realized the living being has undoubtedly realised the goal no matter he may not have adopted the means of meditation, incantation, body control, mind control. pilgrimage, devotion, scriptural knowledge etc. as approved by worldly people. Salutations from the real self. 54. (Handwritten notes 2-7) O soul! keeping your fixed gaze try to look within and there you will experience your own real nature as pure self. O living being! Because of your wrong sight the nature of your pure self is not seen by you and you have doubts about it, you are in illusion and are afraid of your pure self. By a right vision all your delusion and fear will vanish. O you deserving right vision! Right behaviour must result from right vision; therefore do not have any misunderstanding about your pure self or about right vision and right action. One that brings to you delusion,is your karma bondage, even that will be well recognized by you. O you capable of right behavior or action! Now you should not wait for right vision, no delay should you cause in having right vision and consequent right experience of your real self. Many obstacles in your path of right knowledge have now been removed then why do you waste time in realizing your pure self? 53 (539) Mumbai, Kartik Sud Fourteenth Monday V-S 1951 From the view point of the pure self all living beings have the same nature. Only when the living soul tries to consider another object as his own, then only he suffers, revolving around the various worlds, and the moment he realizes that he is only his pure self then his worldly life ends. Therefore a spiritual aspirant a researcher of his own self, should in all humility approach a spiritually enlightened master and surrender to him to follow his guidance in searching and

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 55 (560) 96 Mumbai, Posh, V-S-1951 Om If by getting the full shelter of an enlightened saint the best stage i.e, liberation becomes easy, then how can it be difficult to be in one's self every moment when a spiritual aspirant lives in full protection of his spiritual master? Because without single-minded devotion to the enlightened spiritual master there can be no attainment of liberation. All saints have decided in the same way that only by following a spiritual master's instructions carefully his disciple undoubtedly liberates himself. To him all means to it become very easy and favourable. Then when I say that you must be victorious on some of your mental dispositions then how can you not be victorious? It means you must be victorious. It is quite true that in these troubled times you should have more of spiritual contact and complete renunciation from wrong affections and attachments. Then a spiritual aspirant should desire hardest self liberating means and this way all spiritually beneficial means will be at his command in a very short time. Shri Tirthankara has also said that an enlightened saint whose worldly life has diminished to a great extent, is not bound by traditional ties, still he must continue constantly being in his pure self as this can more inspire and help his disciple in quickly reaching his goal of liberation. It will be easy for me to explain the poem quoted from Samayasara and other related principles when we personally meet in future. 97 SELECTED 100 LETTERS The enlightened saint has nothing to do with social service if it comes in the way of his self-freedom, but it may be as a result of his past deeds and still the spiritual saint wants to get rid off that too. And this is what I have done forcefully since past three years and while doing so whatever obstacles have come in my way of enjoying pure self, I have bravely gone through them, and during this period of patiently suffering them have always felt that I should be relieved of all contacts, and I have behaved in such a way that I may enjoy complete ease in completely getting away from all contacts. Still I think in my mind, now that it would be good for me to get relieved of all family relations even if it may not be possible for me to leave home and hearth. It is clear that no spiritual aspirant can continue his worldly activities and get remain in his pure self and become a spiritually enlightened saint. These days I have more and more been thinking in this matter whatever its result may I face. This need not be disclosed to the public at this stage. I may come to your side by the second day of the bright half of the month of Maha. - Salutations to the pure self. 56 (568) *** Mumbai, Falgun V-S-1951 A living being has been mistaken from times immemorial in deciding the nature of his pure self. So even today the living beings repeat the same mistake and this matter is not at all surprising. There is no other way to freedom from all afflictions and miseries but the acquisition of self-knowledge. Self knowledge can only result from right reflection or thinking about the self, and

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98 SELECTED 100 LETTERS the strength of ones thinking for self knowledge cannot work in contact with wrong spiritual guides or in engagement with not-self. This is undoubtedly true. Shri Tirthankara calls Samadhi or concentration the firmness of self-experience, and its opposite he calls Asamadhi or non-concentration. Shri Tirthankara calls the natural experience of one's own pure self as Dharma or religion. Shri Tirthankara calls Karma as flickering in self-experience. The way in which Shri Jain Thirthankara has decided the nature of bondage and liberation is not found in the Vedanth (Philosophy) and other related systems of philosophy and I am not able to see truth telling in other philosophies as I find in truth telling done by Shri Jin. In it good or bad results of internal thinking of the living soul are connected with his liberation or bondage, they are not decided by or connected with any bodily behaviour. A man suffers from bodily diseases according to his past deeds and accordingly feeble, slow, dejected, hot, cold grow the condition of his body. By the rise of a special type of a disease or by bodily debility the living body of a spiritually enlightened saint may shiver, may get ematiated or feeble, may become dejected, may lose strength, may be felt much angry or excited, may suffer from delusion, still the way he has cherished a desire for being spiritually instructed or for renunciation, the same way he mostly suffers his bodily diseases. No living being has ever been found to have an imperishable body neither this is known nor possible. All living beings must experience death at one time or another. And this is the indubitable 99 SELECTED 100 LETTERS experience of the living beings. In spite of this fact every living being forgets it and it is a matter of great surprise. The all knowing non attached Tirthankar veetrag whom many exceptional powers were manifested has also seen the living body as impermanent and evanescent, then how can other ordinary men make their bodies permanent ? Shri Jin has said that every particle of substance is capable of infinite changes. A living being has also infinite changes and every atom of substance goes through infinite changes. Conscious atom has conscious changes. The changes of a living being are never unconscious, and the changes of a lifeless substance are never conscious. The determination by Shri Jin is perfectly correct as such is so seen by thinking about the natures of conscious and unconscious substances. Do think about the living being, area in which he lives, the changes he undergoes, the numerable and innumerable changes or stages of substances conscious and unconscious according to your capacity. When you think about any thing that is not self, you should bear in mind that such thinking is done for helping your effort for liberation and not for purely knowing its nature. *** 57 (569) Mumbai Falgun Vad Third V-S 1951 Salutations to Shri spiritual Saints The only remendy for a release from all afflictions and all miseries, is self-knowledge which is not possible without proper

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 100 101 SELECTED 100 LETTERS thinking about it. The wrong contact or occasion of wrong contact weakens the soul's thinking powers. This is an undoubted fact. By reducing the occasions of beginnings and acquisition, the might of wrong contacts gets weakened, by contacts with spiritual saints and their teachings in their physical absence, the force of wrong contacts gets lost and after this the right contact is strongly desired and right thinking starts and by its progress comes self-knowledge. Self-knowledge manifests the nature of the pure self in the aspirants being and this is liberation from all afflictions and miseries. And this is pure truth. The living beings sleeping in the condition of utter infatuation are called Amuni or non-monks. Because a monk will always think of his pure self and keep awake in his self-knowledge. Only the sleeping in ignorance is surrounded by fear of all kinds. The ever wakeful soul has no fear of anything. This is said by Shri Jin. The main purpose of knowing the nature of every substance is only to know correctly and completely his own pure self. If the knowledge of all substances does not lead to a clear knowledge of pure self then it is fruitless. As one has self-knowledge, to that extent his concentration on the self happens or shines out. If a person gets self-knowledge he wakes up even for a moment towards his clear distinction between the self and the not self then in such a stage his liberation is not very far. To the extent a man gets merged or identified with any other object than his pure self, so far is liberation from him. If in human birth one realizes his pure self, then his human life is invaluable. Mostly without human birth no soul can get self liberation, knowing it well, one should firmly decide to get selfknowledge in his human birth. Usually the encirclement of wrong contact and occasions of misunderstanding are so overpowering a man that it is very difficult to arise in him a strong desire for self-knowledge or liberation. This soul has therefore been totally incapable of self-thinking during his infinite past and even in his present adverse circumstances. In case he starts desiring spiritual contact and succeed in personally meeting a spiritual master, then by his inspiration he can feel hunger for self-knowledge and he can satisfy it by the shelter of his master. By the way a man feels this world as transitory, fruitless he likes to return to something permanent and eternal, setting aside all allurements to this worldly life. Thus he starts self-reflection and in the end he gets it and enjoys complete freedom. The more he reflects by his mind on the distinction between a permanent self and a changing fleeting world around him including his own body, the more he desires to be free and is sorry for the time he lived in ignorance of right thinking and understanding. Many ignorant souls do not even take on lesson from the life of men like Janaka king who acted as a king with full knowledge of his permanent self. Therefore a spiritual aspirant should be afraid of spending useless life in sense pleasures and should follow the path of life adopted by the great renounced saints like Shri Jin Vardhaman Mahavira even though Shri Jin was a renounced person from his very birth. Only due to one's ignorance one experiences attachment and hatred, likes and dislikes. One should inspite of suffering from attachment and hatred, should aspire for complete freedom from worldly life for his living soul and it is only by this strong aspiration

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS that his enemies in the form of attachment and hatred etc. will be powerless and will leave him when he surrenders to the dictates of his spiritually enlightened master. 102 Extreme renounciation is possible in the presence of extreme self-knowledge. Shri Tirthankara has admitted that highest spiritual knowledge cannot be there where there is no extreme nonattachment or renunciation. To return the wrong imposition of the self on the not self is called by Shri Jain renunciation. For this purpose even leaving external objects or removing a false sense of I and mine in them is also spiritually helpful. He does not say that internal renunciation is for external renunciation.But keeping away from external contacts with the not self should be regarded as helpful to internal renunciation. Every day I have been thinking of getting release from all internal and external occasions of contact with the not-self, and feel that this should be over as early as possible; yet it appears that such thought and aspiration do not occur as I wish they are slow or weak and I therefore feel that I should put in more powerful effort in that direction. I have written in this letter some statements showing mutual relations and they are written to help you strengthen your efforts for final release, for your repeated reading and thinking. It would be proper for you to gradually understand the nature of a living being, area of existence, modifications of a substance, numbering of substance and their innumerability, infinity etc and the extensive pervasion of interest. *** 103 58 (570) SELECTED 100 LETTERS Mumbai Falgun Vad Fifth, Saturday, V-S-1951 To a wise brother Shri Mohanlal (Mahatma Gandhi) at Durban. I have received one letter from you. As one abandons his troubling adjuncts to that extent, one enjoys the happiness and ease of Samadhi or steadiness of self-experience. As you accept the adjuncts, to that extent, your experience of happiness and ease of the pure self goes on decreasing. By thinking on this matter it becomes directly understandable. If one thinks of worldly life and its objects he can not but think of renouncing them because only by wrong understanding, attraction to them is possible. Shri Jin has described six stages of self realization knowing which stages, is called discriminative knowledge by him-these six stages can be established as indubitably true by reflective thinking and they are as under (1) self exists. (2) self is eternal (3) self performs actions (4) Therefore the self enjoys or suffers the fruits there of. (5) Therefore returing from such performance is called release and it is possible. (6) There are specific means of such release. Every spiritual aspirant should specially pay attention to these six stages of self realization and study them well. By some good deeds of one's past, a man is able to know these stages well and clearly or it happens as a result of spiritual contact with enlightened saints. By attachment to the transitory objects of the world one does not become conscious of these six stages of release. Only infatuated living beings do not realize the existence, permanence, and unobstructed happiness and ease of their real self. The living being under the influence of ignorance of these six stages of release has been migrating from one world to another undergoing births and

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS deaths and he has identified himself so deeply in worldly life that he gets tired of discriminating it and returns to his usual rut, and before he approaches the moment of destroying that knot of his ignorance he leaves the right discrimination and this has happened many times in his past lives. Because of that bondage, the soul suffers from ages immemorial, cannot be abandoned by him in a short period except by exceptionally concentrated effort. Therefore such a soul should devote his mind to repeated spiritual saintly contacts to the study of the teachings of spiritual saints and to develop in him simple straight thinking of the pure eternal self. Only as a result of these right efforts he will surely get right knowledge of his self which will be eternal, indestructible and with everlasting happiness, and in the end the aspiring soul will realize his pure self. In this way all doubts are dispelled by peace and patience in thinking. By impatience or by wrongly imagining the nature of self, the living being has to abandon the way beneficial to him and by clinging to transitory objects he turns round and round like a rolling stone going nowhere, and he continues his cyclic rotation. I have satisfaction in knowing that you cherish a desire to think about your real self. In this satisfaction I have no selfish motive. I only feel that you will face an occasion to get relieved of the worldly afflictions as you desire to follow the path of Samadhi or mental equipoise - the path of right thinking about your pure self. Seeing this possibility in you, I naturally experience satisfaction. Salutations to pure self. 104 ** 105 59 (575) SELECTED 100 LETTERS Mumbai, Falgun, V-S 1951 The teachings of enlightened saints are a strong support to a spiritual aspirant who tries to fix his mind in meditation on the nature of his pure self till it completely shines forth as it is. This teaching of Shri Tirthankara is perfectly correct. The spiritual aspirant experiencing the twelfth stage of virtue, fixing his mind in the concentration on the nature of his self is helped in his march to his pure self by the support of scriptural knowledge in the form of the teachings of the enlightened Shri Jin. This is regarded as a standard of right knowledge and right experience in the spiritual path of liberation chalked out by Shri Jin. Even after accepting the right teaching seed, and after having a firm decision on the path of one's release, a spiritual aspirant must consider the shelter of an enlightened guide or teacher as a continuous support and encouragement to him in his spiritual path for progress and this shelter he should have till he perfectly becomes his pure self. If this does not happen, then he is likely to detract from his path. Therefore it is rightly said that a man who has been deluded by ignorance of a long standing past, cannot by his own efforts, get fixed in the right path of spiritual knowledge and experience in the absence of a living spiritiual guide. Even when a spiritual aspirant has firmly decided about the nature of his pure self, he is misguided often by worldly considerations; then where is the scope for surprise that worldly considerations may divert a spiritual aspirant to a wrong path when he has not yet achieved firmness about his spiritual aim? In the event of relying on his own thinking power and not enjoying the support and shelter of a living spiritual guide or spiritual contact of the guided teachings or scriptural instructions, this factor

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 106 107 SELECTED 100 LETTERS of wordly considerations obstructs very powerfully the spiritual aspirant and in such circumstances he is forced to realize the indispensability of spiritual shelter of a living saint or a master. whim expect to be free from this world or a release from bondage, he cannot reach the desired goal at any time. It is undoubtedly true that every living soul in his real state is a spiritually high self but till such a form does not really shine and stabilize in you, it is desirable for you to remain as a spiritual aspirant desirous of right knowledge, and only that way your real self will manifest its lustrous existence in your being. Leaving this right path, following any other way you can never realize your real self and you invite the disregard of the great spiritual master Shri Jin Vitaraga. There is no other objection. Approach of death is inevitable Salutations to the pure self. *** 61 (593) 60 (588) Mumbai. Chaitra Vad Twelfth Sunday, V-S 1951 Shri Jin non-attached, has repeatedly suggested or advised a spiritual aspirant to be free from all contacts of substances and mental aspirations of worldly considerations because even an enlightened saint also should not have any dealing with them or should have no trust in them - thus the spiritual path is one of complete non-attachment to all worldly contacts and considerations. Salutations to the lotuslike feet of Shri Jin non-attached who has dispassionately advocated such a royal path of liberation for all living beings. A living being has erred from a long past in deciding the nature of his pure self. In the first sentence of the first teaching of the study of the revealed chapter of Acharanga Sutra which is the first part of Twelve fold sections what Shri Jin has advised, is the essence of all revealed spiritual knowledge it is the seed of liberation. It is the statement of the very nature of right understanding. By concentrating one's mind and intellect on that sentence, a living soul will come to decide that without propitiating a spiritually enlightened master and keeping in constant touch with him, if he by his own sweet will or Mumbai, Vaishakha Sud Fifteenth Wednesday V-S-1951 Shri All knowing Jin Vitaraga has said that the essence of all spiritual knowledge is the experience of perfect ease for natural quiescence of the eternal self. From times immemorial this living being has experienced continuosly instability so to come to stability is a difficult task for him. Shri Jin has said that this living being has in the long past, many a time come to the stage of right movement towards his real self but by the time he has approached a condition of destroying his bondage, he has experienced distress or fear of that fine stage and returned from the right path and turned again to follow worldly life. Therefore it is desirable that such a soul for collecting necessary soul power to destroy his knots of bondage should keep himself in contact of the spiritually enlightened saints and their teachings, right thinking, right

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS believing, right seeing and right acting under the guidance of a spiritual master or masters. He should keep in touch with revealed texts and enlightened saints. The longevity of my body is spent in going through worldly adjuncts or occasions and I feel much sorry for it, and if I do not remedy this situation then I should be considered as one of the very few unthinking or wrong thinking persons. My salutations to that spiritual knowledge which can destroy all attachments or kama (Lust). 62 (609) 1. 108 2. * 4. - Salutations to real self. Mumbai, Jetha V-S- 1951 Shri Vitaraga or non-attached calls the establishment of the natural form of the pure self as Moksha. The living soul, already possesses the existence of his natural self in him, but he does not know it and after knowing it, is called liberation or release. 3. Owing to contact with or identification with the not-self the living soul has forgotten his real nature and by retiring from all attachment to the not-self, he can directly establish his pure self in him where he has eternally been living. That is why all self realized saints Tirthankara have praised non-attachment as the best as that way opens the doors of self realization. All means of final release are based on nonattachment to all worldly considerations. 109 SELECTED 100 LETTERS 5. All teachings of Jain scriptures are summed up in total nonattachment, as all they have said in various words is only to advise the spiritually aspiring soul to be free from all attachments. Starting from the existence of an atom to the fourteen worlds and from a winking state to the stonelike stability of the completely self-realized saints called Shaileshidasha or Avastha, all activities are minutely described by the enlightened saints such as the Jin where they aim at explaining clearly this stage of total non-attachment leading to final release. 6. To be totally unattached from all aspirations is the most difficult experience or means for final release, and to achieve it without the help of a spiritually enlightened master is also next to impossible i.e. very difficult. Keeping this fact in mind, Shri Tirthankara has said that spiritual contact of living saint is the basis of non-attachment. It is only by this shelter that the aspirant can experience total non-attachment that is found in pure self. 7. The living being has many a time come in contact with spiritual saints in his endless past but such contact has not yielded the desired result. This has been said by Shri Vitaraga because he says that the living soul could not appreciate the value of spiritual contact and as he did not follow it with all love and affection it deserved and knowing its presence and absence were the same, he forgot it and left it or threw it away. By reflecting on what I have said above, I have experienced my real self in natural equipoise or Sahaja Samadhi and so I salute all spiritual contacts that have helped me always.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 110 SELECTED 100 LETTERS 8. Invariably therefore this living soul setting aside all other means for spiritual uplift, should secure spiritual contact as the main cause of Nirvana or release and should completely surrender himself to it. Only by it all other means can be very easily secured and that is my self-realization. If after getting spiritual contact of an enlightened saint if this soul does not secure its welfare then it is this soul's fault and that is that he did not abandon the faulty means which obstructed his right appreciation of the unprecedented and difficult to achieve and hardly available spiritual contact. (If getting burning fire one does not light his candle it is his fault and not that of the burning fire near him). Wrong belief or strongly believing the wrong as right, one's whimsical nature, sloth or inattention to what must be immediately attended to and enjoyment of sense pleasures - if these are not discarded, then only, spiritual contact will not bear the desired result or if to spiritual contact you do not join single minded faith and unprecedented devotion, then also you cannot expect the desired result. If the above qualities are brought to a spiritual contact and if it is followed unflinchingly then in a short time all your hindering prejudices and predilections will vanish and your soul will be free from all faults. intelligence and after seeing or identifying them he should try to eliminate them and in case he faces a situation to shed his life for keeping that spiritual contact, then he should be prepared to do so. But in no case he should worship any other object even though he feels attracted or affectionate to it. Because in such attraction he is likely to feel he enjoys pleasure or happiness, but in fact it is harmful and never helpful to his spiritual progress, as he is prone to slacken his efforts for spiritual development. By such slackness spiritual contact becomes barren and his efforts for it go in vain and the force he employed for such contact becomes a waste. When a spiritual aspirant recognizes his spiritually enlightened master or is inspired by teachings of such masters and still he is unable to keep himself constantly engaged in appropriate thinking and behaviour, he should regard these teachings as direct conversation with their authors and taking it this way he gets right frame of mind for his spiritual progress. i.e. Samyaktva. A spiritual aspirant should decide once for all that whatever he does is only for promoting his spiritual good and with such firm determination he should bravely face all obstructions of mind, speech and body and try to reduce and remove them and that is worth doing for him. The remedy for removal of all obstructions is abandonment of all wrong beliefs, of all whims, of all sloth and of all desires for getting sense pleasures. All these should be constantly kept in mind while one is in contact with spiritual teachings or with spiritual saints. Because spiritual contact or proximity of spiritual saints is most effective in removing one's faults, but in the absence of the above, the soul strength of the aspirant is the only effective way to remove 13. For a living being to know and recognize good spiritual contact is very difficult. If he as a result of good deeds done in his past recognises a spiritual saint and decides him to be his benefactor and the witness of his pure self then he should reduce his worldly activities, should start seeing his own faults from moment to moment and on various occasions by sharp

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 112 113 SELECTED 100 LETTERS his faults. If an aspirant does not follow the spiritual master's teaching or advice then he can never achieve his good. All what I have written in above words, should all spiritual aspirants costantly keep in mind and follow them with all the force they can muster. Only this way they will develop soul strength and spiritual virtues. and their being a source of much pain and misery to you. I read it as described by you vividly giving examples. It is for this reason that even a person who is wide awake to his spiritual knowledge should be watchful and alert when he faces the forcible temptations of worldly life. And this teaching of Shri Jain Vitarag is quite to the point and it should guide all of us very effectively lest we may be slow in following the right religion. We should commit these teaching of Shri Jin Vitrag to heart without giving scope to any doubt about their truth. If you find it impossible to set aside worldly attachments, then shorten such activities and gradually get freed from them. This is the basic duty of a spiritual aspirant, and try to follow it by the help of spiritual contact, by reading scriptural texts and thereby pursuing right religion. 63 (613) Mumbai, Ashadha Sud Eleventh Wednesday, V-S-1951 The result of past bad deeds that brings a living soul to his contact with this world is called in the teachings of Shri Jin Anantanubandh or binding the Soul with endless knots, and in it the soul completely identifies itself with the world with wrong attachments and proceeds headlong in it, going away from its real self. And this fundamentally happens when a living soul begins to insult and oppose the right divinity, right spiritual master and right religion and thus he tries to run away from them and accept for his worship the wrong divinity the wrong non-spiritual master and the wrong religion and he considers in doing so that he has rightly done what he should dutifully have done. All such behaviour is called Anantanubandhi Kashaya of living being. Or in the teaching of the enlightened spiritual master he brings in the aspirations for wife, sons etc. and begins to cherish them beyond limit and thus he disregards those teachings. In brief this seems to me the meaning of Anantanubandhi Kashaya. You find that a very stong desire for having a wife, children etc. who once were there with you and after you left them you felt as if you would never have them at all knowing their transitoriness 64 (622) Mumbai, Ashadh Vad Fifteenth V.S. 1951 I have written below the second variety of Anantanubandhi(Infinite bondage) in detail. Please note it carefully. Till by the rise of strong worldly desires or by weakening intellectual powers of reasoning coupled with your spirit of indifference, you engage in worldly activities of contacting wife and children affectionately and passionately. This activity of yours does not indicate that you acted with total disrespect of the enlightened teachers instructions but when you get so much engrossed in passionate life that return from it is made more and more difficult for you then there the teachings of your spiritual master are definitely

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS underrated by you in your fearless following of your passionate worldly activities - these results are very dangerous and destructive of your spiritual aim and in such condition the Anantanubandhi Kashaya prevails. Besides one may feel that he understands something and his knowledge is such that going through passionate life will do him no spiritual harm then this is sheer folly. He further believes that by enjoying worldly pleasures he will not lessen his retirement from them and so instead of retiring he further indulges in similar passionate life then his knowledge is false and he is said to suffer from Anantanubandhi Kashaya. 114 In wakeful conscious life the more a man purifies his spiritual activitiy the more he is able to remove his dreaming condition. His sleep in the form of dream regarding worldly life as real, gradually dies out and he is awakened to his spiritual life and its aim. *** 65 (677) Mumbai, Chaitra Sud First, Sunday, V-S 1952 Received your letter. I have read the description of your normal mental tendencies from your letter. You have asked me to write to you some spiritually beneficial matters in detail and so I have written below some points in brief for your reflection. As a result of my past deeds, looking at the mental stage I am passing through now, I feel like writing to you only in brief and I think it is quite proper. Normally enlightened saints do not express in brief their spiritual instructions to their disciples and in case they do so then it is only for the following two reasons. 115 OM SELECTED 100 LETTERS 1) If their disciple does not follow these instructions even in favourable conditions or he may not even understand such instructions even when expressed elaborately to him. 2) The spiritual saints may appear to the aspirant behaving externally in a ordinary worldly ways and such of their behaviour may obstruct their disciple from following their instructions in detail, in such two circumstances the enlightened saints try to shorten what they want to say by way of guidance to their disciples. In such circumstances they prefer keeping mum too. A living soul does not get relief from three types of adjuncts (upadhi) simply by leaving his home and hearth and adopting a life of a recluse. Even after being a recluse if he does not reflect on his spiritual nature and does not whole heartedly follow the spiritual guidance of his enlightened saint, all renunciation of his external possessions is only in name and not in spirit and he does not realize the purpose of his abandonment of worldly life. He does not become self-reflecting. Then you can imagine how much more difficult it is for a man to be self-reflecting when he is steeped in worldly entanglements. This shows that a man leading worldly life must use more self force to be self reflecting on his pure self. What more need I write in this strain? One should muster all his courage to concentrate on his spiritual aim by cutting short all worldly activities and try to uncover his inner shining self and till this happens, he should only be clear that what he feels as his understanding and knowledge is only expressing his egoism or false sense of I and nothing else. Knowing this well, he should act in such a way that he rightly may gain knowledge perception and appropriate behaviour in the path of spiritual good. Day and night he should be

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 116 117 SELECTED 100 LETTERS up and doing for his spiritual gain. For this purpose, good spiritual contact, reading scriptural texts and perfect humility and simplicity will be extremely helpful to every spiritual aspirant. He should adopt these means. It is very simple to understand that a spiritual aspirant cannot develop above means of spiritual advancement till he is caught in the mess of fear of public opinion, greed for wealth, desire for having worldly acquisitions property physical and intellectual, bodily pride, honour, good family breeding, caste etc. and strong attachment to all these, he desires to keep with him. At present I am not prompted to write more but on some other occasion I shall do so. I have really written more than my present condition would allow me to write to you because of your curiosity and fate. destroy my cyclic rotational living and this is the only possible remedy for its removal. Whatever contacts of the world may have been ordained for me after their completion, my soul's contact with my human body will end and it will leave me forever. My body separation from my soul is sure to happen at one time or other early or late. But if I leave it under the shelter of my spiritual master then only such separation is beneficial to me. Because under such a spiritual shelter, I can enjoy my real self either in this birth or after some time after the death of my body. You and Shri Muni keep on meeting Khushaldas occasionally. If you feel in him any possibility of his accepting celibacy nonpossession of worldly objects etc - then Shri Muni should ask him to adopt them and there is no objection in his doing so. Let us be always under the protective shelter of the knot-less spiritual guidance of Shri Jin. I am not my body etc. and none of my relatives, my wife, children, friends etc., are really mine. I am pure consciousness eternally existing and imperishable self. By contantly aspiring such self, all my attachments and hatred get completely destroyed. 66 (692) Mumbai, Second Jetha Vad V.S 1952 Human body which rarely comes to a living being in its worldly cyclic rotation of many births and death is now received and yet a man could not utilise it for self-realisation or liberation. But my human body has achieved its purpose where in I could recognize the enlightened Shri Jin and I sought his spiritual shelter and by his help, many of my wrong prejudices got destroyed, and sol sincerely desire leaving my present body in his protection. Only those who possess self knowledge that can destroy the soul's cyclic rotation of innumerable births and deaths, the protection of such souls only can 67 (693) Mumbai, Ashadha Sud Second, Sunday, V-S. 1952 Let a man sleep quietly who is a friend of death or who can escape death or who feels with determination that he will never die.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 118 Shri Tirthankara-Six Jivanikaya Adhyayan The path of right knowledge is difficult to propitiate and before reaching the stage of complete mergence in it there are many pitfalls in the way and they are doubting, diversion of mind, whimsicality, atiparinamipanu (too much transformation) etc. Such factors obstruct the aspirant as causes of his losing the path of knowledge or in other words these factors do not allow the aspirant to rise up to realize his pure self. In the path of following spiritual devotional practices, pride for non-truth, insistence on following traditional religious practices, delusion of acquiring spiritual exceptional power, meeting occasions of one's adoration, propitiation, spiritual welcome with pomp and honour and having strong faith in one's bodily activities of a religious kind are all possible pitfalls which a spiritual aspirant should watchfully avoid. Excepting some extraordinary great spiritual saint, many thoughtful persons have adopted the path of unqualified devotion with extreme humility and child like simplicity and they have seen complete obedience to a spiritual master or complete surrender to the highest spiritual guide as the best way to spiritual progress, and they have actually acted accordingly but such occasion of meeting a spiritual master should happen in the life of a spiritual aspirant and if it does not occur, then the rare human birth may go a waste by following the normal rut of births and deaths. *** 119 68 (702) SELECTED 100 LETTERS Ralaj, Shravan Vadi Fourteenth, Sunday, V-S 1952. Thinking persons behave as if their death is very near them till they achieve the stage of Kaivalya or absolute self existence (knowledge). To brother Anup Chand Malukchand at Bharuch. Mostly the secret trend of ego invited human deeds is disclosed at the time of the death of a living being. At that time there can be seen two kinds of aspirations (1) rarely contacted spiritual aim of liberation and (2) the acceptance of traditional religion led by his usually known imagination etc. In this world we rarely find an exceptionally unique person who has acquired sight to his pure self as a result of his right reflection and consequent indifference to all worldly ups and downs. This is the first kind of aspiration. With such exception the second kind of aspiration is well known from long past and it is found in practically all living beings and even at death prominence of this aspiration is found in all men. Bearing this in mind, at the time of approaching death, a thinking soul continues to work for realizing his pure self as he has been doing for a long time before facing death you should really be firm in your aim of self-realization and so meditate on it continuously, by leaving aside all considerations of your body or obstacles caused by it in your spiritual progress, also setting aside all religious injunctions and prohibitions of traditional religions or by developing total indifference to them. This is what you should do now. In doing so at death, it is immaterial to go on fast, or to adopt a particular posture of body and mind or writing your final words or instructions for

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 120 121 SELECTED 100 LETTERS body else. There is no use of these external religious injunctions and prohibitions which do not lead their observer to inward spiritual progress. To keep on maintaining external sectarian differences of religious practices and satisfying many kinds of imaginary religious wishes lead only to string them the covering or obstruction, ignorance suffered by a living being. Even the multisided Jain religion preaching seeing a thing from many points of view has no other aim but totum the spiritual aspirants attention to realize his pure self form. Knowing it well, I have addressed the above lines to you and it is done with a view to help you, with no prejudice about it with me, without any deceit or pretense. If you think thus rightly then you shall understand well and follow what I have advised you above. persons to be left behind you. In the end of living being who faces death with determined faith in the first kind of spiritual aspiration, his living is fruitful and successful and he only ultimately liberates himself in near future. Seeing you more attached to traditional externals of religious injunctions and prohibitions, I felt much sorry that you are wasting much time in it and thereby you cannot much concentrate on spiritual effort for your liberation and so you can not realize steadiness in it. I ask, can you in such a state of your mind think of your real self well? and if it is not so, then are you not like me feeling that as much contact with external religious details is harmful to you spiritually? These religious details may be ordinarly cared for and they should not occupy much of your precious wakeful time. Do you not ask yourself as to for what gain are you so wasting your time? And what will it end in? Why do you not attend to this matter and for what reason? In the past, when I saw this behaviour of yours I was inclined to draw your attention to it but seeing that you may not like it nor you may turn away from your preoccupations mentioned above, I kept quiet. Even now for you there is a scope of reflection on this matter. Please note that for people only knowing right vision is not enough. They should try to possess it and derive spiritual benefit from it. Nor one's good lies in admitting his duty to observe these external religious dos and don'ts. This is what I feel. Please do not think that what I have written here, is from any particular religious point of view or that I have some other motive in it. The correct viewpoint is only that which may lead you to see youself internally and spiritually and that is the object of my writing to you. People are not likely to benefit you, or the bodily activity of mine is not done from any consideration of praise or blame by any 69 (719) Nadiad, Aaso Vad Tenth Saturday, V-S 1952 To self searching student of the path of monks Shri Lalluji and Shri Devakaranji and others at Khambhat. Received you letter. Here I enjoy samadhi or perfect peace. I enclose herewith Atmasiddhi or self realization which Shri Lalluji should mentally dive in at present. In case either Shri Lalluji or Shri Devakaranji wish to go through the Jain scriptures then Acharanga, Suyagadang, Dashavaikalika, Uttaradhyayan and Prashnavyakaran are worth deep study. Knowing that it would be better if Shri Devakaranji reads Atmasiddhi Shastra after some time, I have advised its deep study

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 122 123 SELECTED 100 LETTERS by Shri Lalluji. Still if Shri Devakaranji is keen about reading it now, then I do not object to it provided he reads it with the following mental readiness. He should decide unreservedly that none has more spiritually benefited him except the living spiritual guide and that in his future life if he leaves this decision, he should feel and know that he has left the propitiation of his pure self and he has invited the sin of ignoring the gratitude of one who deserved his recognition and admission of his gratefulness to his spiritual guide. He should also bear in mind that his spiritual good lies along in his total obedience to his spiritual master and this admission he should carry out without any sense of differences between various spiritual guides or between persons and he should leave aside all imaginary ideas about the worldly people. aspirants, may appreciate the instructions of a spiritual master and may become non-attached to worldly life and their interest in sense pleasures may wane. The study of this Atmasiddhi Shastra will bring these and many other spiritual benefits to all who read and hear it. For innumerable times in the past, this self is engaged in satisfying bodily demands. If instead a body which spends itself for serving the pure self then in that body spiritual desire for selfknowledge and self realization will grow strong and leaving aside all considerations of the body such a living body will manifest in it the permanent shining lustrous self and the whole being will be a siddha or perfect self realised spiritual substance. Salutations to all spiritual aspirants. Shri Sahajatmasvarup. * * * With above said mental preparedness Shri Devakaranji can undertake the study and full grasp of Atmasiddhi Shastra in company of Shri Lalluji monk. Such study by him is also likely to bring him solutions of many of his doubts in religious matter. 70 (728) Vavania, Magashar Sud Sixth, Thursday V-S. 1953. A person who firmly decides to follow the instructions of his spiritual guide and carries them out without any let or hindrance and wholeheartedly, he only receives spiritual knowledge which surely leads him to his liberation. This should be borne in mind by all spiritual aspirants. All enlightened spiritual saints are witness to what I have written above. Received the news of the death of Shri Manekchand. All embodied persons or beings are totally unprotected at death. Only those knowing from the beginning the nature of their bodies correctly and so leaving aside all sense of possessing the bodies, live steadily or having grasp of the spiritual path of the enlightened saints, go through death fearlessly and mostly they do not take any birth in future or they by reducing largely their possessiveness of their bodies are fearless in facing death. Knowing well that they do not know when death will face them, from the beginning of their sense of selfconsciousness, these reflective persons try to be free from all Shri Lalluji and Shri Devakaranji should read this Atmasiddhi Shastra to others so that non-attachment, spiritual quiet or peace and spiritual discrimination in all of you, may increase and the truths expressed in it, may well find a permanent place in the hearts of its readers and hearers, besides other persons may begin to be spiritual

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS possessions of body etc., and this is what you and I and all others should do. Because of the binding of love and affection the death of a friend or a relative may arouse sorrow in us but knowing that there is no effective remedy to avoid death of any living being, one should turn this sorrowful event to make us think of the transitoriness of all life in this world and therefore all thoughtful persons should develop a spirit of renunciation towards all physical contacts. This is what all of us have to do. 71 (751) 124 *** Vavania, Falgun Vadi Eleventh Sunday, V-S-1953 OM Salutation to the All knowing Received your letter showing your desire to know the special meaning of the kinds of samakit or right understanding described in Atmasiddhi or Self-Realisation. Three kinds of Samkit or right understanding are stated in Atmasiddhi : 1) The first kind is that in which a spiritual aspirant realizes the effectiveness of the teachings of the spiritual saint who always tells the truth. The spiritual aspirant loves all spiritual instructions of his spiritual master and submits devotionally to his master leaving aside all his personal considerations. 2) The second kind of Samkit is that in which the spiritual aspirant after strict obedience to his spiritual master's instructions experiences in him the truth of the real self present in him eternally. 125 SELECTED 100 LETTERS 3) The third kind of Samkit is that wherein the spiritual aspirant experiences the presence of the eternal self in his whole being and feels himself spiritually enlightened or illuminated. 4) The first Samkit causes the second Samkit, and the second Samkit causes the third one. All these three kind of Samkit are approved by Shri Vitraga (Jin Bhagvan). All these three kinds of Samkit are worth practising by all spiritual aspirants. 5) They should be welcomed and devotionally practised by all spiritual aspirants. Shri Vitraga has said that till the last moment of the beginning of absolute knowledge or Kevalagnana the spiritual aspirant should have the support of the teachings or spiritually enlightened masters. In other words till the aspirant reaches the twelfth stage of virtuous development when his infatuation reduces practically to null point, he should purify his experience of his pure self by scriptural knowledge and when such purification becomes complete, absolute self knowledge shines forth. Thus till the first time that absolute self-knowledge manifests, the path advised by a self realized person should be followed. This teaching of Shri Vitraga is undoubtedly true. 72 (771) *** Vavania, Chaitra Sud Fifth V-S-1953. From the above mentioned three kinds of Samkit or right understanding, any of them attained by a man can be liberated within maximum of fifteen births. Some even in the same life he may be liberated and if that Samkit decreases then upto the time of Ardha pudgal paravartan. to

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126 SELECTED 100 LETTERS the maximum a person may suffer series of births and deaths and in the end he gets liberation. After achieving Samkit a man's maximum time of worldly rotational lives, is ardha pudgal paravartan. If a spiritual aspirant achieves Kshayopasham Samkit or Upsham Samkit,then such a living being can return to worldly life but if he reaches Kshayik Samkit, then he canot return to worldly life. Such a soul gets liberated in that very birth or at the maximum with in three births or possibly within four births. If after fixing the life of Yugalia = a soul gains Kshayik Samkit then there is a possibility of his four births before liberation. Mostly rare souls happen to be in this category. The fundamental opinion of Shri Jin is not that his disciples whose knots were gone, male or female and Shravakas and Shravikas had achieved Samkit because they acquired full knowledge of the living beings and the non-living beings. But they are said to have Samkit because of their firm belief that Shri Jin is their only saviour that he is the correct deliverer of truth, a true spiritual guide and they believed that the spiritual path of liberation is advocated or shown by him, and all this they gained by surrendering to him in their search for liberation. Such personal confidence in him such love for him and such surrender to him is also like right understanding. To admit that Shri Jin is the right spiritual guide and that his experience is beneficial to every spiritual aspirant that the right road to liberation is correctly chalked out by Shri Jin as he has followed it himself and realized his eternal self, and that Shri Jin possesses all spiritual viritues that must be present in a self realized soul, that he is totally non-attached and impartial extremely humble and still guiding his disciples in a masterly way all these qualities found in Shri Jin, prove his superiority to all other spiritual guides. A non-attached person is always a truth-teller and only when a path 127 SELECTED 100 LETTERS of liberation is certified by him then it is worth accepting by all spiritual aspirants. To know all these details about Shri Jin is secondarily a knowledge of self and not self. By such admission, love and shelter of Shri Jin, a spiritual aspirant gains in detail gradually the distinctive knowledge of all living and non-living beings. By obeying the command of such spiritual master the disciples attachments and hatred get weakened and in the end they are destroyed completely and he becomes a Vitraga or a totally non-attached soul. It is difficult to achieve this kind of Samkit without direct personal contact of a spiritually enlightened master, or by the scriptures listing the teachings of such spiritual guide a soul who has been in search of the right path to liberation, gains Samkit or some Acharya directly helps one to gain Samkit by showing the truth and spiritual competence of such spiritual instructions given by a spiritual guide of the past. 73 (779) Mumbai, Jyestha Sud, V-S 1953 Om The All knower When complete non-attachment from all other substances except the spiritual self is enjoyed by an aspirant he is liberated. The liberated soul is always free from all considerations other than its own pure self, free from all other substances, from all spaces and times and from all other mental dispositions. To see one's eternal self in the form of pure experience and directly separate from everything else, is called the state of total freedom. Such a person keeps quiet, becomes free from all bondages, he is totally non-attached, he has no alternate views and is free

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 128 129 SELECTED 100 LETTERS from all imaginary ideas and things. Thus such a person is free for ever. Salutations to Bhagawan spiritually enlightened spiritual giants who did not have any contact with body and its surroundings in all times past, present and future - who enjoyed such disembodied life and became lords of everything. Leaving aside any idea of a day and date one should merge himself in self reflection and this is our duty. Pure natural self form. I beg pardon with extreme humility and modesty, of persons and other living beings whom I may have done any harm by my mind, speech and body, knowingly or unknowingly. What is worth doing by all of us is one thing and it is that we should not be attached or feel hatred to the least degree towards any living being and we should behave in the way that we experience equanimity everywhere. This is the main path of welfare for all of us. Salutations from Shri Raichand. $ 74 (780) 75 (781) Mumbai, Jetha Sud Eighth Tuesday. V-S. 1953 Repeated Salutations to the great soul who has not experienced any attachment or hatred towards any living being. Shri Rishabhadeva and such other great men who were excellent Yogis, could not save their living bodies from the jaws of death. Still this living human body has a special merit that in it alone, a person should develop non-attachment and non-infatuation to all worldly objects and thereby should acquire knowledge of the eternal self ever present in his living body and free from all obstructions and experience the natue of his pure self and be free from all other aspirations or dispositions resulting in the cessation of his rotation in the cycle of birth and death. The highest enlightened persons have decided that to the extent a living human being experiences non-attachment and non-infatuation and the identity with one's pure self or is firmly interested in it, he is near his liberation. Mumbai, Jeth Vad Sixth Sunday, V-S. 1953 Description of the stage of the enlightened saint "Kichsau Kanak Jakai, Nichsau Nareshapada, Michsi Mitai, Garuvai Jakai Garasi; Jaharsi Joga Jati Kaharsi Karamati, Haharasi Hausa, Pudgalchhabi Chharasi; Jalasau Jagbilas, Bhalusau Bhuvanvas, Kalasau Kutumb Kaj, Lokalaj Larasi ; Sithasau Sujasu Janai, Bithasau Bakht Manai, Aisi Jaki Riti Tahi, Bandat Banarasi :" The spiritually enlightened self-knowing saint considers gold and mud of equal value, the king ship as the same as the position of the lowly person, friendship as death, greatness as a cowdung, exceptional powers of yoga as poison, spiritual exceptional powers or acquisitions except self experience as uneasiness any desire to be worshipped or respected by the people as totally harmful beauty

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 130 131 SELECTED 100 LETTERS and to live in that stage continuously without any obstacle or hindrance. The self is pure conscious, released from the cycle of birth, oldge and death and rebirth, totally unattached. All knowledge is summed up in it. In the realization of sucha stage all right understanding (Samyak Darshan) is summed up. The natural stage of nonattachment of the self is called Samyak Charitra or right behaviour or right being. It is excellent self restraint or control and excellent stage of a non-attached self. The result of the completion of non-attachment is the destruction of all unhappiness and miseries. All this is undoubtedly true, undoubtedly true. of the living human body as only ash, staying at home as like a piercing lance, actions of his family as death, any desire for increasing prestige in the world as only saliva of one's mouth, the desire for fame as the dirt from a nose, and the rise of the results of one's good deeds of the past as the bodily refuse. To such a saint Banarasidas offers his salute. Keep non-attachment by not thinking af anybody friend or foe. The undoubted truth is that a person will speed up to his selfrealization as he will realize the effectiveness of the teachings of self - realised souls and as they will be totally accepted by all the bones and limbs of his body. By true heart engaged in the shelter of the spiritual contact of the enlightened saint, a spiritual aspirant reaches a highly advanced spiritual stage in a very short time. My request to you is to quell down any aspiration or desire for any living being either worldly or one who has renounced the world for self-knowledge. You direct all your energy to realize total non-attachment and consequently to the stage of an enlightened saint as described in the above poetical stanza. Because as no other aim is worth keeping whoever will totally accept and follow the teaching of an enlightened saint wholeheartedly, will reach or gain final truth without any doubt. Also one should not think of his worldly future as all this will happen - one's leading his life acquiring the means of good living etc. as predetermined by the deeds of his past life. I know you have to a great extent quelled down all such desires but I have written about it again here with a view to give strength and encouragement to your efforts at it. The fruit of all spiritual knowledge is to develop a strong sense of total non-attachment to all living beings and things of this world 76 (783) Mumbai, Ashad sud Fourth, Sunday V.S. 1953 Salutation to Shri Sobhag The unique, wonderful determination of Shri Sobhag for adopting the path of the enlightened soul and his excellent aspiration for liberation is repeatedly remembered by me. All living beings desire happiness but very rare souls from them, know its exact nature. A living being from ages past, has not known the remedy of total elimination of his misery in the form of his rotation in the cycle of birth and death. If such a being experiences a strong desire to know it and employ it for his final release by getting the advantage of spiritual contact of an enlightened saint then by his grace he can know the remedy well and working under his spiritual guidance, can experience his total release or freedom from all miseries.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 132 133 SELECTED 100 LETTERS Such true desire for total release mostly is enkindled in a spiritual aspirant by the personal contact of the enlightened saint. Because such contact knowing it as right spiritual contact, the confirmation by him of the correctness of the spiritual path advised by such a saint, and strict following of that path to release, are all very difficult to obtain. Human life, hearing the teachings of an enlightened saint, self confirmation of the veracity of such teachings and acting on that path of release advised by the saint all these are difficult to be together. This is said by Shri Vardhamanswami in the third Adhyayana of Uttaradhyana. The spiritual aspirants who are fortunate to have the contact of a living spiritual saint and who move with him always surrendering themselves totally to him easily secure generally all means of self realization with a small effort and in a short time, But to have such personal contact is very difficult. Every spiritual aspirant constantly searches for being in such personal spiritual contact of a living saint. But such spiritual personal contact is very difficult in all times and in such present more obstructive times it is still more difficult. More rare are spiritual saints in these times and so the gain of such personal contact is unprecedented and unique. Knowing this well, a spiritual aspirant should confirm the path of his release by the teachings of all spiritual saints of the past and should constantly meditate on that path till they meet an enlightened saint. In case he is not fortunate to meet such a saint, then he should quell all his mental dispositions of beginning worldly activities and those of worldly acquisitions and he should engage himself in reading the spiritual scriptures. Even though spirtual aspirant may be very active in worldly living, if he intends to minimize it with strong determination, he can do it so as to enable himself in knowing the spiritual truths stated in spiritual scriptures by spending more time in their study. One who has been sorry at worldly beginning and acquisitions and knowing them to be fruitless, has kept away from them, to him contact of spiritual saints and hearing of spiritual truths expressed in scriptures bring more beneficial results. Because a person attached to worldly life can hardly put full faith in spiritual contact or the teaching of an enlightened saint retiring from worldly attachments and acquisitions and turning one's mind to reading religious scriptures become difficult for a spiritual aspirant at first because such a person's prakriti or nature of his living body is quite different from what a contact of a saint or his teaching would advise or advocate. Even still one who is determined to have spiritual contact has in the past succeeded in doing so, knowing this, one should advance with full faith in these spiritual means for self realization. All spiritual aspirants should note this fact and follow daily spiritual discipline by leaving any slackness and irregularity. 77 (785) Mumbai, Ashadha Vad First, Thursday, V-S-1953 The enlightened saint who approves all activities starting from a desire for one's welfare to the stage of the completely self-realized souls, will never say a word of opposition to renunciation and nonattachment. First come renunciation and non-attachment as means

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 134 135 SELECTED 100 LETTERS 79 (809) Mumbai, Aaso Sud Eighth Sunday, V-S 1953 The contact or direct sight of the spiritual saints whose devotion is always selfless is to be recognized as of great spiritual good. and then they develop as ends too and so no enlightened soul will ever oppose them or say a word against them. In case when some aspirants keep away from the path of the enlightened saints by sticking to mechanical religious external ceremonies or other activities or they stop in the way of higher spiritual progress by their intellectual folly, or by contact of so called and wrong religious guides they are misguided by following the kinds of renunciation and non-attachments which can never lead them to the right path to liberation, then only the spiritually enlightened saints will by their graceful actions some time oppose such wrong way of renunciation and non-attachment, then in such cases all spiritual aspirants should not be confused by such opposition and they should try to understand the proper minds to following right forms of renunciation and non-attachment both internally and externally, mentally and bodily. *** 80 (810) OM 78 (808) Mumbai, Aaso Sud Eighth Sunday, V-S. 1953 Salutations to the deep great self control of the enlightened saints. Salutations to high spiritual saints starting from Shri Rishabhadeva and others who drank deadly poison with perfect equanimity. That which baffles a person as deadly poison in the beginning but ends later on as the wholesome nectar-to this self restrained or self-control we offer our respectful salutations. Repeated salutations to such knowledge, such vision or perception and such behaviour. Mumbai, OM Aaso Sud Eighth, Sunday, V-S. 1953 From the viewpoint of highest spiritual good I do not feel like writing letters. The matter as to why that which is transitory, meaningless and non-protective, should be the object of attraction and love to this living being, is worth considering day and night. The distance between the worldly view and the spiritually enlightened person's view is like that between west and east. The sight of the enlightened person is from the first independent, it does not arouse any liking or appetite it does not agree with the bodily, dispositions of a living being and as a person feels not attracted to be with an enlightened saint. But those living beings who have after suffering much opposition have prayed for getting the sight of an enlightened person have reached nirvana or self-realization as the end of all misery or have controlled the causes of final release from all misery

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 136 137 SELECTED 100 LETTERS From long ages this living being loves sloth and infatuation, though one cannot see any thing worth loving in it. * * * 82 (816) Mumbai, Kartaka Vad Fifth V.S. 1954 The path of the saints to go totally inward is the sure remedy for removal of all miseries. But only a few living beings understand it. This path can be grasped or understood by the fruition of past good deeds, by purified mindor intellect, by extreme non-attachment and by contact with a spiritual living saint. The only place where this path, can be understood is the human birth-even it is also bound by the fear of death and here too the presence of sloth is a matter of sorrow and surprise. *** 81 (813) Mumbai, Aaso Vad Seventh V.S. 1953 Even in the upper stages of spiritual progress, finding time some strong worldly desires get the upper hand and overpower the aspirant and baffles him much-in such state he feels that now to go to the upper spiritual stage is difficult, not only that but even to stay at ease in the present spiritual stage is found difficult. Such like many obstructions challenge us in our spiritual march. Then that such difficulties baffle the beginner in spiritual path is quite easy to understand, or that is not at all surprising. I should say that in such condition, the spirtual aspirant should not worry at all or be sorry at all instead he should strive further, fight against these obstructions bravely, mustering all his strength and should go to a convenient place and time, should there engage himself in the study of spritiual scriptures and by force turn his mind and thinking to good uplifting spiritual thoughts and actions and thus he will win over all his enemies and gain the path of right spiritual thinking and action, reach higher spiritual stages of self-experience and will become free from all obstacles. For this end you are advised to read intently Yogadrashtisamuchhaya. 83 (819) Mumbai Margashirsha Sud Fifth, OM Sunday, V-S. 1954 The city of liberation is easy to reach by following the path of a spiritually enlightened saint taking courage in both hands. When the allurements of senses lead astray a human being he naturally gets ashamed of his impotence, afflicts and censures his soul and looking at it in a scornful way again seeks shelter of the life of spiritual saint and of his teachings, makes his soul more strong and powerful by such shelter and succeeds in vanquishing his opposing forces and they do not sit quiet till they successfully destroy them. All self searching souls have gone on the same way and have gained full success. This matter deserves to be well fixed in the hearts of all spiritual aspirants. *

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 138 139 SELECTED 100 LETTERS 84 (823) Anand, Posha Vad Thirteenth Thursday, V.S. 1954 For total freedom from all bondage I find no other qualification but a disposition of equanimity, observing silence is worth worshipping path. From Raichand. * * * 85 (826) Morbi, Maha Sud Fourth Wednesday, V-S 1954 Every living being should necessarily contact spiritual saint. Refuse, obstructions and sloth come in the way of spiritual contact of saints because these opposites are in the contact of living beings from past but if one decides to leave their contact and make them unfamiliar or inactive, then the contact of spiritual saints is possible, Main difficulty in this work is the indecision of a living soul. possessions and believes real happiness comes therefrom. But wonderful it is that the enlightened saints have decided the path of happiness as quite opposite to the one decided and adopted by the kings and said that to possess anything is to invite trouble and unhappiness or the destruction of happiness. One whose senses are spent in getting their objects, how can he know or think of cool self-happiness or self- substance? I desire to retire seeing religion as moon troubled by possessiveness as Rahu. Why do I need possessions? I have nothing to achieve by them. Where there is highest purity there is highest spiritual acquisition. O Aryans! you experience the truth of the above sentence in your self. * 87 (833) Vavania, Jyesth Sud First Saturday V-S 1954 86 (832) Vavania, Jesth, V-S. 1954 O Aryans! Merge yourselves in your selves self-luminous and illuminators of all other beings around them, they are full light themselves. Turn inward, be steady and stay in your self always and so enjoy eternal bliss, endless and unlimited. All living beings try to secure happiness by getting somethings. The great sovereign ruler is engaged in developing his power and prosperity and he works for more and more Salutations to these great men who settled themselve in their pure selves by being free in all ways from all substances, places, times and aspirations or dispositions. The highest valour of the persons to whom nothing is agreeable or disagreeable, no friend or foe, no honour or dishonour, no gain or loss, no joy or sorrow, no birth or death and such other duals - thus these persons disliked all these opposites and settled

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140 SELECTED 100 LETTERS permanently in their pure self-consciousness in the past and present and also will do so in future - such valour arouses in us a sense of joyful wonder. Life and death are equal to those great persons who have considered and seen the contact of a body to the soul or self in it as the contact of a sheath to a sword kept in it or the contact of a cloth to a body covered by it as the contact of a living body to the self staying covered in it- these great saints have actually experienced the self as eternally present in every living being, as unbounded and free. To the highest kind spiritual saint who brought to our light the pure lustre of the unimaginable self substance as pure consciousness or sentience and who helped us to confirm it as natural and easy self in each one of us, we offer our extreme gratefulness. The moon shines over the whole world without at any time being or identifying itself with the world, so this pure self the illuminator of the whole world does not become one with it, it always remains independent of all other things and always as pure sentience. The living human being wrongly believes in his identity with or indifference from the body and the world around in which he lives. As the world cannot enter the sky and the sky is free from all aspirations present in it as the persons with right understanding have directly seen the pure self as totally unaffected by all modifications of a living being and totally separate in nature from that of all other substances. One whose existence is not caused by any other substance, how can it have any destruction only by ignorance and by sloth about one's own true nature, the self has the wrong understanding that it will one day die, and this misunderstanding the all knowing saint removes and becomes self conscious of his pure eternal nature 141 SELECTED 100 LETTERS and lives quite fearlessly and freely at all times and looking at everything else from the lustre of his own self he finds his likeness in other selves and taking away his mind from all other objects he enjoys sorrowless quiescence. Salutations to the great lordly saints who have realized complete mergence in their pure selves the embodiment of highest happiness enjoying highest peace and pure conscious self meditations for all time. I am in all ways different from all and every other thing. I am absolutely pure self-experience pure sentience. The highest and the best above pure happiness beyond any thinking or reflection, To such a being how can anything obstruct? How can doubts disturb it? How can any fear frighten it? How can any sorrow touch him? How can it have any other state or stage of experience. I am only doubtless pure, pure, highly pure, completely quiet sentience. I am free from all imaginary idea about myself. I always live as myself. I am one with myself. Peace, Peace, Peace. 88 (843) Vaso, First Aaso Sud Sixth Wednesday V-S-1954 Let the eternal religion the best of all religions the religion which is like the highest nectar, which has been decided by Shrimat nonattached divine lords a religion which is unimaginable and yet the highest thought jewel, the highest benefactor, highly unique or unprecedented, the final remover of all pains and miseries be victorious in all times.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 142 143 SELECTED 100 LETTERS It is the duty of all living beings always to seek shelter of that great Bhagawan Mahavir and of his victorious religious path of liberation even those who were otherwise powerless-those who were not at all intelligent and were quite weak, sought shelter of this Lord and by the strength of such shelter have got unprecedented fruits of everlasting happiness such other persons have received such fruits and in future persons following the lords religious path will receive undoubtedly similar spiritual results. Therefore only such determination and such shelter must be made and sought by every spiritual aspirant for liberation. 89(856) Ider, Margashirsh Vad Fourth Saturday V-S. 1955 Om Salutations Every spiritual aspirant should specially try for having a contact of the enlightened saint who has realised his pure self for increasing his strength of spiritual desire or aspiration for liberation his thought power, his strength of non-attachment, his strength of meditation and his power of knowledge. Even here I find many obstructions troubling the spiritual aspirants in our times and so keeping one's desire to know the pure self, he should necessarily try for getting spiritual personal contact of an enlightened spiritual guide and till such contact is not reached, he should constantly read the teachings of Lord Mahavir which will effectively bring spiritual peace and progress to him. For setting one's mind in spiritual aspiration for liberation what is said above, is the best medicine * * * It is not proper to be afraid of one's body and other surrounding obstructions by one's mind. Persons who are neither pleased nor feel sorrow about their bodies have already understood in brief complete twelve sectors of virtuous life. Please understand this well. Only that viewpoint you should adopt. Without being sorrowful at the fact that you have not understood any religion and that now how shall you understand or grasp it, you should keep courage taking shelter of your determination that your self is unattached pure sentience free from pleasure and pain and eternally peaceful and happy. And when you feel weak in such belief, you should remember the stage of total non-attachment of the non attached saints: you should turn your gaze on the wonderful behaviour of these saints and revive full strength of thought and feeling for following the lords spiritual path. Only this way you should get the best desired spiritual results. Completely free from all thoughts other than the thought of my pure self. 90 (866) Shri Vavania, Chaitra Sud Fifth V.S. 1955 The contact of one's pure self (Dravyanuyoga) is very great and subtle. This is the secret of the teachings of Lord Mahavira. It is the unique cause of Shukla Dhyana or pure meditation on the nature of self and by such pure meditation, absolute knowledge of pure self manifests, and very fortunately the contact of one's pure self is obtained. This happens by the blessing or destruction of wrong perception, by indifference towards all sense attractions, and by the strength of propitiating the lotus like feet of an enlightened saint. * * *

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS As self control increases, the self begins to manifest increasingly. The cause of development of self control is the purity of right perception and its cause also is the spiritual contact with the pure self. Normally the fitness for spiritual contact of one's pure self is difficult but it can be found in the self poised absolutely nonattached visionary spiritual great saints. 144 I had written a brief summary of Panchastikaya for the study of one great person and I send it to you along with this letter for your reflective understanding. Oh Arya! The fruit of the contact with spiritual self is selfcontrol where in one experience complete retirement from all aspirations and desires. These sayings of mine you should always bear carefully in your mind without forgetting them any time. What more need I say? It is the secret of spiritual meditation or Samadhi and it is the unique way to be free from all misery. 91 (875) Mumbai, Jetha, V-S 1955 May the feet of the highest and kind king of all saints or monks receive my devotional salutations. How wonderful are the nectarlike teachings posture and good spiritual contact of saints! They cause awakening of the sleeping sentience, bring stability to diminishing disposition of self- aspiration, inspiring the unique self's nature and always alert self-control by only spiritual perception or by their sight, confirmer of the eternal nature of pure self in a spiritual aspirant, developer of slothless self control, and completely non-attached single minded nature and lastly 145 enabling the aspirant to stay in his eternal pure self manifesting the self`s non-yogi nature and also totally boundless self nature. May these three be at all times be victorious! Om Peace, Peace, Peace. 92 (887) SELECTED 100 LETTERS *** Mumbai, Shravan vad Fifteenth OM V-S 1955 Salutation to the inaccesible and yet simple or easy path of great spiritual saints. Always contact with spiritual saints is worth having. By good fortune or by the yoga followed by a soul in his past birth, a person gains right spiritual urge, otherwise it is very difficult. True spiritual urge is born in an aspirant by his contact with a spiritual saint by whole heartedly surrendering to his lotuslike feet and deciding to follow his guidance literally. Or to such proper spiritual aspirant, the faith in his pure self develops by his contact with a spiritual master. He gains the right path of liberation followed by unending line of spiritual enlightened saints. One who has a true aspiration for liberation the contact of a spiritual saint and his teachings develops in him the constant search for his pure self. The serial order of the path of liberation is of this type. At present such contact of a spiritual master is difficult because even in the best of times, it is difficult. Still one who is a right spiritual aspirant who constantly thinks of self welfare day and night and aspires to have self manifestation in his being, a spiritual contact with an enlightened saint becomes easy.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 146 147 SELECTED 100 LETTERS At present you should meditate on Atmanushasan. of dispositions tums to pure sentience and for experiencing it, one has to set aside illusory or misguided behaviour which is removed by the absoluteness of the right spiritual path of sentience or of the enlightened saints. By total non-attachment one can experience his mergence in his pure self. Oh Arya Monks! I always desire such non-attachment as can lead me to non-attached pure consciousness or sentience. O best of the monks! study well and experience that total non-attachment. If there is no other good way for total agreement than not to have any spiritual contact for two years, then do accordingly. My salutations to the great souls who merged themselves in non-attached sentience of self-consciousness, also to those who are doing it now and who will do similarly in future, 93 (901) Mumbai, Kartaka Sud Fifteenth V-S - 1956 "Guru Gandhar Gunadhara Adhik, Prachur Parampar Aur, Vratatapadhar, Tanu Nagandhar, Vando Vrusha Sirmore." Meaning : Salutations to the spiritual master who is the leader of all his disciples and possesor of all spiritual virtues to the maximum and who is the excellent protector of all spiritual traditions, who has observed all vows and penances promoting spiritual progress, who has abandoned all coverings of his body and who is the controller of all embodiments of power. This world does not rest or enjoy peace by a delusion of its own nature caused by obstructions of sense objects. Only one unique way of securing endless limitless happiness is to be firm in one's own nature. This beneficial way is seen and shown by the enlightened saints. Lord Jin has written his Dwadashangi for this purpose and it shines by the same superiority in all religious text, and it becomes victorious. By hearing the teachings of such great enlightened souls, the living being experiences rapturous joy and confirms the distinctive nature of the self and the not-self, experiences them and gradually settles in his real self. By right experience, the living soul stays in his pure self. By elimination of illusory in sight or perception a spiritual aspirant develops high devotion for the path of the enlightened saints and he confirms rightly the nature of the real, and by this one's current 94 (913) Dharmapur, Chaitra Vad Fourth Wednesday V-S. 1956 All worldly persons experience pleasure and pain as a result of their deeds but mainly they experience pain. Rarely in some birth they lead a very pleasant life but even there they suffer from internal mental conflicts and afflictions. Even completely enlightened saints did not have words to describe this pain fully. Such indefinite and endless pain this living soul has experienced in his past and if in this life the causes of this pain are not removed or destroyed then he has certainly to suffer it in future too. Knowing this well, the best thinking persons tried to search the path by following which they can effectively destroy both pleasure and pain with internal afflictions and the mental and physical burning pain full of misery. They searched

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148 SELECTED 100 LETTERS out the path, surveyed it and propitiated it well and following it whole heartedly they merged in their highest state of pure self. When these spiritual researchers searched for the root causes of the experience of pleasure and pain they found as their joyful surprise that they came out stronger after going through great and grave pain as compared with their feeling after going through internally burning but externally peaceful ease, and they saw that the past suffering period brought them to much spiritual encouragement and they found that period more beneficial to them. They sometimes used external medicines to remove the burning suffering of pain keeping it within limits of their living soul, but principally they regarded complete quelling of these sufferings as the best medicine. The repeated teaching of the great saints is that a living being should retire completely from evanescent feelings of pleasure and pain. Heavy or light suffering, considerations of ease and uneasiness, deciding once for all that the real self does not suffer or enjoy any of the mental or physical ills; that it is quite peaceful by nature, always free and unattached and eternally present in every soul. Whatever a living being suffers or enjoys results from his body Tejas (celestial body) and Karman (causal) bodies from all of which his pure self is quite different that this soul by nature a knower will have to experience pleasure and pain till he gets full release and so he should indifferently bear them. His only burning desire should be to obtain pure selfmanifestation, self-existence, self shining etc. This is the natural state of pure self. The best causes of spiritual good of the spiritual aspirants who search for the right path of liberation and desire to secure it, the totally non-attached divine person, the spiritual master also totally free from all worldly knots, desireless and with full faith in their real 149 SELECTED 100 LETTERS self, and ever kind religious behaviour full of sympathy for the spiritual aspirant and the scriptural texts containing highest peaceful spiritual secrets are worthy of worship till the aspirant completely masters the spiritual path of liberation. Bhisananarayagaiya Tiriyagaiya Kudevamanunyagaiya! Pattosi Tivva Dukhham, Bhavahi Jinabhasana Jiva !! O Living being! you suffered extreme miseries in the deadly lowest kind of birth as seen in the births of various birds and animals and in the worst divine and human births. Now is the opportunity in this human birth for you to adopt the path of the liberated Jin. By following this path, you will gain complete peace by the separation of all endless miseries from you just as the great Jain Mahavira gained complete rest and peace in realizing his pure self. Om Peace, Peace, Peace. 95 (915) 1. 2. *** Dharmpur, Chaitra Vad Sixth Friday, V-S-1956 OM Salutation In the serial order of complete peace, the Upsham Samyakatva or right understanding of complete peace is included. The nature of obstructive actions gets destroyed along with the destruction of four kinds of deadly harmful actions, and thereby get destroyed also all obstructions to giving in charity, to getting spiritual gains, to enjoying high stages of spiritual powers or to the soul, strength and to upbhoga repeated enjoyment of pleasure.

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150 SELECTED 100 LETTERS And after complete destruction of these five kinds. of obstructions to spiritual development you get free to secure these five types of gains. Thus Jin Mahavir is capable of giving us spiritual gain. Still such great saints do not actually give any tangible gains to us they only direct us to enjoy our real self when we have destroyed our obstructions in the way of our self-manifestation, then we live as our pure self eternally free and fearless. We experience the infinite soul strength that our self possesses eternally and Shri Jin helps us to realize our shining self as it shines in himself, and this is the eternal gain from Shri Jin and now there is no reason of our soul's separation from our self and so this gain is called Anantalabhalabdhi. We completely enjoy our eternal self without any possibility of our separation from it and so it is called Anantabhogupbhoglabdhi, and there is nothing which can make it difficult for our self to enjoy the soul strength or bring decrease in it by any adverse time and so the presence of eternal soul strength or self-power is called Ananta Virya labdhi. Looking from the viewpoint of Kshayikbhava or complete destruction of all ghati karmas, the highest spiritual saints have acquired the above said special powers by their self-realization. Besides the above names five special acquisitions are described separately for clear understanding; otherwise all these five powers are covered in Anantha Viryalabdhi. The self realized Jin is capable of giving any pudgal substance to any body of his liking but as he is free from all likes and dislikes, he does not use his power at all, as he is totally non-attached to any thing or any person, and whatever spiritual instructions he has given is because of the rise in him of the previous desire of doing good to others - it is not resulting from any imperfection of the pure self. 151 SELECTED 100 LETTERS I have replied to your question briefly in these lines. By thinking more and more of your occasion of complete retirement, you will understand the above writing more clearly and you will experience shedding away all imperfection from you. By acquiring spiritual knowledge with full inspiration the endless actions of ours get destroyed. 96 (927) OM Peace, Peace, Peace. Vavania, Vaishakha Vad Fifteenth, V.S. 1956 Truly speaking the living body is the idol of miseries. From moment to moment the living soul suffers only pains and misery in it, with rare ease and general misery. One who rightly views it, fundamental misery principally in his life and even the physical viewer finds principally physical misery or pain in it. At proper time, the fructification of the past deeds of a living being brings him as a result, experiences of sorrow and suffering or miseries which cannot be avoided by either Indra or a king of heaven, moon as the luminary of earth, nagendra or the king of reptiles the cobra or even the Jinendra or Lord Mahavir the king of the Jain. When miseries mental or physical face any living being, he or it must suffer them either quietly or otherwise. Ignorant beings may bear them with tears in their eyes and cries of their incapacity to bear in them but thereby the seriousness of suffering them does not diminish at all nor do they go away. Right minded pesons peacefully bear miseries but thereby the miseries do not increase in their intensity but they do not give birth to further future miseries. These powerful miseries of the past

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 152 153 SELECTED 100 LETTERS Try to turn the hearers to love some beneficial positive attitude and action rather than give negative instructions as to what one should not do. die out by their patient suffering. One who aspires to realize his pure self should only patiently suffer them and be free from them for ever. I am not the body. I am the knowing pure self different from my body. Besides I am always eternal. This suffering of mind or body has resulted as fruit of my deeds of my past but it cannot destroy or harm my natural pure self so I should not be sorry for it. This is the proper attitude of the self-searching person, towards all mental or bodily miseries. *** 97 (937) Vavania, Ashad Sud First, Thursday, V.S. 1956 OM May you all best amongst the monks and always merciful, receive my salutations. Aryan men and women have no ojection in spending four months of monsoon in places where substance, place, time and circumstance or mental dispositions are congenial. For example suppose a person observes Samayik Vrata in the customary way, instead of opposing it, advise him to spend that time in hearing positive religious instructions, or in the study of approved religious texts or in Kayotsarga or keeping in a set bodily posture and mentally aspire for disowning the body. Try to inspire him firmly for adopting pure religious behaviour without giving him even a semblance of your opposition to Samayika and other observances to his or her heart. By directly or straight advising the said person he or she may be excited to oppose you and may say to you that your advice is not correct and thereby he or she may blame you and may leave the religious activity concerned. Such is the nature of custom intoxicated persons, and other people may feel that you have directly opposed the customary religious activities. Therefore keep yourselves away from all differences of religious practices, be in the middle way or impartial and while serving the good of your self, request or advise others to promote the good of their selves and in this way try to show them the path of the enlightened saints by showing them the consistency between knowledge and appropriate action or behaviour and providing it reasonably or logically. This is the fine way for removing all wrong impressions and actions. In this monsoon season twice religious instructions and once taking food and taking measured sleep and the spare time should be spent in self reflection, reading padmanandhi and such other religious texts and meditating on the nature of one self. This should be the order of the day. When any person male or female sometimes puts any question to you then give proper solutions so as to bring peace to the questioner. See that there is no sloth or idleness in realizing good of your self and at the same time let others hear you saying such good instructions as may spiritually benefit their good by developing their

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 154 155 SELECTED 100 LETTERS faith in their selves, and that the right religious activities may expand without any increase of imaginary differences of opinion; instead peace may prevail both in you and in your hearers. Be inspired in living in this manner and behave in such a way that more aspirants may begin to love the right religious scriptures. This letter should be placed in the service of Shri Lalluji monk. OM peace Keep your attitude and behaviour such that all who see you are inspired to confirm their faith in the devotion to the enlightened masters and in the path advocated and adopted by them. This will remove sloth in others and develop best conduct both in you and in others who meet you. OM peace. 98 (943) Morbi, Shravan Vad Seventh, Friday, V-S. 1916 OM Salutations to Shri Jin The dominant instruction of the enlightened saint is to be in highest retirement. If one is not able to concentrate on his pure self it is desirable to be always retired from everything or to be alert to his pure self by securing occasions of complete retirement You are instructed to act accordingly-Eighth, Fourteenth day of Indian calendar etc., these religious days should be religiously observed to promote the good of your souls. Try to confirm the path chalked out by the enlightened saints and see that you and other spiritual aspirants around you undoubtedly accept it and thereby develop best virtues, observe all religious vows, instructions, and rules of noble behaviour and you muster all strength in your devotion to the divinities, the spiritual masters and soul shining religion and this is to your best spiritual advantage. 99 (944) Morbi, Shravan Vad Tenth V.S. 1956 Brother Kilabhai, Tribhovan and other spiritual aspirants at "(Khambat)" Today I have posted to you the book Yogashastra. If Shri Ambalal comes to Khambat it is all right. If not, you and Kilabhai and other spiritual aspirants should read and study this Yogashastra from Shravan Vad Eleventh to Bhadrapad Fifteenth for concentrating on good observance of vows, scrupulous following of religious instructions, and increasing the spirit of retirement A living soul has done all he could in harming his good by sloth and idleness and still he does not desire his ultimate good and this is the very sorrowful state of affairs. O Arya! By your inspired strength, try to slacken your sloth and idleness, develop good and noble conduct, read the spiritual revealed texts and by their deep study maintain your self by total retirement from all worldly activities. At present in every letter I feel writing to you to secure retirement.

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SELECTED 100 LETTERS 156 157 SELECTED 100 LETTERS 100 (949) Tithal, Valsad, Posha Vad Tenth Tuesday, V.S. 1957 OM I received your consolatory letter knowing the death of wife of my brother Mansukh. The lines written by you while describing the occasions of serving her in deathbed, are quite correct, and these sentences have come from the effect on your pure heart while serving her till death. One whose hallmark of life is public opinion, howsoever such life may be full of wealth, power or high position, or rich with wife and good family, still it is only the source of sorrow and suffering. The life whose hallmark is peace of pure self, may be alone, without any riches and quite naked without any cloth to cover it, still such a life is the abode of the highest peace and meditation. Om Salutation to the enlightened spiritual self. Glossary 1) Samkit : Right knowledge. perception and conduct. 2) Kalikal : Present age 3) Pratikramana Sutra: Jain Sutra for repentence of misdeeds. Jatismaran Jnana: Knowledge of previous births. Samvatsari : Last day of Paryushan Paryushan :Eight day Jain festival of self purification and forgiveness. Tirthankara : A person who attained salvation and wish to liberate other souls. 8) Swachhand - Self guided actions 9) Chaturmas : Four months stay during monsoon. 10) Smaran Mantra : Sahajatma Swaroop Param Guru. 11) Vees Dohra : He Prabhu He Prabhu Shun Kahu. 12) Samyak Jnan : Right knowledge. 13) Samyak Darshan : Right Perception. 14) Samyak Charitra : Right conduct. 15) Veetrag dev: Who have shed love and hatred. 16) Atmasiddhi Shastra : Six tenets of Jainism. a) Soul is there. b) Soul is eternal. c) Soul is the doer of action. d) Soul is the enjoyer and sufferer of actions. e) Moksha (Liberation) is there. f) There is path leading to Moksha 17) Kalpavruksha :A tree which gives every thing one desires. 18) V.S. Veer Samvat * * *