The Truth

Author(s): O P Jain
Publisher: Veer Nirvan Granth Prakashan Samiti
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/006936/1

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THE TRUTH Dr. O.P. JAIN SHRI VEER NIRVAN GRANTH PRAKASHAN SAMITI, INDORE MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA For Personal & Private Use Only www.aliba

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THE TRUTH O.P. JAIN C.E. (HONS.), PH. D., (LONDON), F.I.E. Prof. & Head, Deptt. of Civil Engg UNIVERSITY OF ROORKEE, ROORKEE, U.P., INDIA SHRI VEER NIRVAN GRANTH PRAKASHAN SAMITI. 48, Sitala Mata Bazar, Indore-452 001 Madhya Pradesh, India For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH BY DR, O.P. JAIN; Published by Shri Veer Nirvan Granth Prakashan Samiti. 48 Sitala Mata Bazar, Indore-452 001; M.P., India First Fdition 1977; pp. 84-80. Dr. O.P. JAIN Price : Rs. Ten For copies : Secretary, Shri Veer Nirvan Granth Prakashan Samit 48, Sitala Mata Bazar, Indore-452 001; M.P., India ... Printed in India at Nai Duniya Press, Kesarbag Road, T P Indore: 432002; MP India For Personal & Private Use Only

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE We are happy to publish The Truth by Dr. O.P. Jain, an efficacious book which enlightens readers on Jainological and other allied subjects. The book has been effectively designed and written in a very simple, understandable and colloquial English conducive to all sorts of readers. The Truth throws sufficient light on the fundamentals of Jainism. This is for the second time that Shri Veer Nirvan Granth Prakashan Samiti has undertaken publication of a book in Englisn. The first book, say a brochure, was brought out in 1975 under the title Life and Teachings of Lord Mahaveera by Dr. K.C. Jain, which was most welcomed in and outside the country. In Hindi, the Samiti has many useful and valuable publications to her credit. Anuttar Yogi : Tirthankar Mahaveera, an epic-novel in 3 big volumes by Shri Virendrakumar Jain is a timeenduring publication. In the same way Vaishali Ke Rajkumar Tirthankar Vardhaman Mahaveera by Dr. Nerrichand Jain written in rhythmic prose style is also a publication of which Samiti feels great proud. The Samiti is fortunate enough to publish almost all works of Rev. Upadhyaya Munishri Vidyanandaji, an awakened Digamber Jain Monk of India. We feel extremely indebted to the learned author and to the Press Manager who in their respective turns left no stone unturned. in bringing out the present book. Indore : January 1, 1977 Babulal Patodi Secretary For Personal & Private Use Only

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PREFACE The views expressed in this book represent my own understanding of the Truth about the self and the Universe. It is likely that some of these ideas may not be acceptable to everyone. But there is no intention to injure anyone's feelings or show disrespect to any faith, personality or God. I beg to be excused if anyone feels emotionally hurt by any statement made in the book, which has been written - in the fearless and rational style of a scientist free from mythology and dogma. The author is not an expert in spiritual matters nor has he any special spiritual conduct. The book is, therefore, not meant for specialists in the subject. It is a dialogue between laymen in their own language free from highly technical terms, allegorical description or dry philosophical treatment. The matter has been dealt with in a manner easily understood by a modern educated person. If the book is able to arouse the interest of the reader in the subject, the purpose would be fully served. 0. P. JAIN Roorkee 1st January 1977 For Personal & Private Use Only

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CONTENTS 1 to 4 1. THE COMMON CAUSE Search for Bliss 5 to 8 2. METHOD OF ENQUIRY Logic, Nayavada, Syedvada 9 to 17 3. GOD Concepts and Attributes 18 to 26 4. THE SOUL Its Nature and Attributes 27 to 60 5. THE SEVEN TATTVAS Ultimate knowledge of Nature of things; path to eternal bliss (nirvana); code of conduct 61 to 80 6. OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS :: Worship, Dharma, Socialism, Food and Vegetarianism, Morality, Ahimsa. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE COMMON CAUSE SEARCH FOR BLISS 1.1 All living beings-men, animals, and the like-only seek happiness in all things and pursuits, there is no one who does not hanker after eternal life and blissfulness in some form or the other. The form of happiness sought depends upon the spiritual, mental and cultural development of the living being. No form of life, howsoever lowly, wants to die. They fear death and make all possible efforts to avoid it. Pursuit of happiness and fear of death are common characteristics of life as we see in this world. On analysis, it will be seen that happiness sought is generally related in one way or the other with sensual pleasures-satisfaction of the palate by eating tasteful foods, satisfaction of eyes by seeing beautiful objects, satisfaction 'of ears by hearing sweet music, satisfaction of sex, satisfaction of passions by possessing wealth, status, power, and a sense of superiority over others. To get the above pleasures, one has to make constant efforts for the whole life by adopting various vocations and it often leads to strife with those who happen to be engaged in the pursuit of the same object. But the desires increase faster than the possessions and none in the World has been able to fulfill them. In fact, desires have no upper limit and even the entire wealth of the whole Universe is insufficient to satisfy them. Even otherwise, it is a common experience that sensual pleasures do not satisfy the soul, however much they might tickle the senses for the time being. Sensual pleasure is essentially impermanent, depends on the contact with other things and bodies which are not within our control, involves trouble and pain in its obtainment, creates worry and uneasiness after its experience, and gives rise to misery in old age on the impairment of the senses on which alone its enjoyment depends. No one who has analysed the problem rationally can possibly find anything in common between the ideal of happiness which he must seek and the sensual gratifications described above. None in this World, including the greatest of kings, will be found to be truly happy. Each has one cause or the other to be unhappy. All living beings have a For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH constant dread of calamity, disease, old age and death. If the sensual pleasures were real happiress, it shouli be so for all, at all times and in all circumstances. But it is not so. Different individuals feel differently to the same food, same wealth, same family etc., and one may feel happy while the other may feel miserable under the same conditions. Thus, these external objects by themselves do not produce happiness. An iced drink may be a cause of pleasure for a healthy man on a hot day, but not for a sick man or in cold weather. Similarly, an ordinary man may be happy to have an income of Rs. 1 lakh, while a millionaire may be sad on such a 'meagre' income. Similar instances can be quoted with respect to status, power, family and knowledge. It is thus clear that source of real happiness lies elsewhere than in material objects and sensual pleasures. 1.2 What one really wants is the happiness which the Gods are said to enjoy--undying, unabating, soul enrapturing happinessnot the temporary gratification of lust, but the exhilerating rhythm of ecstasy, delight or bliss. The so-called scientific revolution and the accompanied industrial and cultural developments have not helped man to be happy in the real sense, even though his knowledge of the power of matter has considerably increased and he has much higher resources for sensual pleasures. In fact, this has increased his desires so much that he has less peace of mind now than before. The difficulty lies in his ignorance about the nature and source of real happiness. His concept of happiness is the same as that of a person who enjoys the rubbing of a ringworm on his body, resulting in still more unhappiness. Passions and desires are like the ringworm and lasting happiness can be obtained only by rooting them out and not by feeding them. 1.3 The ecstatic delight which is neither evanescent nor the source of sorrow or pain, like the gratification of sensual lust, is really the nature of soul itself, though through ignorance one is unaware of this attribute. The proof of this is to be found in the fact that the pleasure one experiences on the successful performance of some task, comes from within and is independent of the senses. What prevents the soul from the enjoyment of its natural joy, is ignorance. Hardly one man in a million has any idea of the nature of pure joy and everybody tries to extract it from his surroundings which are by nature utterly incapable of yielding it. Hence true knowledge is necessarily the road to bliss. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE COMMON CAUSE 1.4 The kind of knowledge which leads to joy is more comprehensive and perfect than that which is imparted in schools and colleges. It is the knowledge of the nature of those substances and forces, which rob the soul of its inherent happiness and also of those which help the soul to recover its happiness. All other kinds of knowledge may be necessary for worldly needs and sensual pleasures, but is unimportant to one seeking bliss and immortality. Man is endowed with a much greater mental power compared to other creatures and has been making efforts to mould nature to his benefits. It is only this power which distinguishes him from animals. He has acquired a large knowledge about the various objects around him in the Universe and is constantly seeking greater and greater control over forces of nature. But it is very surprising that he does not make sufficient efforts to know his ownself. Without this knowledge, his knowledge of other objects cannot be of much use to himself because he does not know the result of inter-action of self with those other objects. It is because of this, that man does not know as to why he is unhappy and how he can get eternal bliss. Even for the sake of curiosity and knowledge itself, it is natural that a man should like to know as to what is the nature of the substance called 'l', what is its relative place in the Universe, what is the Universe itself, and what is God about whom so much is talked about. Not to try to know these objects is like not knowing one's own family members while attempting to know others in the World. 1.5 The answer to these questions can be had by a scientific study of Metaphysics, Philosophy and Religion. Science : It implies accurate knowledge free from errors and doubt, well coordinated, arranged and systematized and which may be tested: by experiment. Metaphysics : It is the science which seeks to know the ultimate grounds of being or what it is that really exists, embracing both psychology and ontology (the doctrine of being, nature of all things or existences). It transcends Physics and is an all comprehensive consistent system of thought that is explanatory of the nature of our surroundings. Philosophy : The science which aims at an explanation of all the phenomenon of the Universe by ultimate causes; the knowledge For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH of phenomena as explaned by and resolved into causes and reasons, powers and laws. Philosophy and science are wedded together and are based on a systematic thought. Religion : It is the path of liberation from the suffering and pain which is the lot of beings in this Universe and is based on the foundations of Metaphysics and Philosophy. Besides scientific knowledge, it requires a perfect faith in that knowledge and a rational conduct based on it: The following chapters are devoted to the study of the substance l' and the forces which influence it. ... 20 For Personal & Private Use Only

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METHOD OF ENQUIRY LOGIC, NAYAVADA, SYADVADA 2.1 The subject under study is very elusive and one is likely to develop it on weak premises. The enquiry must be made with the strictest logic. Bias and bigotry are subversive of truth and fanatical fervour destructive of reason itself. Private convictions and vague intuitions of individuals have also to be left out for the search to be scientific. All traces of superstition must be removed from the mind in order to qualify for the study of truth. We are so constituted that there is an overwhelming sub-conscious predisposition in us in favour of the faith in which we are born that unconsciously forces the most critical of us to reject, on the flimsiest ground, any hostile or seemingly hostile theory or fact. The burden of proof is very often thrown on the opponent even in defiance of reason and good sense. This is not the proper disposition of mind to discover the truth. Broadly speaking, the sources of knowledge are : (i) Observation (ii) Reflection, Meditation or Inference and (iii) Testimony. Observation is the foundation of science, inference is the basis of philosophy, while testimony, when it comes from an Omniscient Teacher is 'Scripture. In short, perfection of observation is science, perfection of inference is metaphysics and perfection of testimony is scripture. Metaphysics must always remain in touch with concrete nature. Where science and metaphysics . do not agree on a point, the disagreement is generally due to the latter having somewhere lost sight of the concrete reality. As for the criterion of truth, it is generally safe to lay down that where scicence and metaphysics agree, truth may be said to be established there. In the case of a rational religion, there is an additional safeguard which consists in its agreement with scriptures besides science and metaphysics. Hence philosophy may be defined as the science in which (i) facts are taken from nature, (ii) conclusions are checked by logic and (iii) final confirmation is sought in scripture i.e., the irrefutable word of an all knowing teacher. Science is used to get the laws of cause and effect. The chief instruments of philosophy are (i) logic i.e., inference, classification, analysis, and (ii) Nayavada, i.e., system of stand-points. Inference is the method of accurate deduction, classification, of accurate For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH determination of general attributes, analysis of accurate knowledge of ingredients and component parts of ideas and things, and Nayavada, of accurate appreciation of truth with reference to diverse standpoints. 2.2 Logic is based on the principle that wherever there is an invariable rule, without a single exception, there alone can a logical conclusion be drawn with that rule and that no proper inference is possible in the absence or in defiance of such a fixed unalterable rule. There are five kinds of logical relations with reference to which it is possible to have a fixed rule (vyapi in Sanskrit) giving rise to logical inference. These are : (i) Cause and Effect e.g., (a) Moist fuel is burning in the kitchen. .:. There is smoke in the kitchen. (b) There is smoke in this place. .:. There is fire in this place. (ii) From antecedent to consequent e.g., (a) Monday following a Sunday (b) Childhood preceding adolescence (iii) Concomitance e.g., Age and experience going together (iv) Whole and Part e.g., There is no fruit tree in this village. .:. There is no mango tree in this village (v) Identity e.g., There is no pitcher in this room, because there is nothing answering its identity (description) here. There is no room for error in this method of inference if the vyapi is carefully and scientifically tested. When one's own observation is supported by the experience of mankind in general and is also confirmed by the word of an omniscient Teacher, as given in scriptures, there is no doubt left about the correctness of the data used for further deductions. For Personal & Private Use Only

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METHOD OF ENQUIRY Classification means the sorting or arrangement of things into classes or sets according to their characteristics. The true characteristic (lakshna) is the one that is actually found in common in every member of the class, but in nothing else outside it. 2.3 The concept of nayavada is very important as all troubles that have arisen among men with respect to religion and metaphysics are simply due to their ignorance of its fundamental principles. It means a system of standpoints. In Metaphysics, it is the keeping in mind, at the time of raising a subsequent mental superstructure thereon, of the particular side or aspect from which any specific statement is made or a specific conclusion is reached. For instance, we observe all objects of matter changing, shifting and perishing in Nature, but this is so only in respect of the forms in which matter appears, not in respect of matter itself, which is eternal. Suppose we generalise upon the impermanence of things and leave out of account the underlying continuity of matter as matter, to better emphasize the transiency of its forms, and then set out to build up a system of metaphysics upon this one-sided emphasis, we should have something like the doctrine known as kshanikavada, which maintains that there is nothing permanent in the Nature, so that things must constantly arise out of and vanish into pure nothingness. Here the confusion has obviously arisen from the ignoring of the fact that the impermanence of things is confined to their forms, and does not extend to their material or substance. This one instance suffices to demonstrate the principle of nayavada and to warn us against all such one-sided absolutisms. There are many ways of looking at a thing, the important ones of which are : Standpoint Real or scientific (Nischaya) e.g., calling a pitcher of clay containing water, a pitcher of clay and not a pitcher of water Popular or vulgar (vyavhara) e.g., calling the pitcher of clay containing water, a pitcher of water Dravyarthika Paryayarthika (having reference to (having reference to natural attributes forms and modificain pure form of tions of things) substances) For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH It is hoped, if the method of enquiry is based on the above rational principles, not only we will be able to understand the truth, but we will also be able to reconcile seemingly conflicting view-points which generally arise due to one-sided knowledge. 2.4 A bundle of attributes and qualities may be present in an object all at once, but the human speech can only deal with them one by one. Some of these attributes may appear contradictory because they proceed from different standpoints. Yet there may be no real contradiction and it may be important to know all these attributes to understand the object fully. This is called the doctrine of Syadvada. For example, of the statements 'A is dead' and 'A is not dead', when they proceed from the same standpoint, one or may be both are bound to be false. But when taken from different standpoints, there may be no contradiction involved in them, for A may be dead as A, but not dead from the point of view of the soul which is immortal. Most religious quarrels arise due to apparently antagonistic views expressed by them. But in each case, if the problem is viewed from a particular standpoint, there may be no contradiction. The principle of Syadvada is, therefore, very necessary to correctly understand a matter, in all its aspects, to reconcile viewpoints and thus to promote tolerance, peace and friendship between different religions. Sjadrada makes us broad-minded, removes the rigidity and closeness of mind and helps us to appreciate various view points. 00 For Personal & Private Use Only

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GOD CONCEPTS AND ATTRIBUTES 3.1 To understand the self and the Universe, it will first be necessary to examine the attributes of God, about which there is so much vagueness and misconception in this world and which is likely to cloud our clear thinking. In fact, most of the religious quarrels arise due to this misunderstanding and due to which man is not able to follow the correct conduct leading to eternal bliss. i 3.2 The most widely prevalent idea of Godhead today is that there is one Supreme Being who is the maker and ruler of the World and the arbiter of the destinies of living beings, judging and awarding the fruits of actions of men according to their deserts. - The notion of a World Maker arises from the analogy you cannot have a watch without a watchmaker, neither can you have a World without a World Maker". It is a poor logic, for analogy is no argument as every logician knows. The argument is self contradictory with respect to the maker of that supposed World Maker of ours; for, on the supposition that everything must have a maker, we would have to have a maker of that maker and so forth! There is no escape from this difficulty excepting by holding that the World Maker is self existent. Thus the above analogy is not correct and the World could exist without being created by any one. Actually the watch maker only assembles it from already existing materials and hence the illogic nature of the analogy. i It is a known law of science that matter is indestructible and is composed of units which are not further divisible. Therefore how can they be manufactured in any way for they contain no elements which might be said to have been put together. Also, how can a thing, which did not exist upto a certain time, become indestructible i.e., eternal. Same logic applies to the case of spirit (i.e., the soul) which is said to be eternal. How can an object be eternal as well as a created article? This marks the limit of absurdity in metaphysics. Thus the For Personal & Private Use Only

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10 THE TRUTH question of creation of the Universe does not arise. It is eternal and indestructible. 3.3 Why should it be necessary to assign the role of a ruler and a judge to God, when all events in the World can rationally be explained based on the logic of cause and effect. If I put my hand on fire, I can tell you precisely what the result of my folly could be, long before it is to be judicially determined by a divine judge in heaven? It is well-known that all chemical and physical changes in the Universe occur automatically as per well defined and precise laws of Nature without waiting for any command. These changes can even be predicted once the relevant parameters are known. Hence there remains no necessity for a ruler or a judge to command the fun of the Universe. The concept of command implies that the laws of Nature can even be changed occasionally as desired to meet certain special situations. But in practice, it is not found so. The fact is that every basic element in the Universe possesses its own nature and reacts to external situations in conformity with its own properties according to the laws of cause and effect. If it were not so, there will be utter chaos in the Universe and no scientific study of laws of Ntaure would have been possible. Hence not only the Universe is eternal, but also its basic components possess properties which are unchangeable. In fact, the existence of a substance is established only by its unique properties and unless these are eternally present in it, it ceases to exist. It may change forms due to external influences, but does not leave its inherent qualities even though they may not be apparent in a changed form. It might be said that God created the laws of Nature according to which it continues to function. But the question is whether it functions on command of God and can He change these functions ? If not, this attribute does no credit to God and is unnecessary. Nothing in this world is known to be created from nothingness and the basic elements of creation will surely possess their own nature without which their existence cannot be proved. Thus the question that God created the laws of Nature does not arise, because these laws are nothing but the Nature and attributes of things in this Universe. It has already been shown in para 3.2 that the elements of the Universe are eternal, existed since ever and were not created at any instant. The notion that the Universe is merely a dream (maya) and has no reality, can also not be accepted as it goes against the principle of indestructibility of matter, for how can this principle apply to a thing For Personal & Private Use Only

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GOD - 11 which does not exist. Moreover, the question of a creator does not arise for a thing which does not exist. 3.4. God is believed to be a perfect being with unlimited power, unlimited vision, inlimited happiness and unlimited knowledge. He is said to be merciful and just. These are most noble and divine attributes. But we unnecessarily tarnish the image of God by calling him a Creater, a ruler and a judge. How can we believe that a eing as described above, will create such imperfect a world in which there is noting except suffering, and which is full of greed, deceit and violence. How can He be called merciful when, having created cruelty and selfishness, He punishes those who make use of these evil weapons. Hs is certainly cruel to those who are the victims of these evil deeds. He should have created a World where there was all happiness, for only a wicked. person will like to enjoy a sport involing suffering to men and animals. Besides, why will a God, who has unlimited happiness, like to stage a drama of the World, as such a pastime is necessary for the recreation of only those who seek pleasure. It is well-known that unhappy is the man who wears a crown and, therefore, how can we attribute the function of rulership to God who is stated to have unlimited happiness. This goes against everyday experience. Happiness is either experienced with the help of sense organs and mind or by being absorbed in self. The first type of happiness is unreal and is merely a satisfaction of desires and passions, which by nature are insatiable. God is not supposed to have desires and. passions which are just opposite to the state of perfect happiness. The other type of happiness is experienced by the soul independently of outside objects and is its own nature. It comes when the soul is free from passions, thoughts or any other disturbing causes. It is infact a state of perfect peace when there are no thoughts. It is a state similar to that of perpetual samadhi. How can, therefore, God think of creation of the World; the moment he does so, his peace will be disturbed and he will not have perfect happiness. . If God has unlimited power, what prevents him from rectifying the mistake of having created suffering and evil in this. world. Why should He wait for someone to pray to him for mercy, For Personal & Private Use Only

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12 THE TRUTH unless. He suffers from the same weakness of conceit and pride as mortals do. The concept of Creator, ruler and a judge inspires awe' rather than true respect and devotion towards God and one gets a feeling of being a slave at the mercy of his master. This relationship is not conducive to clear thinking or correct conduct for spiritual evolution. This is likely to convert us into a team of inactive beggars. Infact, the idea of God as a Creator, Protector, Ruler or Judge seems to have arisen out of weakness of man who found some solace under the care of a super being and to frighten people against evil deeds. The practice of animal-sacrifice before Gods is a direct result of the concept of rulership with all the passions attached to that office. If the Universe was created, it implies the conscious creation of something useful or useless. If the former, why was a useful thing not made before; if the latter, the Creator is a frivolous wastrel. If the Universe was created for the first time, it must follow that before its creation, God was not Krita Kritya, one so perfect that nothing remained to be done by him. If he only creates a destroyed Universe, the explanation is simple that it is merely a cycle of change going on and needs no external agency. 3.5 When the mundane soul, by proper efforts, becomes a Perfect Pure Soul, it certainly creates its own perfect condition of infinite knowledge, infinite perception, infinite power and infinite bliss. It is in this sense that God can be said to be the Creator. Since in this state, the soul is able to perceive the whole Universe, its past, present and future, all at every instant, it may be said to create the Universe The case has been well put in the Bhagvad Gita (v. 14-15) in this respect: na kartRtvaM na karmANI lokastha sRjati prabhuH / na karmaphalaM saMyoga svabhAvastu pravartate // nAdante kadaMba citaM pApa na caiva sutkRtaM vimuH / AtUnenAvRtaM jJAna tene muhanAnta janatvaH / / / For Personal & Private Use Only

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GOD 13 i. e., neither agency nor actions does the Lord create for the World, nor does He bring about the union with the fruit of actions: all these are caused by the nature of things; the Lord does not remove the sin of anyone, nor take away the merit of anyone's good deeds. Knowledge is enveloped by nescience, hence are mortals deluded. Sri K. N. Iyer writes in Permanent History of Bharatavarsha (Vol., 1, page 295) : "The creation of Brahma...virtually means the destruction of all the worldly desires and the consequent rising of a devotional tendency in man. Vishnu preserves and develops the buddhi created by Brahma and does not preserve any other absurdities. Shiva is primarily the cause of Brahma's creation by his destroying the worldly desires, and lastly, he is the cause of final liberation by annihilating the good effects of religious devotion and practice. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva... exhaust the religious requirements for the final emancipation of man." * The eminent philosopher Huxley writes in Tradition, p. 258, : Science and Hebrew "If the divine might is associated with no higher ethical attributes than those which obtain among ordinary men; if the divine intelligence is supposed to be so imperfect that it cannot see the consequences of its own contrivances; if the supreme powers can become furiously angry with the creatures of their omnipotence and in their senseless wrath, destroy the innocent alongwith the guilty: or if they can show themselves to be as easily placated by presents and gross pattery as any oriental or occidental despot, if in short, they are only stronger than mortal men and no better, then, surely, it is time for us to look somewhat closely into their credentials, and to accept none but conclusive evidence of their existence." The fact of the matter is that the error lies in the misinterpretation of the scriptures which in most cases are mythological in character and, cannot be taken literally. Truely speaking, Omniscience, immortality and bliss are the natural attributes of For Personal & Private Use Only

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14 THE TRUTH the soul itself and there can be no obtaining them from without. They have only to be exposed from within where they lie burried. The idea of merging in God on attaining Nirvana implies no more than the acquisition of status and divinity of Godhood, for there can be no merger of two or more real entities into one another by any posibility. The analogy of the absorption of a drop in the sea is beside the point, and actually proves the opposite of that which it is intended to prove, since the sea is but a collection of drops so that the additional drop only goes to increase the number of those already there. Clement of Alexandria, who was the famous disciple of St. Peter, says ; "But it is not as a portion of God that the spirit is in each of us"-A. N. C. L. XII, 273 "But God has no natural relation to us.... neither on the supposition of his having made us from nothing, nor on that of having formed us from matter .......... neither portions of himself nor his children" Ibid, page 45. Origen says in A. N. C. L. XXIV, p. 151 : "Beloved, says he, now are we the sons of God, not by natural affection, but because we have God as our father. For it is the greater love, that, seeing we have no relationship to God, He nevertheless loves us and calls us His sons", * From the scientific point of view also, it is incorrect to say that all souls are portions of God. This will mean that God is not an individual entity, but a plural being, a collection of souls which can be separated. Only a mixture of several units can be separated into parts without losing its attributes. The supposition that souls are not separate from God, but all of them only form its infinite body, will suffer from the difficulty that souls will lose their individual entity. No portion of For Personal & Private Use Only

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GOD 15 a simple indivisible substance (namely an electron) can exist or function separately. All portions function together as one unit. But this is not the case with souls, which are seen to be functioning differently from each other. Thus all souls are not the limbs of a single indivisible body of God. The most significant name of God is "I am". This is common to Hinduism, Zorostrianism, Judaism and Christianity. Isavas ya-Upanishad (Verse 16) means "That yonder person who dwells in Asu (Life) is known by the name of Aham, I (i. e., the Supreme), and Asmi, 'I am' (the only standard of existence). in the Hormuzd Yasht, it is recorded : Then spake Zarathushtra :.Tell me thou, O pure Ahuramazda the name which is the greatest, hest, fairest and which is the most efficacious for prayer. Thus answered Ahurmazda : My first name is Ahmi (I am), and my twentieth is Ahmi Yad Ahmi Mazdao (i am that I am Mazda)"-Haug's essays on the Parsi", P. 195. The Book of Exodus in Old Testament records the following: "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say unto me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them ? ! And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM : and he said thus 'shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM has sent me unto you." (Exodus iii. 13--14). Jesus also refers to I AM, when he says "Before Abraham was I AM" (John VIII, 58). Do you now perceive the nature of Divinity ? His name is "I AM", a most appropriate descriptive appellation of Life or being which truly it is. I do not think it is possible to find a better expression than "I AM" as a name for life. For Personal & Private Use Only

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16 THE TRUTH Thus, the real God for the soul is its own life or being, that is the soul substance itself, which is the material cause of the subsequent Godhood which infact is its real nature and which can be manifested by shedding the impurities under which it is hidden. This amounts to saying that there is only one real God for each soul and man is warned against associating any other with this God. 3.6. However, the concept of God being a Creator, being all powerful, having unlimited happiness and being a ruler can be explained thus. It is well accepted that the only distinguishing feature of living beings from other non-living objects of the Universe is its attribute of knowledge i. e., capacity to know. Life, even in its lowest form, exhibits this quality. Depending upon its evolution, life shows more and more knowledge. Taken to extreme limits, it has the power to know the whole Universe at one time, in all its three states of past, present and future. This is the greatest power that anyone can think of. But this is exhibited by the soul in its pure form (Spirit or God) only and as such, God can be said to be all powerful. The concept of infinite power also implies that no one can dislodge Him from the above Divine attributes, death and other calamities cannot approach Him, and He is the destroyer of the greatest and most powerful foe of living beings, namely the Karma Prakriti or the impurity which keeps the soul in bondage and does not let it enjoy its natural attributes of Godhood. It is well-known that unhappiness arises primarily from incorrect knowledge or lack of knowledge. Therefore, a soul which has attained perfect knowledge will have unlimited happiness. Everyone says that 'you shall reap as you sow'. This obviously means that your future will be created by your ownself. Hence the soul is also the Creator of the Universe, for what else is the Universe (Sansara) except the drama of continuous change, life and death, happiness and sorrow. Since these states are transitory, people have often called it a dream or maya and not because the Universe has no reality. The soul is also a ruler because it can determine its future states by its own actions or commands. 3.7. The idea of an Avtar is merely a soul, which by a process of evolution (or gradual uplift) starts exhibiting Godly For Personal & Private Use Only

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GOD 17 attributes. The idea of God being only 'one' implies that all souls by nature in their pure state) have exactly identical attributes like the atoms of an element. God is, therefore, omniscient, eternal, blissful and endowed with infinite energy. He has no duties or obligations to perform. He should be above undertakings and should have no desire to be worshipped or praised by men. He would not interfere in the affairs of men or inflict upon Himself the management of the Universe. A God should have no unfulfilled purpose or unsatisfied craving or ambition and for this reason, He would not manage or create a World. Divinity should ever be tranquil, unagitated, restful and unswayed by any outside circumstance or force. Passions like anger and greed do not move a God; He is not subject to grief and sorrow. In view of the above, the God is above private loves and hatreds, rituals and sacrifices. He is free from hunger, sleep, heat or cold, from which only mortal beings suffer. Sex function has no place in the life of a God and He is neither male nor female, these being associated with physical bodies only. . Al impure spirits may attain to a Divine status, as many have done in the past, and many will do in the future. All spirits are alike in respect of their natural attributes and qualities, so that when they are purified no difference remains to distinguish one of them from the other. Apart from the pure, perfect spirit, there is and can be no other God. Having cleared our mind from vague notions about God and the Universe, we are now in a position to examine scientifically the whole question of l' and the Universe without fear and favour. 00 For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SOUL ITS NATURE AND ATTRIBUTES RESTONE 4.1 Modern science teaches the constancy. of Nature. This means that basic substances and their attributes are eternal and unvarying, they never cease to be and are never produced from nothing. The substance and its attributes are the two sides or aspects of the same thing, for there can be no substance apart from its attributes. This is tantamount to saying that attributes only inhere in substances and substances are but bundles of attributes, e.g., gold is only the sum total of all its properties, yellowness, heaviness, materiality etc., and cannot be thought of as anything apart from them. Substance is characterised by the triple function of origination, destruction and continuance at one and the same time. When a bar of gold is melted, there is destruction of bar-ness, origination of liquid state and continuance of gold as gold throughout. This fact will help to explain many phenomenon of the Universe, which otherwise may be termed as illusion or 'Maya'. This explains the law of constant change, yet of constancy of Nature. 4.2 The Universe is resolvable into two kinds of substances-- the living and the non-living. The living substance is characterised by consciousness, while non-living is not so characterised. These can be called 'Jiva' and `Ajiva' or spirit and non-spirit. The living substance i. e., the soul does not have a form (like gases), is weightless, colourless, odourless and cannot be perceived by the usual senses of touch, taste, smell, sight or hearing. It does not show the usual qualities possessed by matter. Some materialists try to deny the existence of spirit and attribute consciousness to matter, though they have not been able to put any acceptable explanation so far. This notion is based on inaccurate and incomplete understanding of the substance 'spirit', and on the experience that matter influences the conscious qualities of living beings. As will be described in details later, matter does influence soul behaviour, For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SOUL 19 but it cannot mean that those conscious qualities are produced in matter. This view was ably countered by Bishop Butler in the famous Belfast address : "Take your dead hydrogen atoms, your dead oxygen atoms, your dead carbon atoms, and all the other atoms dead as grains of shot, of which the brain is formed. Imagine them separate and sensationless, observe them running together and forming all imaginable combinations. This, as a purely mechanical process, is seeable by the mind. But can you see or dream, or in any way imagine, how out of that mechanical act and from these individually dead atoms, sensation, thought and emotion, are to arise ? Are you likely to extract Homer out of rattling of dice or Differential Calculus out of the clash of billiard-balls ?.... You cannot satisfy the human understanding in its demand for logical continuity between molecular processes and the phenomena of consciousness." The first characteristi of consciousness is individuality which is inseparable from it even in its lowest form. This amounts to saying that everyone is aware of himself as himself and as nobody else. Our sense of awareness, which we term consciousness, is an inner, subjective, psychic state which is best described by the term feeling of awareness, so that my knowledge of a thing is my feeling of awareness of its existence. This will be clear to anyone who has understood knowledge to consist in a sense or feeling of awareness, for one can only feel one's own being and the states or conditions of that being as modified by the influence of another being or thing. It will be monstrous to suppose that I can feel another's being but not my own ! As a matter of fact, my knowledge of another's being depends on my capacity to feel the states of my own being. When I say 'I am feeling pain', I do not mean that pain is a concrete object outside me which I have alighted upon in some mysterious way. I only mean that I am aware of a modification of my own being which is painful. It is a state of my own consciousness. If one could accomplish the act of experiencing them in the third person, it would be a miracle for what one witnesses in another could only be a spectacle, never an affection or experience. If consciousness was the property of an atom of matter, and since the brain consists of a host of atoms, the consciousness could not be individualistic. It will be a sort of 'board of consciousness' presiding over the affairs that might be placed before them. Experience shows that such a body will not always arrive at a unanimous conclusion every time a problem is posed before it. This proves clearly that the soul is not a compound substance, For Personal & Private Use Only

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20 THE TRUTH but a simple and indivisible entity. Hermann Lotze says "the conclusion we have now reached is usually expressed by saying that the soul is an indivisible and simple substance"--Ibid. p. 178. The next characteristic of consciousness is its psychic nature as distinguished from the physical nature of matter or material objects. Evolution in reference to matter means the improvement or modification of bodies through continuous readjustment of molecular groupings. Evolution in respect of mind means the enrichment of consciousness by internal lucidity and expansion of thought., Consciousness is a World in itself which can be peopled by.an infinity of ideas, impressions and concepts. Every soul is endowed with potential omniscience and may recover it by discovering itself. Knowledge is not a thing that can be said to have a concrete existence outside the being of a conscious entity, consisting, as it does, in nothing other than states of the spirit itself, that are usually described as states of consciousness. There are things outside ourselves, not knowledge; and our sense of awareness of things is called their knowledge. : The soul being a kind of substance (different and distinct from matter), its basic properties must be the same wherever it may be found, even though it may differ from one another in respect of its actual manifestation. This difference among souls is due to admixture with a foreign substance-matter, in varying proportions. Matter is known to influence our consciousness even in a gross form e. g., effect of liquor. The matter which attaches itself to the soul is of the finest type-may be electromagnetic energy or even a finer form if possible. The resulting compound i. e., the impure soul is unable to manifest its real basic qualities, probably in the same way as oxygen is unable to exhibit its real properties when compounded with hydrogen to form water. All the same, the inherent attributes of consciousness and knowledge does not leave the soul in any of its states, even though its manifestation may be dimmed in the impure state. 4.3 As all souls are basically similar, like the atoms of an element, it follows that what one soul knows, all others can also know. It is on this principle that education is imparted in modern schools and colleges. Hence each soul has an inherent capacity within it to know all that everyone else knew in the past, all that everyone knows in the For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SOUL 21 present and all that everyone shall ever know in the future. In other words, every soul is potentially omniscient though the actual knowledge it may possess at any particular time of its career may, owing to the influence of admixture (or impurity) be very very poor or negligible. We know that intellectual lucidity is obtained by the removal of mental cloudiness, opacity, dullness or fog, which is like a dirt over a mirror and arises from the union of matter with soul substance and which tends to curtail the functions of the soul." 4.4 Prof. Bowne has very clearly described the process of knowledge, in his book on Metaphysics, pp. 407-410, thus : The effect of all external objects is conveyed to the brain through nervous impulses. In the dark chamber of the skull, the object is out of picture and nervous signs are the raw material of all knowledge of the outer world. Knowledge has not yet appeared unless these signs are interpreted. We, therefore, need an interpreter who shall read back these signs into their object meaning. "But that interpreter, again, must implicitly contain the meaning of the Universe within itself, and these signs are really but excitations which cause the soul to unfold what is within itself. In as much as by common consent, the soul communicates into the outer world only through these signs, and never comes nearer to the object than such signs can bring it, it follows that the principles of interpretation must be in the mind itself and that the resulting construction is primarily only an expression of the mind's own nature. All reaction is of this sort, it expresses the nature of the reacting agent, and knowledge comes under the same head." According to an article in Daily Telegraph of London dated 30.10.34, Dr. James Collier says "the tendency of modern neurology. is more and more to regard the brain as a telephone exchange, with a far greater number of alternative connections than was hitherto supposed. What then, of the mind in its relation to the brain. There is yet no answer. But it may perhaps be said that neurology is tending, if only temporarily and tentatively, to regard the brain less as its residence than its instrument." 4.5 The analysis made so far shows that the substance of consciousness is indivisible and as such indestructible. The same reason which proves that matter is eternal, also establishes the eternity For Personal & Private Use Only

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.22 THE TRUTH of soul, in as much as that which is not composed of parts, that might fall apart, is necessarily immune to destruction and death. The soul is, therefore immortal by nature. The following quotation from Prof. William Mac Dougall, the great authority on Psychology, will be of interest : "We are compelled to admit....that the so-called psychical elements are.... partial affections of a single substance or being; and since....this is not any part of the brain, is not a material substance but differs from all material substances in that while it is unitary, it is yet present, and can act or be acted upon, at many points in space simultaneously,. ...we must regard it as an immaterial substance or being. And this being thus necessarily postulated as the ground of the unity of individual consciousness, we may call the soul of the individual". 4.7 As explained earlier, pleasure or pain are only the modifications of the soul substance, brought about by nervous impulses or thought processes. No external event or object contains pleasure or pain, although these do become the cause for such impulses. Same event or object affects different persons in different ways-causing pain to some and pleasure to others. Hence, it is the soul itself which converts these impulses into pain or pleasure according to its own state. Both pleasure and pain are transient, the latter being mostly the lot of living beings in this world. The little pleasure we get, is obtained after so much worry and trouble and is generally productive of so much suffering, both in its procurement and subsequently, that it is no exaggeration to say that it is born in pains and ends in tears. Fortunately, there is another kind of joy which consists in natural 'pulsation of pure delight of the soul, which being its very attribute becomes an inalienable asset in its hands once we destroy the causes that obstruct its realisation. We are all familiar with the feeling of light-heartedness, satisfaction and joy which arises on the successful performance of some task imposed on our will, e. g., the passing of a University examination. What seems to happen in such cases is that the load of worries and anxieties that lay heavy on the soul, is removed, thus enabling the natural state of its being to manifest itself to a certain extent. It is, thus, not the imbibing or absorbing of anything from without, but the removal of an obstruction, the drawing out of a kind of mental stopper, which enables the natural For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SOUL 23 effervescence of the soul to be enjoyed at the time. The idea of pleasure cannot here keep pace with that of joy, in any sense, for while true joy is the sensation of freedom from the burden of worry and anguish imposed by some obligation, liability or limitation, pleasure depends on contact, whether real or imaginary, with an external object, and conveys no idea of freedom in its unqualified import. The feeling of joy which is rooted in the idea of freedom, is not a momentary sensation like pleasure, but lingers in the soul, till the imposition of some fresh obstruction, or obligation or infliction of pain or worry in some other form, again obstructs its manifestation. We also observe that success in more than one enterprise at the same time augments our sense of delight and intensifies its quality. The greater the sense of freedom, therefore, the greater the pulsation of delight, so that absolute freedom from all kinds of undertakings, obligations and limitations must actually be the signal for the coming into manifestation of the intensest kind of blissful ecstasy, the undying, unabating and unchanging emotion of joy. We thus conclude that the soul is itself the real source of all bliss and blessedness. The joy that arises from within one's being can only be an attribute of one's own self, since there can be no other meaning to the term "inside' with reference to an indivisible, partless substance like the soul. Now since a substance and its natural attributes are eternal, it is impossible that the happiness which pertains to the soul should ever become exhausted, when once the obstacles to its realisation are completely removed As for grief and pain they arise from causes external to the soul and are, for that reason temporary conditions of our life. If it were not so and if they were the attributes of our being, they should have also arisen at moments when the mind is least disturbed and there is no external cause or disturbance. But it is contrary to experience. Actually, grief and misery arise from extraneous causes which may be summed up under two general heads, namely : (i) the association, real or imaginary, with that which is undesirable, and (ii) the dissociation from what is desirable and desired. The external substances are governed by their own attributes and their functions are governed strictly by the rule of cause and effect. For Personal & Private Use Only

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24 THE TRUTH They cannot behave according to the wishes of others. It is thus impossible that any single individual will be able to mould his surroundings to his liking all the time. Any pursuit of happiness in external objects is thus bound to fail. Ignorance of this fact is the real cause of suffering.. If the soul is itself the repository of purest joy, why is this natural happiness not always enjoyed by the soul ? The answer to this important question is furnished by the fact that our infatuations and ignorance have defiled the natural attributes of our being,whose properties have become vitiated in consequence. To the extent to which these infatuations and ignorance are destroyed in us, do the natural attributes of our soul become ours to be enjoyed by us. The soul shall experience perfect happiness and enjoy all embracing infinite knowledge when the forces that stand in the way of their realisation are destroyed. Immortality shall also be the reward of the conquerer of these enemies of the soul. The decreeing of Omniscience, Bliss and Immortality in favour of the soul is tentamount to declaring it to be its own God, in as much as these are the principal attributes associated with our most exalted conception of Divinity. These divine attributes are not enjoyed by the soul now, because they are vitiated and neutralised by certain forces operating on the soul substance, so that they cannot come into manifestation till they are set free from the dominion of these defiling, neutralising agents. The fact that external substances have combined with the soul and defiled its attributes is clear from the fact that all souls do not manifest the same degree of attributes; some are more intelligent than others, some are saintly in outlook while others are full of passions etc. In a pure state, all souls should have been alike. 4.9 The soul is a reincarnating ego which passes from life to life in an unbroken succession, till 'nirvana is attained. This is evident from the fact that the soul is immortal by nature, so that it must have had a past as surely it will continue to exist in the future. Some instances have come to light when a person has been able to recall events of his previous life. Then, there are certain forms of knowledge and experiences which a man exhibits even though he had no chance to learn them in this life. These facts also go to strengthen the inference already drawn about the immortality and continuity of the soul. e soul. . For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SOUL 25 But the soul could not have existed as a pure spirit in the past, for in that state it is the enjoyer of full perfect knowledge, infinite perception, unbounded happiness and the idea of such a perfect being descending to inhabit a body of flesh and thereby crippling its natural unlimited perfections in a number of ways, is too absurd to be accepted. The soul is existing since ever in an impure state mixed with the nonliving substance, as iron is existing since ever in an impure state in the form of ore. It is this foreign material which influences the soul and does not let it enjoy its natural attributes. Fusion of different substa nces always results in the limitation or suspension of their pure natural functions and gives rise to new qualities. This is easily understood by examining the fusion of hydrogen with oxygen to form water. The product of combination has different attributes from the basic elements, whose real properties seem to have been suspended, but not annihilated because their separation is marked by the immediate restoration of their natural properties in full. Infact, the elements do possess their full properties even in their impure state and at no time lost them. Very similar is the case with the soul which exists in combination with the finest form of matter and its real attributes, the divine qualities, are not able to manifest themselves. The resultant product, i. e., the impure soul, appears deficient in its true attributes, in quality and quantity depending upon the type and quantity of impurity. It follows, therefore, that the removal of this impurity or the inimical forces from the soul must immediately lead to the acquisition of all its suspended divine powers. Ttue religion claims to be the method which enables the soul to achieve this objective. This it accomplishes by studying the nature of the properties of the soul as well as of the causes that interfere with the functioning of those properties and of the means to be employed for the destruction of the forces of obstruction. In this effort, only scientific rigour can produce immediate, certain and unvarying results. There is no place for dogma or irrational faith. It proceeds on the principle of cause and effect and furnishes a complete explanation for all states of the soul and gives a certain unfailing remedy for all forms of suffering. It will fill the mind with a glad certainty about the future--the future is not only assured, it is also glorious and good. He who believes in such a doctrine may say to himself : 'I may not only become God, I am already a God? What is lacking is not a thing from the outside, but putting aside of the body and detachment from the outside. It is a state higher than that of hope and far above mere optimism. For Personal & Private Use Only

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26 THE TRUTH It is a matter of scientific certainty which is absolute. If the individual does not avail himself of the doctrine, and lives in the senses, he ruins himself, and defiles his soul, upon the conditions of which depend the conditions of his future life, virtue leading to happy and vice to unhappy future rebirths. A materialist has nothing to look forward to in the future; he is here to make the most of the present moment. He has no fear of the effect of his evil deeds, but only fears the man-made laws. He believes in 'might is right' and 'survival of the fittest' in their most ugly form, just as the beasts do. The result is obvious e. g. the law of the jungle with its worst forms of violence, hatred and passions. 00 For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS ULTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE OF THINGS; PATH TO ETERNAL BLISS (nirvana); CODE OF CONDUCT 5.1 Tattva means the ultimate knowledge of nature of things: and there are seven such heads of knowledge. The deliverance of the soul from evil forces being the end in view, the first thing to know is the nature of that which is to be freed-whether it is or is not capable of being liberated. Hence soul (Jiva) is our first tattva. The next thing to know is the nature of material which affects the soul and does not let it enjoy its divine attributes. This is our second tattva ajiva (nonliving substance). How does the ajiva aproach the jiva?, how is it converted into obstructive forces ?, how can its further inflow be stopped?, how to destroy the existing forces ?, are further points for investigation and are respectively known as asrava, bandh, samvara, and nirjara. The last tattva is moksha (liberation). It is indeed a very logical sequence of knowledge 5.2 Jiva--According to Dravyarthika Nischaya Naya (i.e.,. pure scientific standpoint, see para 2.3), it is that substance which possesses consciousness. According to Paryayarthika Naya (impure scientific stand point), it is characterised by consciousness, upayoga, is formless, doer of actions, enjoyer of fruits of karmas, exists in samsara, has the same extent as the body it occupies and is capable of Godhood. According to Vyavahara Naya, it is possessed of four Pranas i.e., five' Indriyas (senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing), three forms of Bala or power (thought, word and action), Ayu (life span) and Ana-prana (respiration) at all time (past, present and future). 5.2.1 Upayoga results from consciousness and is of two kindsDarsana and Jnana. Darsana is the first stage of knowledge where we simply see, hear or otherwise become consious in a general way without going into details i.e., indefinite cognition. Jnand consists of detailed and definite knowledge of a substance. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH 5.2.1.1 Darsana is of four kinds i. e., chaksu, achaksu, avadhi and kevala. When the Darsana is received through the eye, it is Chaksu Darsana. When it is received through ear, nose, tongue, skin or mind, it is called Achaksu Darsana. When the Darsana is obtained directly by the soul but has limitations of time and space, it is called Avadhi Darsana. Here, one can see things in the limited past and future and in a limited sphere of space. The Kevala Darsana is also obtained directly by the soul and has no limitations of space or time i.e., it is perfect where everything in the whole Universe in past, present and future are visible. This is the attribute of soul only in its pure state. : 5.2.1.2 Jnana is of eight kinds viz Mati, Sruta, Avadhi, Manahparyaya, Kevala, Kumati, Kusruta and Ku-avadhi. The last three are merely false knowledge of the first three kinds. It will, therefore, be sufficient to explain the first five varieties of Jnana only. Mati Jnana is the knowledge derived directly through senses. Sruta Inana is the knowledge derived indirectly through scriptures (self study or hearing of lectures) and by analysis and inference from the knowledge obtained through senses. Aradhi Jnana is the psychic knowledge acquired directly by the soul, without the help of senses or mind, and is limited by space and time. Manah-paryaya Jnana is the knowledge of ideas and thoughts of others without these having been expressed by them. Avadhi and Manah-paryaya Jnana are the occult powers about which we often read in old scriptures. Kevala Jnana is omniscience or knowledge of the entire Universe, in past, present and future, at one and at the same time. This is manifested only in pure souls and is their natural attribute. 5.2.2 Although in its natural state, the Jira is invisible, but in combination with matter, it appears to have a form, which in reality is the form of matter only in which the Jiva permeates. So it is according to Vyavahara Naya only, we may say that Jivas have form-men, animals etc. According to Nischaya Naya, a Jiva is only the enjoyer of bliss resulting from its characteristic of infinite consciousness. But in its impure form, it degenerates from its true nature and develops unna For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 29 tural and false mental attitudes of attachment and aversion to worldly objects. As explained earlier, objects by nature are never good or bad and it is our own attitude which sees them in this manner. These impure and unnatural thought activities cause a sort of disturbance or vibration in the otherwise peaceful soul substance, in almost the same way as external objects cause disturbance in matter e.g., application of heat to water causes increased vibration of its particles or a stone thrown in a pond causes waves. As it is easy for the water to dissolve sugar, salt etc., when stirred, so also the soul in a disturbed state attracts and fuses with it certain type of extra fine part matter, called Dravya karmas. The thoughts which gave rise to this attraction are called Bhava Karmas. The action is something like that of a wet cloth which attracts dust particles from a blowing wind, i.e., it is the wet state of the cloth which is responsible for this action, even though the cloth or the particles did not make any efforts in this respect. The soul, made impure in this manner, again develops false notions and the cycle goes on. These karmas keep the soul in bondage with the body and are responsible for samsara. Thus according to pure Nischaya Naya, the Jiva is only the agent of its infinite knowledge, bliss etc. According to impure Nischaya Naya, Jiva may be called the doer of Bhava Karmas. It is only according to Vyavhar a Naya, that Jiva may be called the doer of Dravya Karma. Here, one must see the distinction between the soul in its pure natural state and in an impure state. The Dravya Karmas are particles of matter. Soul (impure state) and the Dravya Karmas act and react upon each other and a constant state of activity goes on in this Universe. It is in the above context only that Jiva may be called the enjoyer of fruits of karma. In their pure state, they enjoy only the eternal bliss which is their own nature. The soul has no dimensions and, like light or gas, can be contained in a small or a large body in which it is born. It has the capacity to fill up the entire Lokakasa (the extent of the Universe in which Jiva and Ajiva substances are found and beyond which it is only empty space). 5.2.3 Jiva can be classified under two heads-Samsari (leading a worldly existence) and Mukta (liberated). Samsari Jivas can again be grouped according to their stage of evolution (i.e., according to their state of purity from karmas) as evidenced by the number of senses possessed by them. Thus we have the flowing five categories: For Personal & Private Use Only

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30 THE TRUTH One sensed Jivas (also called Sthavara i.e., immobile) like vegetation or bacteria. These possess the sense of touch only. Two sensed Jivas like worms, oysters, conches etc., possessing senses of touch and taste. Three sensed Jivas like Ants, bugs etc., possessing senses of touch, taste, and smell. Four sensed Jivas like flies, bees etc., possessing senses of touch, taste, smell and sight. Five sensed Jivas cover bigger forms of life like men, birds, beasts, devas etc., and they possess all the five senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. This class of Jivas also possess mind except in few cases. Jivas possessing two or more senses are known as Trasa (mobile) The whole of the Universe (Lokakasa) is full of very minute living beings possessing only one sense. These are called Nigoda and are smaller even than the bacteria. These are infinite in number and provide a source from which souls longing for development come out. It will be seen that by making efforts to cleanse itself from the karmas, the soul manifests its power of consciousness more and more in higher forms of life. It is only in the five sensed life with mind that it can make deliberate and sustained efforts to liberate itself completely and attain the divine status. An account of the effort needed is given later. The Mukta (liberated) Jiva has perfect unlimited Darsana (vision) and knowledge, is eternal, is incapable of being perceived by senses, does not cause obstruction to any other substance i.e., has interpenetrability, has undisturbed bliss and has infinite power (i.e., absence of fatigue in having a knowledge of infinite substances). The concept that every soul is a God in embryo and only needs full unfoldment to attain to Godhood is found in all religions. Bible (Matt. V. 48) says: "Be ye therefore perfect as the Father in Heaven is perfect." For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 31 "He who knoweth himself, Prophet Mohammad also said: knoweth God.' 5.3 Ajiva:-It is divided into five substances different and distinct from each other. These are: Pudgala (matter), Dharma (medium of motion), Adharma (medium of rest), Akasa (space) and Kala (time). Modern science has studied only the first substance Pudgala in detail and does not give much information about the nature of other four substances. The terms Dharma and Adharma are not used in their literal sense and are technical terms. 5.3.1--Pudgala is characterised by shape, colour, smell, taste and touch. Sound, light and all other types of energy are only modifications of matter. The least particle of matter is called Anu (electron), which on combining in certain forms gives rise to a bigger particle Paramanu (atom). The combination of Paramanus makes Skandha (molecules). It will thus be seen that matter can have the finest form and has unlimited power. These are wellknown in modern science. Dravya Karma is the finest form of matter which goes into combination with the soul so that the resulting substance is the worldly Jiva. This form of matter is invisible and cannot be perceived by our senses. : 5.3.2--Dharma dravya is a peculiar substance like ether which helps Jiva and Pudgala in their movement, but does not move them. It is like water which assists the fish to move. It is, therefore, a medium of motion. It is formless, inactive, pervades the Lokakasa and is eternal.It is the object of knowledge of only the omniscient and modern science has not been able to know much about it. 5.3.3-Adharma dravya helps the Jiva and Pudgala to stay at rest. To some extent in modern science, it may be called the field of gravitation. But for the existence of this, the Universe would not be a compact unit and will fall apart. There will be no stability. It is also formless, inactive, pervades the Lokakasa and is eternal. Its real nature is also not known except to the omniscient. . 5.3.4--Akasa is the substance which provides space to other substances. It is eternal, all pervasive and all objects of the Universe exist in it. It has no form. The extent of Akasa upto which * Dharma For Personal & Private Use Only

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32 THE TRUTH and Adharma dravyas exist, is called Lokakasa and beyond that is Alokakasa. The Jiva and Pudgala can only be found in the space where Dharma and Adharma dravyas exist and not beyond it. Hence Lokakasa is the place where the entire drama of the samsara is being cnacted. Modern science also confirms this view. 5.3.5--Kala is that substance which helps to produce changes in substances, though it does not cause these changes. But from ordinary point of view, it consists in hours, minutes etc., by which we call a thing to be new or old according to changes produced in the same. The substantial cause behind the activities of hours, minutes. is the substance Kala. Out of the six substances described before, only Jiva and Pudgala are more important to understand because it is only these two which are responsible for the samsara and whose clear understanding may lead to a path for liberation. 5.4 Mechanism of consciousness : As stated earlier, consciousness is the main characteristic of soul and no other substance in the Universe possesses it. Consciousness is manifested through instinct or intelligence. After the consciousness has received an external sensory excitement, the resulting reaction of the experiencing consciousness is the source of bodily movement which is performed either through automatic reflexes, when it is called an instinct, or through selected appropriate channels like the brain, when it is called intelligence. The highest function of the mind is selection, discrimination and judgement and is performed only by such living beings as are able to arrest their psychic automation i.e., ceaseless flow of action of mind, speech and body. It can be experienced in our daily life that it is so. It is the same thing as being attentive or control over our senses. This function is performed through the brain. Emotions and desires perhaps result through automatic reflexes, while judgement and discrimination arise through the brain. Both, however, are the states of one's own consciousness. Nerves, brain and other five sense organs are merely the instruments needed by the soul to unfold its consciousness. It is like a man needing glasses when his eye sight becomes weak. The soul in its pure form does not need these organs and is all knowing by itself. The impurities weaken its powers. In the impure state, For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 33 conscious life is like a current composed of diverse kinds of forces of desires, passions, emotions and inclinations which are constantly being modified as a result of the contact with the outer world. These are highly active forces, usually bent on action through mind, speech and the body, so that if their function is not arrested or cancelled by deliberation, they will constantly engage themselves in action and sensation. Intellectualism, which is the other branch of conscious functioning, requires a more or less complete suspension of this ceaseless action to obtain a pause for deliberation. Intellectualism thus signifies the stoppage of the current of life's tendencies and inclinations, and reflection requires its being reflected on itself to obtain a principle of guidance in the experience of the past. This is accomplished by the merest change of attention by its not running with the present, but lingering over a moment that is passing, or by turning to the past. The recollection of perceptions (exeriences) is called memory. This is achieved by the reproduction of the original stimulus from inner excitation so that the state of the consciousness is again the same as it was due to the original external impulses. All our sanskaras (impressions) arise from constant streams of nerve pulsations or vibrations, impinging on the mind from without, when some of this fine material (vibrations or energy or karmic matter) combines with the soul to create a memory impress. Although stimuli from all sense organs continue to knock at the brain, but only those are allowed to penetrate to the soul, towards which attention is directed at a particular moment. It will thus be seen that perception and memory require both attention and stimulus. 5.5 Law of Asrava: Asrava signifies the coming together of spirit and matter. As stated before, the soul in its impure state develops certain attributes like desires, passions, emotions and inclinations, which are obviously produced due to lack of full and correct knowledge. These attributes always keep the mind and sense organs active to receive external stimuli which in turn are transmitted to the brain through nerves and then to the soul by the brain. Matter thus comes in contact with the soul in the form of energy or impulses, through the agency of mind and sense organs. The law of asrava may thus be defined as: All actions of embodied living beings, whether mental, physical or vocal, are accompanied by an influx of matter towards the soul. Whether I see, hear, smell, eat or touch anything, I only extract and draw to myself a quantity of different kinds of sensory stimuli or material. Even when I do not attend to this ceaseless traffic For Personal & Private Use Only

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34 THE TRUTH from without and shut myself in the closet of the mind, sensations, implying actual intercourse between the soul and the sensory centres of the brain continue. If I speak, I am conscious of hearing my own voice and of perceiving the muscular sensations of the organs involved in the articulation of words. Here also the inflow of the raw material or sensations is continued undiminished: There is no rest, no interruption, no holiday with these intruders on the senses. All these activities arise from thoughts, which then are the real cause of asarva. These thoughts are called Bhavasrava and the material particles (vibrations or impulses) which actually come close to the soul are called Dravyasrava. 5.6 Law of Bandha : Bandha signifies the fusion of matter with the spirit. It is a common experience that sensation does not always follow the external influx which we have just seen is constantly impinging upon the senses. If the mind is engaged elsewhere, no relish is experienced of the food that may actually be on the tongue; the ear is then deaf to music; the sense of smell is dead to odour and tactile sensitivity dead to contact. The rule of impressionability would appear from these facts to be this that the mind has an inhibiting action on all the senses except the particular one to which it may be attending for the time being. On the other hand, faint impressions received in a mechanical way are magnified by our attending to them. The explanation of the taste of food on the tongue not being felt when the mind is busy elsewhere lies in the fact that no new state of consciousness has resulted from it. The physiology of taste seems to indicate that while the bulk of food passes through the gullet, some fine particles (impulses) of its relish reach the soul through the glands of taste and by 'knocking at its door' call forth a corresponding idea i.e., knowledge of taste. If these particles are admitted still further, and allowed to affect the feeling-tone of the individual, a pleasurable or painful kind of feeling would ensue, and the soul would know whether it liked the relish of the food or not. This feeling of like and dislike is different from the knowledge of taste and shows the reaction of soul to the knowledge thus gained. This has nothing to do with the knowledge and different beings will react differently to this knowledge This is called the passion of the soul. But these relish particles must be there all the same whether the soul attended to them or not. It would follow that they do not combine with the soul except when they find the door open and attention ready to take them in. But attention always implies interest, whether it indicates the merest wish to know For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 35 or the most passionate longing to embrace. We may then say that the fusion of spirit and matter cannot take place unless the soul be first thrown into an attitude of desire, signifying its willingness to mate with the strangers from without. We thus have the Law of Bandha as: the fusion of spirit and matter does not take place except where the soul is thrown into a condition of expectancy i.e., weakness. When existing in a vitiated condition, the soul is generally unable to exercise any discrimination and has little or no will of its own. In the worst cases, it is even ignorant of the inimical nature of the *cavaliers' from the outside World, who only need the first invitation to get it, after which they do not leave their victim in a condition to resist any further onslaught on their part. 5.7 Karma-Prakritis: The forces engendered by the fusion of spirit and matter are termed Karma-prakritis. Because they originate in a desire on the part of the soul, which is its own action, they signify karma i.e., action. Being in a nature of powerful forces, they are termed prakritis i.e., energies. The compound resulting from the fusion of spirit and matter shows attributes which are different from that of the pure spirit or in other words, the karma-prakritis do not allow the soul to enjoy its natural perfection in respect of knowledge, perception and happiness etc. The nature of karma-prakritis is not the same for every fusion of matter with the soul, but differs with the type, quality and intensity of desires, passions or emotions of the soul at the time of fusion. Hence the resulting effect on the soul is also different. It is generally found that attributes thus created in the soul give rise to passions of the same type which were responsible for the particular Karma prakriti. The Karma prakritis can be classified into eight broad groups depending upon the type of influence they produce on the soul. We may thus have * (i) Inanavarniya : i.e., those which obstruct the know ledge. (ii) Darshanavarniya : i.e., those which obstruct the percep tion. (iii) Vedaniya : i.e., those which obstruct the natural bliss of the soul and leaving it to experience pleasure and pain through senses. For Personal & Private Use Only

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36 THE TRUTH (iv) Mohaniya : (v) Ayuh : . i.e., those which will not let the soul have faith in true knowledge about itself and the Universe and also will not let it be inspired to purify itself from external pollution. I i.e., those which determine the period for which the soul will occupy a particular body and these also determine the species among living beings, where the soul will take birth. Broadly, there are four species-animals, human beings, devas and residents of hell. i.e., those which will organise the body and its limbs for the use of the soul, which in an impure state cannot exist without a body and needs it for performing its functions. (vi) Nama : (vii) Gotra :: i.e., those which influence the soul to be born to parents having high or low conduct consistent with that of the soul. (viii) Antaraya : i.e., those which obstruct the unlimited power of the soul and interfere with the doing of what is desirable and desired and prevents effectiveness in general with respect to mental resolves. The special causes of the above Karma Prakritis as well as the effect on soul will be described in details afterwards. These eight classifications cover all aspects of life. A correct understanding of these Karma Prakritis is necessary if a remedy is desired to liberate the soul to its own attributes of divinity. 5.8 Activities causing asrava (inflow): The following activities cause inflow of karmic matter towards the soul. These are carried out by thought, word or deed. 1. Action of each of the five senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 2. Four passions e.g., Anger, Pride, Deceit and Greed. 3. Five sins e.g., Himsa, Speaking lie, Theft, Unchastity and attachment to worldly objects. The above activities may be analysed with respect to phase of action, kind of yoga, involvement, and intensity of passion. (i) Phase of the action i.e., Samrambha (i.e., making plans for action), Samarambha (i.e. making preparations for the action), and Arambha (i.e., commencing the action). These three stages are common to any activity. (ii) Kind of Yoga i.e., activity of mind, body or speech. (iii) Involvement i.e., doing one's ownself, having it done by others or by approval or acquiescence. (iv) Intensity of passion i.e., mild, strong, overwhelming and uncontrollable. These intensities can quantitatively be described as (a) lines drawn on surface of water which are of a very transitory nature, (b) lines drawn on dust, (c) lines drawn on hard soil and (d) lines cut out on stone. Thus an act may be classified into 108 categories by the principle of combination and permutation of above 4 variables as 3x3x3x4= 108. If the four types of passions (i.e., anger, pride, deceit, greed) are considered; then activities based on these will be 4x108=432 types. An activity may be intentional or unintentional. The importance of activity will also depend on the capacity and powers of the being involved in the activity. Differences in asrava occur due to above characteristics of the action. The nature of Karma Prakriti formed i.e., one of the eight types described before) depends upon the type of activity, but the duration of bondage with the soul and the intensity of its effect on the soul will depend upon the intensity of passion (attachment or aversion) of the soul towards these activities and the worldly objects. For Personal & Private Use Only

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38 THE TRUTH Activity responsible for a particular Karma Prakriti and effect on the soul: 1. Jnanavarniya and Darshanavarniya : These karmas are attracted due to the following activities: (a) Depreciation of those who are learned (i.e., those who know the seven tattavas). (b) Concealment of knowledge (c) Refusal to impart knowledge out of envy and jealousy (d) Hindering the progress of know ledge. (e) Denying the truth proclaimed by others, by body and speech (f) Refuting the truth, although it is known to be true. Here knowledge and learning primarily mean the true and real knowledge of the seven tattavas as distinct from worldly knowledge. These karmas obscure the five types of knowledge e.g., Mati (derived through senses), Sruti (indirect by inference), Avadhi (limited knowledge obtained directly by soul), Manahparyaya (reading other's mind) and kevala (Omniscience). Among human beings and animals, the last three faculties of knowledge are generally obscured completely and the first two types of knowledge are partially obscured. Infact, omniscience is the natural attribute of pure soul only, while the other four types of knowledge are the attributes of impure soul. Thus omniscience cannot be had without complete liberation from karmas, while the other types of knowledge has grades depending upon the intensity of karmas. These karmas also obscure Chakshu darshana, Achaksu darshana, Avadhi darshana and Kevala darshana. The last one is the natural attribute of pure soul only and is manifest on its complete liberation from karmas. Sleep and drowsiness in various intensities are also the result of these karmas. The above faculties of the soul are also known to be modified due to external physical causes. But infact, these are only the apparent For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 39 causes, the real cause being the karmas. The external causes are merely the tools and provide a means through which the karmas act. 3. Vedaniya : These karmas are responsible for sensual pleasures and pains and obstruct the natural attribute of bliss of the soul which does not depend upon senses. Activities giving rise to pleasure-bearing karma prakritis are: (i) Compassion for ali living beings, (ii) Charity, (iii) Self control of senses, (iv) Restraint of self by practising vows, (v) Bearing effects of past karmas (destiny) with equanimity, (vi) Yoga i.e., Contemplation, (vii) Forgiveness, (viii) Contentment. Pain-bearing karmic matter is due to the following activities: (i) Feeling of pain, (ii) Feeling of sorrow, (iii) weeping, (iv) Remorse, (v) Depriving of vitality of others e.g., killing or removal of limbs etc., (vi) Pathetic moaning to attract compassion. Causing the above mental states in self or in others are both responsible for attracting pain-bringing karmas. . 4. Mohaniya: These karmas obstruct faith in true knowledge of tattvas and come in the way of right conduct needed for the soul to purity itself. Faith is an attitude of mind and is a leaning towards a group of ideas. It arises from conviction about the correctness of knowledge. Conviction may result from experience or through reasoning. It may change with changing experiences, unless the facts are reconciled by study, investigation and reasoning. Wrong faith is centred round the welfare of lower ego. Whoever and whatever is stated to be helpful to fulfill our desires and passions is readily believed and accepted as a patron or protector. The practice of sacrifice before gods and the expensive rituals are an example of this belief. The thoughtless are ever seeking a response from their patron in the favourable occurrences of daily life, and are never slow to turn the most logically natural causations into a mark of divine favour. Such a mind is fast travelling on the high road to fanaticism. For Personal & Private Use Only

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. 40 THE TRUTH Wrong faith is not stable and may change on getting correct knowledge and experience. erience. . .. Distinction between faith and knowledge will be clear by the following two examples. We all know that if we put our finger in a fire, it will be burnt and will be painful. I am sure everyone has complete faith in this knowledge and nobody will like to try the experiment. There is a deep conviction which cannot be set aside by any means whatsoever-arguments, experiments etc. On the other hand, everyone of us has a knowledge that speaking the truth is a virtue which will raise our spiritual status and be cause of happiness and speaking lie is an evil act which will ultimately be a cause of misery to us. Even though all religions and every human being proclaims the above tattava (or principle), how many of us really have faith in it. For the slightest sensual benefit, we speak lie. It will thus appear that faith in the knowledge is very essential for one to act according to that knowledge. Infact, without faith, knowledge is only superficial. It is not a real or useful knowledge. It is like the knowledge of a man in the drunk state when he calls his mother as 'mother', but does not really understand its significance. He may even change his mind. True faith arises from such a deep and complete understanding of the knowledge that no doubts are left and the whole phenomenon is visible in all its aspects without any mental effort. It is for this reason that it is sometimes called Samyak Darshana--a most appropriate term to define the attributes of right belief. Hence the knowledge becomes right knowledge only after one has right faith in it. Only then is the knowledge useful. This can be seen from our worldly experiences also. So many scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers etc., get the same knowledge through books, but only few of them have the complete understanding of all its aspects so as to have a vision. They have full faith in its accuracy. Only such persons rise in their profession because they can use their knowledge correctly and with confidence. Such persons do not have cloudiness of mind with respect to such a knowledge and will not be deviated from their convictions. Soul, which is omniscience, will naturally possess right faith in its knowledge because such a knowledge has no doubts left and is being perceived in all its aspects at the same time. Thus right faith is a natural attribute of the soul. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 41 3. Faith is necessary to translate our knowledge into action. As without faith, the knowledge is only superficial, so also is the conduct superficial without right knowledge i. e., without correct aim. It is sometimes said that immoral persons prosper in this world while the saintly ones die as poor people. This obviously shows incorrect objectives in the following of morals and naturally the result is frustration. If the aim was to purify the soul and to attain divine bliss, the person will appear happy and contented and will not expect worldly possessions as a reward. It will thus be seen that knowledge becomes Right knowledge only when accompanied with Right Faith and conduct becomes Right conduct only when based on Right Knowledge. The karmas, which do not let Right Faith be established with respect to true knowledge about the soul, the causes of its sufferings, and the way to liberation, are called Darshana Mohaniya. Karmas which do not let the soul act on the path of liberation (i. e., Right Conduct) are called Charitra Mohaniya. The activities which give rise to these Karma Prakritis are : (i) defaming the Omniscient Lord, the scriptures containing true knowledge as preached by the omniscient teachers, the true saints following the path of liberation, the true religion and other celestial beings e. g., saying that these beings are pleased by offering to them meat, wine etc. (ii) Intense thought activity produced by the rise of passions e. g., anger, pride, deceit, greed, laughter, indulgence, dissatisfaction, grief, fear, hatred, sexual desires etc. Joking about true knowledge, disinclination to practice vows, evil society are other causes for such karmas. * Darshana Mohaniya is of 3 kinds e. g., Mithyatva i. e., wrong. belief, Samyak Mithyatva i. e., wrong belief with little right belief also, Samyaktva Prakriti i. e., clouded right belief. These are merely the gradations of faith in true knowledge. Full right belief is possible only in a pure soul. Charitra Mohaniya causes the passions, as described above, in different intensities, usually called mild, strong, overwhelming and uncontrollable. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH It will be seen that our present actions merely mould the soul accordingly, which then shows similar behaviour in future. This is what is called sanskar or past impression on the soul or Karma Prakriti. 5. Ayuh : These karmas are responsible for fixing age and determine the species of living beings. Narakayu or birth in hell is caused by too much worldly activity and by attachment to too many worldly objects or too much attachment in general. Tiryanchayu or animal existence is caused by deceit i. e., by cheating others, preaching the false doctrines etc. Manushya-Ayu or human existence is caused by less worldly activity, attachment to a few worldly objects and by less attachment in general. Natural humble disposition is also the cause of human existence. Deva Ayu is caused by self control with slight attachment as found in saints, equainimous submission to fruits of karmas, tapa. (austerities) and right belief. It is the totality of the soul's disposition which will decide its. future birth. Normally it will select that species of life where it will feel homely with respect to its sanskars i. e., passions and characteristics. 6. Nama or body making karmas will determine the qualities. of its body with respect to species of life, number of sense organs. present, strength of body, proportioning of body, number of limbs etc., complexion, smell, smoothness of skin, quality of voice, appearance i. e., beautiful or ugly etc., and impressive etc. It is obvious that the soul will mould its body at a future birth according to its own needs or the faculties it was using most in its past life. For example, those who have become slaves to their passions and desires and do not make any use of the organ of thought or control, must lose it in their next life. They live their life in the senses, and in the senses they will wake up in the next one. They do not live the life of the 'mind' and the mind (organ of thought) will not be needed and For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 43 consequently not formed by them in their next incarnation. This is true for other organs of the body also. Thus, our present actions, inclinations and desires determine the requirements of our future body. Good actions which need a strong mind and body, lead to karmas which will help build a strong body and a powerful mind. Bad actions lead to a body which will be incapable of doing good deeds and thus lead the soul to further degeneration. 7. Gotra karma : The inflow of low-family determining karma is called by speaking ill of others, praising oneself, concealing good qualities of others, and proclaiming good qualities in oneself which one does not possess. High family determining karmas are caused by praising others, denouncing one's own weaknesses, proclaiming good qualities of others, not proclaiming one's good qualities, an attitude of humility and not being proud of one's achievements. 8. Antaraya : These karma prakritis not only obstruct the unlimited powers of the soul, but cause obstruction in our giving charity, in our enjoyment, in the exercise of powers of our faculties and in our gains. These are caused by disturbing others in charity, enjoyment, making use of their powers and in their gains. Out of the abov eight Karma Prakritis, Mohaniya karma is the greatest hurdle in the liberation of soul. 5.9 These karma particles stay with the soul for a period depending upon the intensity of passion which caused their bondage and the intensity of their effect on the soul is also determined by the passions causing their bondage. Hence the soul remains in an impure state and shows attributes as affected by these karma prakrities. This is what is called fruition (effect) of karmas. On fruition of karmas, the soul exhibits similar passions which had bound these karmas and thus attracts fresh karmas and the cycle goes on. To attain liberation, efforts are needed to check fresh inflow of karmas and to force old karmas to be shed before time. This is called Samvara and Nirjara respectively. This process appears to be the only logical remedy to purify the soul and attain divinity. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH The external circumstances and our own efforts play a big role in the effectiveness of the fruits of karmas. The karma prakritis are merely a set of forces which the soul possesses and the soul still has the power to mould those forces depending upon the circumstances. It is like possessing a set of cards, in a game of cards, and the result depends to a large extent upon the ingenuity of the player. Some players lose even with good cards, while others can win even with bad cards. In the same way, the soul with its own efforts can turn the karma prakritis to its advantage or disadvantage. This effort lies in avoiding circumstances with the help of which the bad type of karmas can give rise to passions, pain and misery and to seek surroundings where only good type of karmas can be effective and the bad ones are merely shed, as they have to be after maturity, without being effective. To give an example, suppose there are two persons whose passion of anger is to be roused by the karmas at a certain time. One of them happens to be in the company of wicked persons and the other in a temple hearing to a learned saint. The first person will easily pick up quarrel on some flimsy ground with his friends, while the latter's attention is fixed on learning the benefits of virtuous deeds and there can be no cause for him to be angry, even though his soul will be inclined to get angry very soon. Thus, in one case, the external circumstances have helped the karmas to act and produce results and new karmas of the same type have been bound: in the other case, the karmas have been shed without producing results i. e., no new karmas of the same type have been bound. It is true that karmas influence our mind so much that the person may not have the knowledge or desire to avoid circumstances favourable for a particular karma to give its effect. It is here that true efforts are needed. It is a common experience that to achieve the same goal (for example passing a certain examination) some people need more efforts than others. Effort is merely against the particular karmas which obstruct our way to achieve the goal. Where the karmas are mild, less effort is needed. The same circumstances do not affect all persons similarly, and each is affected according to his own karmas in operation at that time. It is seen to be so in everyday life. 5.10 Samvara : Stoppage of inflow and bondage of karmas is done by removing the causes of asrava and bandh. This is done by a sevenfold action, as given below, with mind, speech and body, the main aim being to root out passions and to keep the soul as close to its own natural attributes as possible. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 45 5.10.1 (1) Vrata or Vows : These are of five kinds e. g., Ahimsa, Satya, Achaurya, Brahmacharya and Aparigraha. These correspond to Panchshila of the Buddhists and the Commandments of Christianity. (a) Ahimsa Vrata : Any act by which we hurt the vitalities of others or our own and thus cause pain and disability of any kind is himsa. Even on evil idea or passion which vitiates our own soul only, will be taken as causing himsa. A still wider definition will include all those states of mind which are different from the nature of pure spirit are said to commit himsa as they do vitiate the soul's attributes. However, in popular language it only means injury (mental or bodily) and killing of living beings. By such acts, one vitiates one's own soul first (as such acts are the outcome of passions) and then the soul of others, who also get corresponding passions and disturbances in their soul. Thus, mere thought of himsa is enough to commit himsa. To follow the vow of ahimsa, one has to have control over his mind and speech, care in walking, care in lifting and putting down things and thorough control on one's food, drink and other things of use. Himsa may be committed for (i) fun, sensual pleasures, food, or without purposse (ii) carrying out agricultural or industrial operations (iii) domestic duties and (iv) defence. The first type of himsa is the worst and should be completely left out. It arises out of the worst passions and tarnishes the soul to the maximum. Other types of himsa cannot be completely avoided by worldly men, but should be minimised with care and done with utmost repentence, with least passion and with a desire to be able to leave such himsa as early as possible. It will thus be seen that fighting in self defence, in defence of one's principles, property, culture etc., is permissible for worldly men provided there is no malice at heart and fighting is merely intended to prevent the invader from carrying out his mischievious aims. Infact, there should be a desire to see the invader (or enemy) changed into a good and happy man i. e., there should be a friendly feeling towards him. It is this concept of ahimsa that was preached and followed by Mahatma Gandhi. But the above behaviour should not be limited only towards human beings, who are already well protected by law and against whom one cannot afford to commit gross himsa so easily. Ahimsa should be practised towards all living beir.gs. Then only our soul will enjoy the state of freedom from passions. (b) Satya : It is the vow to always speak the truth and avoid hurtful words. This also includes abstaining from (i) preaching false For Personal & Private Use Only

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46 THE TRUTH doctrines (ii) divulging the secrets (iii) perjury and (iv) immoral dealings through speech. In a broader sense, untruth also commits himsa and is responsible for asarva and bandh. To follow this, one has to give up anger, cowardice or fear and has to speak in accordance with scriptural injunctions. (c) Achaurya : It is the abstinence from stealing i. e., taking any object without the consent of the person to whom it belongs. It includes abetment of theft, receiving stolen property, black marketing, false weights and measures, adulteration etc. (d) Brahmacharya : It is the abstinence from sexual pleasures which includes unnatural sexual practices, intense sexual desire, intercourse with other immoral women. These acts disturb the peace of soul by rousing intense passions and are detrimental to its powers. Incidentally, these actions also lower the prestige of a person in this world and make him unfit for worldly gains. To follow this vow, one has to renounce (i) reading or hearing sexual stories (ii) desire to see beautiful women (iii) remembrance of past sexual enjoyment (iv) exciting food or drinks and (v) beautifying one's body. (e) Aprigraha : Attachment, infatuation or intoxication in the living and non-living objects is the external cause of the passions of greed. This should be checked and eliminated through the vow of aprigraha, where a limit is imposed on each of the belongings and this limit is gradually lowered. 5.10.2 (II) Samiti (or carefulness) : Care in walking to avoid injury, care in speaking i.e., gentle and beneficial talk, care in eating i.e., proper food and with peaceful mind, handling things with care to avoid injury and attending to calls of nature without nuisance or injury to other living beings. 5.10.3 (III) Gupti (or restraint) : restraint over limbs and sense organs of the body, over speech and over mind. 5.10.4 (IV) Dharma (or virtuous acts) : These are forgivensess, humility, honesty or straightforwardness, contentment, truth, restraint of senses, austerity, renunciation, unattachment and celibacy. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTV A Austerity is of two kinds--external and internal. External austerity consists of fasting; regulation of diet with respect to quantity and interval; daily renunciation of one or more of the delicacies like ghee, milk, curd, sugar, salt and oil; sitting and sleeping in solitary places, practice of bodily hardships so long as mind is not disturbed and feels happy. Internal austerities are prayschitta (expiation), reverence to the true learned saints, service of saints and worthy people, study of scriptures, giving up attachment to body and dhyana (concentration). Dhyana is of 4 kinds e. g., Arta Dhyana i. e., thinking of one's pleasures, pains and connected affairs; Rudra Dhyana i. e., thinking of evil to others; Dharma Dhyana i. e., thinking about the true nature of soul and Universe and the path to attain liberation and bliss; Sukla Dhyana i. e., complete absorption in the nature of soul itself where the distinction between different attributes of the soul vanishes. It is not possible to describe the state of Sukla Dhyana and it cannot even be experienced except in the very highest stages of spiritual development. Here, the activity of mind, body and speech are suspended and the soul functions without external help of sense organs. 5.10:5 (V) Meditation : Reflecting over the following twelve facts of life : 1. Everthing is subject to change i. e., transitory; 2. there is no other refuge for us in this World except our own truth and none can save us from the result of our karmas. 3. Soul moves in the cycle of existence and cannot attain true happiness till it is out of it; 4. I am alone the doer of my actions and the enjoyer of the fruits of them; 5. Everything in this World including my body and relatives are distinct and separate from my real self; 6. The body and all that appertains to it is so unclean that one should not feel uneasy with dirty objects outside; 7. the inflow of karmas is the cause of my mundane existence; 8. the inflow must be stopped; 9. karmic matter must be shaken out of the soul; 10. the real nature of the Universe and its substances--Jiva, Ajiva; 11. difficulty of attaining perfect faith, knowledge and conduct; 12. nature of right path to liberation i. e., right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. 5.10.6. (VI) Parisaha-jaya i. e., conquering the sufferings which certainly cause disturbance and passions in the mind. These should For Personal & Private Use Only

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48 THE TRUTH be so controlled that tranquility of mind is not disturbed by them and one continues to follow the course of right conduct. These are : hunger, thirst, cold, heat, insect bite, feeling of shame arising from nakedness (necessary for absolute renunciation of attachment to body, worldly objects and from passions. This is, however, necessary only for saints at higher stages of spiritual development), dissatisfaction, sex, fatigue from travelling on foot, continuous sitting in one posture in meditation, sleeping without bed on hard ground, insult, beating, temptation of begging even in great need, disease, thorn pricks, dirt on the body, desire of respect, pride of learning, disgust over lack of knowledge, despair for not getting reward of austerities etc. The above qualities will certainly harden any person to bear any kind of difficulty or hurdle in the way of following the right conduct. They will help us to control our senses and passions. 5.10.7 (VII) Charitra (conduct) : It consists of equanimity, pure and absolute non-injury, freedom from passions. 5.11 Nirjara : It means shedding away of karmic matter from the soul. If the karmas shed themselves after full duration, it is not only a long process, but usually gives rise to fresh karmas. We have, therefore, to make deliberate efforts to hasten the shedding of karma. This can be done by means of karmas of opposite nature, when they neutralise the effect of each other, or by the practice of austerities i. e., by complete subjugation of passions, impulses and desires, when it becomes difficult for the karmic matter to remain bonded with the soul. It will thus appear that the means of samvara as described above, are also the means of Nirjara. .. First of all, the four karmas, Inanavaraniya, Darshandaraniya, Mohaniya and Antaraya, also called ghatia karmas because they obstruct the attributes of soul, are destroyed and the soul attains omniscience. Then the other four karmas, Ayu, Nama, Gotra and Vedaniya, are destroyed and the soul become pure-exhibiting all its natural divine characteristics, never to be combined with matter again. This is called "liberation' or Moksha. It will thus be seen that the drama of life is enacted with the help of matter and consists of a sequence of causes and effects. With right faith, right knowledge and right conduct, it can be moulded by the soul to its advantage i. e., liberation. There is no place to dogma, mystery or any super-natural power in this process. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 49 5.12 The Path to Liberation : Briefly stated, the path to liberation is the acquisition of Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct. These are called the three jewels (Ratan Triya). As stated earlier, faith is the conviction in the correctness of knowledge. It is acquired by self experience, experiments, deep study and rational thinking, but needs an open mind free from bigotry and passions. It is the passions which do not let us have faith in virtues like non-violence, truth, non-stealing, detachment etc. But without following these virtues, passions cannot be controlled or destroyed and these virtues cannot be followed without faith in their utility. It is a vicious circle and not easy to break. It is easy to have faith in a knowledge which is helpful to our passions and desires and which does not advocate any self-control, renunciation or austerities on our part. For such a knowledee, we may even forego experimental evidence and experience, what to say of rational thinking and seem to have faith straightaway. We are prepared to put such a knowledge to practice. But surely such a knowledge is with us from times immemorial and needs no learning. Everyone is known to be an expert in the knowledge leading to sensual gratification. The results, as we all know, are not happy. Such a knowledge is, therefore, a false knowledge and faith in it is a false faith. Right knowledge is that which can lead us to eternal bliss and the faith only in such a knowledge is called the Right Faith. Unfortunately, it is not easy to gain personal experiences or try experiments to verify the correctness of right knowledge. All such actions based on right knowledge will only modify our karma prakritis and the result at any given time will be due to overall effect of total karma prakritis (old and new) and it will not be possible to separate out the effect of new actions to verify the right knowledge. The conviction can only arise through a slow process of deep study and following a conduct based on it, so that gradually our passions and instincts are subdued and we are able to exercise discrimination and judgement with an open mind to perceive the truth in the knowledge. The perception of truth is nothing but faith and conviction. It is the Samyaktva Darshana (literally also). The other way to have faith and conviction is through the words and deeds of those learned men who, having acquired right faith, right knowledge and practising right conduct, have attained so much spiritual powers that their example acts like an experiment or experience. Without Right Faith, it is not possible to follow the Right Conduct based on the Right Knowledge. The knowledge and conduct, even though For Personal & Private Use Only

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50 THE TRUTH correct outwardly, are really false, unless supported by Right Faith. It is well known that many people follow certain virtues without clear objectives or with false objectives i.e., to please the gods to seek worldly favours or to gain supernatural powers etc. The aims being low, the Karma Prakritis are correspondingly of the same type and fulfill such aims and no more. We are thus great losers as with correct aims, we could get the lasting happiness from the same actions. Without faith one always has boubts in his knwoledge and indecision in his conduct. He can even deviate temporarily or permanently for apparent (not real) gains obtainable easily. Such a conduct will not influence the mental states properly to carry out the purposes (stoppage and removal of karmas) for which the conduct was undertaken. There can be no deceiving of one's own mind as the action and reaction are automatic. The conduct without faith can never have enthusiasm or zeal to do it and will appear to be a burden. Conduct with faith will result in joy and will be done with ease. Infact, many people leave spiritual conduct in disgust and call it unnecessarily hard only because they have not acquired the right faith. Without right faith, objectives are not right and we expect to achieve something different than for which the conduct was prescribed. This naturally causes despair and gives a feeling that the conduct was wrong. This is all due to lack of right faith. It is said that even a medicine is not effective to cure a disease if the patient has no faith in the physician's knowledge (or ability). Similarly, if a doctor has no faith in his medical knowledge (is not able to perceive it all together, well co-ordinated and w.thout doubts, as in a mirror), he will not be a successful physician. This is true of all professions. Faith is a sort of belief or conviction in the wisdom of certain ideas. Even important functionaries of state have to take a vow testifying their faith in the constitution. Without this faith, it is feared, they will not be able to function correctly in the spirit of the constitution. Unfortunately faith has now become a matter of legal formality and the results are well known. Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct go hand in hand and help each other to grow. Right knowledge is the correct knowledge of seven tattavas as described before. A conduct based on this knowledge for the liberation of soul is the Right Conduct. For a pure spirit, all these three aspects merge into the very nature of soul, because omniscience can have no doubts and hence Right Faith is inherent in it. The natural attributes of a substance are, in a way, its conduct and they will certainly be Right, because anything different For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 51 from its nature will be impure and false. The Right Conduct of the soul can be said to be its act of knowing. This alone is, then, the Right Conduct to be aspired by all souls desirous to attain perfection, purity or divinity. It we can attain a state of mind in which we only know things, but do not attach from our side any attributes of good or bad, pleasurable or painful etc., then we are approaching the Right Conduct. Nothing is good or bad by nature and it is our own passio attribute these qualities to them. This part of our conduct is false, not according to our real nature, and is the cause of all suffering. It is created by impurities. For an impure soul, the efforts or conduct necessary to purify it can also be called Right Conduct and this conduct gradually changes and merges with the real conduct of the pure soul i.e., act of knowing only, as the soul advances on the path of liberation and attains divinity. The Right Conduct has been detailed under the description of Samvara, p. 46. This is rigorously followed by monks. However, it is too difficult to be followed by a beginner and impracticable for a householder. For such people, less rigorous discipline has been prescribed keeping the objective to be the same. Here faults of minor nature are permissible and only the gross nature of sins and passions are to be avoided. After the person has mastered this easier form of conduct, he can gradually follow the rigorous conduct of a monk and can go on purifying his conduct alongwith spiritual uplift till finally, liberation is attained. It will be seen that the above path aims, not at turning mankind into an army of hungry beggars, constantly begging for boons from some real or imaginary superhuman agency, not at converting its votaries into fanatics of requited love, revolving moth-like, round some luminous spiritual magnet, to be ultimately absorbed by it, but at raising everyone to the supreme status of Godhood. It should be noted that there is and can be no compulsion on a person with reference to rules of conduct. Every one should put in as much good conduct as he can, without shirking or overstraining It should be done with enthusiasm and cheerfully. 5.12.1 Right Faith : It is the belief in the divinity of one's own soul and a disbelief in the patronage of any external protector or god. Such a soul knows itself not to be a miserable perishable thing of matter, but a real God, immortal, omniscient, blissful and irresistible. It is a belief that my soul is distinct and separate from all external objects--even my body is external to me. These external objects can never be mine, can never result in happiness and are always For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH left behind every time the soul leaves the body. Desire to possess them is, therefore, based on wrong convictions and results in various types of passions. Right faith is, therefore, the conviction that my soul is separate from all external objects, attachment to which only results in unhappiness. With such a conviction, it will be easier to follow the Right Conduct. A person with right faith fulfills eight requirements and believes only in True Devas, True scriptures and True Teachers and is free from three kinds of error and eight kinds of pride. True Deva is one who is Vitaraga, Omniscient and well-wisher of all living beings. Vitaraga is one who does not suffer from hunger, thirst, senility, disease, birth and death, fear, anger, deceit, greed, pride, hatred, worry, conceit, infatuation, uneasiness and surprize. A person having above qualities alone can be the true well-wisher as he has no weaknesses left. Only such a Deva is worth adoration and can be called 'Hitopadesi'. The Tirthamkaras possessed the above qualities. The word of the above kind of Deva will naturally be the true scripture as it comes from one who is omniscient and is free from all weaknesses. Such teachings are never in conflict with valid knowledge, are not couched in mythological language and reveal the true nature of things. These teachings are meant for all living beings-- what to say of excluding the so-called low castes. Being based on mercy and ahimsa, they can never inculcate, directly or indirectly, the taking of life for sacrifice or food. They tend to protect and advance the interests of all kinds of living beings. The other great quality of true scriptures is that they are capable of destroying falsehood and establish True Faith, because they are so rational, free from dogma, go deep into the nature of the Universe and its substances in a scientific manner, that all forms of error, doubt and ignorance are removed. A true teacher is one who has no desires for sensual pleasures, who has renounced all worldly occupations and possessions and who is always absorbed in study, meditation and self contemplation. It is obvious, a person with right faith can have no reverence for those who do not possess the above qualities, for these are the very qualities which he aspires to develop. They form the ideal for him. The eight requirements of right faith are : (i) Unshakable faith in the seven tattavas. (ii) No desire for sensual enjoyment. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 53 (iii) To love the virtuous saints without feeling disgust with their outwardly unclean bodies. All bodies are truly bundles of filth and if at all, the saint's body contains less filth than of those who appear clean outwardly. So far as the purity of soul is concerned, there is no comparision. The very act of disgust is an indication of the soul being dirty-full of ignorance and sin. Neglect of body is an absolutely unavoidable necessity for the progress to nirvana. (iv) Non-recognition of the authority of false creeds. (v) To remove the ridicule raised by persons ignorant of the path of liberation. (vi) To re-establish right faith in those who are wavering. (vii) To entertain love and respect for those who are fellow travellers on the path of liberation. (viii) To establish the glory of the True path to liberation. A person with right faith is free from the following three follies : (i) to consider spiritual uplift by bathing in so-caled sacred rivers, immolating oneself by falling from a precipice or by being burnt. (ii) worshipping with desire, to obtain favour of deties whose minds are full of likes and dislikes. (iii) worshipping of false ascetics who have neither renounced worldly goods not himsa. The eight kinds of pride which a person with right faith, leaves are the pride of (i) learning, (ii) worship, (iii) family (iv) tribe, (v) power (vi) accomplishments, (vii) religious austerity and (viii) his own body. Right Faith even without right conduct (as in householders) is said to be superior to all the asceticism devoid of right faith. Right Faith is the sure step towards liberation. With right faith the impulses of passion are loosened from their roots and are not able to dominate the scene. The soul gets a chance to think rationally and act accordingly. 5.12.2 Right Conduct : This is of two kinds--perfect (meant for ascetics) and imperfect (meant for laymen). For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH Conduct for the laymen consists in following the three types of vows i.e., Anuvrata, Gunavrata and Siksa Vrata, and Sallekhana at death. 5.12.2.1 Anuvrata consists in the avoidance of gross forms of himsa, falsehood, theft, unchastity and love of worldly possessions. (i) Ahimsa Anuvrata : Here injury or pain in all forms to living beings with more than one sense organs is avoided by mind, speech or body and by order or approval or association. One should avoid enjoying even the indirect fruits of himsa. Satyanuvrata : Here gross falsehood as well as truth, which causes suffering, are to be avoided. Avoidance of truth is only permissible when there is not the least selfishness involved and the result of speaking truth may be disastrous i. e., may lead to himsa. Revealing secrets of others, back-biting, making false documents, not returning in full a deposit made by another (on his asking for less due to forgetfulness) and spreading false doctrines are some of the transgressions of this vow. . (iii) Achaurya Anuyrata : It is a vow against stealing which includes appropriating to himself or giving to others the property of another without the consent of the owner even though it may be lying forgotten. Giving instructions in methods of stealing, receiving stolen property, evading the injunction of law, adulteration, keeping false measures are the transgressions of this vow. (iv) Brahmcharya Anuvrata : It is the avoidance of sex connections from all other men and women except one's own married wife or husband. This vow includes excessive passions, unnatural gratification and voluptuous speech. (v) Aprigraha Anuvrata : It is the limiting of one's worldly possessions and to desire for no more. Its transgressions include fixing higher limits than necessary, expressing wonder at the pomp or prosperity of others and excessive greed. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 55 Eight fundamental virtues : The eight virtues of a householder include the above five vows and refraining from use of wine, flesh and honey. Honey is objectionable because not only it is unclean containing the excrement and other bodily products of bees, its procurement is like stealing the wealth of others. During its extraction from the bee-hive, there is a massacre of eggs and young bees causing extreme himsa... 5.12.2.2 Guna Vratas : These are meant to increase the merit of the five anuvratas. These are Digvrata, Anarthadandavrata and Bhogopabhoga parimana vrata. Digvrata aims at placing the limits on travel for the whole life. This is with a view to limit commission of sins within narrow boundaries of one's action. Anarthadandavrata is the refraining from purposeless activity likely to cause injury to others. These are (i) narrating accounts of evil activities like cruel trades, swindling feats, barbarous exploits etc. (ii) giving weapons of himsa to others (iii) wishing evil for others (iv) study of books dealing with sex-passion, crimes, false doctrines, hatred, pride etc. (v) unnecessary destroying of plants or digging earth etc. Indulging in lewdspeech, assuming ridiculous postures of the body, prattling away in a senseless manner, surrounding oneself with objects of sensual pleasures or other purposeless acts are the transgressions of this vow. . Bhogopabhoga parimana is the putting of daily limits, within the limits of aparigraha anuvrata, on one's requirements with a view to reducing the sense of attachment. Thinking of past pleasures and bherishing of future indulgences and going through sensuous experiences in imagination are the transgressions of this vow. 5.12.2.3 Siksa Viatas : These are four in number. Desavakasika : It consists of limiting one's activity still further with respect of space and time within the bounds of Digvrata. Its transgressions are sending an agent, or communicating by acting, by making sounds or by other means beyond the limits. Limits of time may be hours, days or years etc. Limits of space may be the house, locality, province, country etc. Samayika : It is the total refraining from the five sins of himsa, falsehood, stealing, unchastity and parigraha for specified periods every day-usually three times for 48 minutes each. During For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH this period, meditation is done which consists of (i) recollection of one's sins and repenting for them (ii) resolve not to commit sins in future (iii) feeling of renunciation (iv) praising the true Deva e.g., Tirthamkaras (v) devotion to Tirthamkaras (vi) withdrawal of attention from the body and contemplation of the spiritual self. It should be performed with a cheerful mind and without mental disturbance or laziness. During samayika, alayman resembles an ascetic. At the time of samayika, one should learn to bear hardships of cold, heat, insect bite etc., maintaining unbroken silence and control over senses. He should contemplate on the causes of suffering, and the means to obtain bliss. Prosadhopavasa : Fast on eighth and fourteenth day of each fortnight with a view to strengthen the vows. On these days, one should refrain from five sins and sensual lusts, and should be busy in the study of scriptures, spiritual discourses and meditation. Vaiyavritya : Service of the true saints and respect for their virtues is called Vaiyayritya. It consists of offering to them food, medicine, articles like books etc., for spread of knowledge, shelter, salutation, care of their body, devotion and praising their virtues. Charity should also be given out of compassion and mercy to the needy in the form of food, medicine, knowledge and protection against fear. Besides being helpful to the recipient, it is benificial to the donor as it lightens his passions and increases the virtues. Charity should be given with reverence, without selfish motive and with pleasure. 5.12.3 Sallekhana-The control of one's conduct at the moment of death is called Sallekhana. Infact much of the purpose of life long training and asceticism lies in sallek hana. The mental attitude prevajling at death considerably affects the future destiny of the soul. At death, one should give up love, hatred, attachment, possessions and with a pure mind obtain forgiveness from others and also forgive them all. There should be no grief, fear, anguish and wickedness. One should not desire to see or to be remembered or to look forward to future sensual pleasures. One should breathe his last with right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. By the observance of the vows and sallekhana, the soul obtains the most enviable luck in next life where it will find the most favourable circumstances for further advance on the path of liberation. For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 57 5.12.4 Pratimas : Based on the degree of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct acquired by a householder, he is graded into eleven stages or pratimas. Since it may be difficult to follow the entire code of conduct, as given above, all atonce, these eleven stages have been so designed that one can start in a small way and may go on higher stages as more and more self control and spiritual power develops. The right conduct, as described above, should be taken merely as illustrative and it is not possible to include all the situations in which one has to act. The underlying idea is that a conduct is right if it results in reducing our passions (causes of sin), gives control over senses, does not cause injury or inconvenience to others and does not exhibit laziness on our part. As the conduct gets improved, secondary causes of sin are also taken care of. As such, eating food which contains multi-one-sensed life e. g., potatoes etc., is also left. Restriction is also placed on green vegetables as far as possible for the same reason. Taking meals at night is also left out, as not only at night innumerable small insects fall in the food and get consumed inspite of all care, (thus resulting in avoidable himsa and even being harmful to health in may cases,) but discipline of the body requires that there should be some time free from attending to its needs and thus having a undisturbed period for spiritual needs. It can easily be available at night if work connected with meals is avoided. It is a sort of tapa. Mahatma Gandhi used to follow most of the above conduct inspite of his being involved in political and social struggles of the highest order. Infact, this conduct was the cause of his success and it raised his personality to the highest plane in this world. It will, therefore, be wrong to say that such a conduct is not possible in the present times and will interfere in our worldly pursuits. It only shows our weakness of will, unwillingness to control passions or to renounce worldly pleasures or a lack of faith in the philosophy behind the conduct. After a man has perfected the householder's conduct and reached the eleventh Pratima, he is fit to start on the journey leading to Freedom and Immortality. 5.12.5 The 14 Spiritual Stages : All living beings can be classified into 14 groups depending upon the spiritual uplift of their soul i.e., freedom from passions and the resulting ability to free itself from karma prakritis. The 14 stages are : 1. Mithyatva (wrong belief, delusion) : Here the soul is engro ssed in complete darkness and has no faith in the right path For Personal & Private Use Only

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58 THE TRUTH to liberation. Almost all living beings, except few, come under this category. They suffer from uncontrollable passions. and are under the influence of strong Mohaniya Karma Prakritis. Even when Right knowledge and Right Conduct. are taught to them, they do not believe in them, but on. the contrary hold false beliefs. True doctrines appear to them. as distasteful as sweet syrup to a man suffering from fever, On making efforts, these souls acquire right faith and are elevated to the 4th stage of Avirata-Samyaktva directly. The 2nd and 3rd stages merely denote the fall from 4th to. 1st stage again. 2. Sasadana : It is a stage when the right faith is shaken by virtue of uncontrollable passions. It is a transitory stage and shows the thought activity during fall from right faith. to Mithyatva. 3. Mishra : It indicates a belief in right and wrong knowledge at one and the same time. This state also arises from the influence of passions and operation of samyag mithyatva. mohaniya karmas. It is also a transitory stage during fall from 4th to 1st stage. 4. Avirata-Samyaktva : It is right belief without right conduct. Belief is produced by subsidence of passions of uncontro-- llable intensity and the subsidence of Darshana Mohaniya karma prakritis. Such a soul is unable to follow right conduct because the charitra mohaniya karmas are still strong. In this stage, the Darshana Mohaniya karmas may either be subsided or destroyed or partly destroyed and. partly subsided. In case of subsidence, strong passions may arouse them again and the soul falls to the first stage. The soul is able to progress further as long as right faith is. sustained. Further stages are governed by the extent to which right conduct is followed. 5. Deshvrata : Here, the soul follows the partial conduct e. g., the eleven pratimas of the householder. Here, the right faith is sustained and one is able to control the over whelming intensity of passions 6. Pramattavirata : Here the soul follows the strict conduct, but in an imperfect manner. Worldly objects having been For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE SEVEN TATTVAS 59 renounced, mind still turns occasionally to needs of the body. It is a training stage for the life of a Muni or saint. Apramattavirata : Here the soul follows the perfect vows in strict regimentation. Mind is absorbed in spiritual contemplation. The higher states can be divided in two groups-one in which the Mohaniya karma is merely subsided and the other in which it is destroyed.: Obviously, the first one is not stable and the soul again falls back to 7th stage. The second category alone is capable of taking the soul to liberation. Stages 8, 9 and 10 are common in both cases of Mohaniya karmas. Apurva karana : Here the soul experiences a new thought activity. It starts concentrating on pure 'Atma' or self. It experiences the pure self. Anivetta karana : It is a thought activity of greater purity and is called the 1st stage of Sukladhyana i. e. unadulterated experience of pure self. Here, the strong intensity of passions are also subdued or destroyed. 10. Suksma-Samparaya : All passions are destroyed or have subsided except the very mild type. It is also the 1st stage of sukladhyana . 11. Upashanta moha : Here all the four categories of passions have been suppressed and the charitra mohaniya karmas have completely subsided but not destroyed. After this stage, such a soul does fall to the 7th stage from where it can again go up by destroying the Charitra Mohaniya. 12. Kshina moha: Here all the Charitra Mohaniya karmas and even the mild intensity of passions have been destroyed and the soul goes to the 2nd stage of Sukladhyana. Souls attaining this stage do not pass through the 11th stage and acquire it directly from the 10th stage. Sayogakevali : At this stage, three more. Karma Prakritas are destroyed e. g., Jnana Varniya, Darshana Varniya and Antaraya. Hence the soul becomes omniscient and attains bliss. However, .as the other four karmas are still there, it keeps within the body. Even though the Vedaniya Karma is still there, it cannot cause pain or pleasure as the Mohaniya Karma is completely gone and there is no attachment left For Personal & Private Use Only

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60 THE TRUTH with body or other worldly objects. As the body is still there, sensual vibrations do reach the soul but in the absence of attention (passions and desires), they do not affect the soul and no fresh bandh of karmas takes place. Such souls are called Arhat or Jina (conquerer). Ayoga-kevali : It is a transitory stage when the remaining four karmas have also been destroyed and the soul leaves the body for ever and attains a pure state. It is then said to have attained Nirvana or liberation which is a state of perpetual omniscience and bliss. Such souls go upwards to the periphery of the Universe and stay there for ever. It is important to note that real power lies in Right Faith only. What is believed to be useful for the individual becomes the nucleus of an impulse that is to furnish the motive power for all activity. Without right faith, there will be no urge or inspiration for right conduct which alone is the real remedy for purifying the soul and leading it to bliss. It will thus be seen that Mohaniya Karmia is the real obstacle in the way of spiritual progress., This Karma Prakriti obstructs the right faith and right conduct both. To conquer this karma, mere intellectualism or philosophical discussions will not do. Solid action is needed in the form of right conduct, as explained earlier, which consists of a systematic control of our sense organs and mind, turning the attention completely away from outside objects to within the self. This will mean deadening the body to all kinds of sensations so that there is no external disturbance in self contemplation. Here there is not the slightest intention to subject the body to unnecessary torture, as some people seem to think. It is a training to bear hardships with equanimity, in the same way as a soldier is trained to bear the rigours of a battlefield. A person on the path of liberation (moksa or nirrana) is a real soldier to fight and conquer the most deadly enemythe karma prakritis. With correct knowledge of the substances of the Universe and in particular of the two substances-soul and matter and interaction between them, it is possible to find lasting solutions to many intricate problems which confront humanity. In most cases, such a knowledge will help to develop correct attitudes of mind and will make life worth living. 00 For Personal & Private Use Only

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OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS WORSHIP, DHARMA, SOCIALISM, FOOD AND VEGETARIANISM, MORALITY, AHIMSA 6.1 Worship : It consists of praising the attributes of Godhood. It is obvious that God has no passions and is Vitaraga. He is not going to be pleased by our praising Him or get angry by our speaking ill of Him. He is free from desires and will neither give anything to us nor snatch anything from 'us irrespective of our behaviour towards Him. None of our offerings reach Him and He is completely unaffected by these offerings. In short, worship of God in any form does not affect Him and He remains quite indifferent to all living beings-- those who worship and those who do not. It will be a folly and downgrading our worship, if it is done with the aim to please the God and get some boons from Him. It will amount to lowering the status of God to that of some earthly princes. Worship is merely idealatory. It is a hero worship. It is wellknown that we praise men for those virtues which we wish to acquire. Respect for such virtues, meditation about their importance and narrating them, help us to create proper mental attitudes, give peace, and we get inspired to act to achieve those virtues. We get strength of conviction (faith) and will power that these virtues have been achieved by those whom we worship and can, therefore, be achieved by us if we follow their path. They no more remain merely impracticable abstract qualities. Worship, therefore, helps us to follow Dharma. right conduct. The rituals, sometimes done in the act of worship, are not important by themselves, but help those who cannot withdraw their attention from worldly affairs. It is like teaching a child with the help of games. Those who believe in rituals as the ultimate aim of worship have no idea of worship and are simply wasting their time. Rituals can be left out from worship if the mind can be concentrated on Godly virtues without external help. The installation of idols of God in temples is also done to help persons to concentrate on Godly virtues, in the same way as we instal For Personal & Private Use Only

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62 THE TRUTH statues of leaders in our public places and we keep portraits of those, whom we revere, in front of our eyes. We even keep portraits of our dear relations and friends to feel their company when they are away, even though we may be able to recall them, fully in our mind. We do not tolerate any insulting behaviour towards such portraits even though we know that it is not the actual person. But we have installed the person in the portrait which is almost a living object to us now. The reason is that visual impulses greatly affect our thoughts and help us to concentrate on the qualities of the person whose image is before our eyes. The mind stops wandering if we see an object before, us. There are any number of examples when persons have received tremendous inspiration from the portraits or idols of great saints, teachers and brave warriors and have thus achieved great heights. It will be foolish to consider the stone image as God itself and to beg anything from it. But in reality it is never the intention to do so. The image is given an outward appearance which may refiect the virtues of the person whom it represents. As stated, God has eternal bliss and perfect peace of mind, is free from passions and completely detached from worldly objects i. e., is vitaraga. The image must reflect these attributes if it is going to infiuence the mind favourably i.e., it must be in a happy and innocent pose, serene looking and composed, in well disciplined asana, free from all objects associated with violence in any form, in a mood of meditation and in as pure a form as the soul it represents. Out of reverence, it may, however, be placed in dignified surroundings and the highest norms of respect and behaviour are to be followed in its presence. The devotee sees through the image the real God and is not contented to see the image superficially. We always use names, pictures or models to know and understand worldly objects. How can it be otherwise with respect to God who is not even seen through our senses. It is quite natural that besides an abstract mental picture, we make a physical model representing His attributes. For lesser type of men, this additional facility to know God is essential. He needs a physical object of worship. All criticism of idol worship arises from lack of appreciation of the purpose for which the idol is installed and from the wrong notion which a devotee may have about the idol. What is actually worshipped is not the person of God (what to say of the idol which is merely a material object), but the virtues and attributes of God, so that we may acquire them and rise to the status of Godhood. Worship, is, For Personal & Private Use Only

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OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS 63 therefore, only one of the means towards spiritual uplift and is not the objective itself. It is a ladder to go up and one should not stop at it. 6.2 Passions : Desires are mental longings or impulses seeking gratification and they develop into passions (or powerful emotions) when they are actively in operation. An active longing for a thing is termed greed. The state of fury which blazes up when one is thwarted in the obtainment or enjoyment of an object of desire is anger. The cunning that is resorted to, to secure an object of desire, is deceit. The state of intense self glorification which results by the possession of the desired object or state is pride. Desire is nothing apart from the soul. The state of the soul agitated by a craving is itself the actual form of desire. Same is the case with passions--anger, pride, deceit and greed. They are only, different forms of the agitated state of the soul, and therefore, interfere with the serenity of the mind and the intellectual work. When desires are mild, the soul is thoughtful and rationally inclined. Under strong passions, it is cruel and acts thoughtlessly. When completely free from desires, it becomes all-knowing. Prejudice and bias are also a form of passions with similar results. Passions are never satisfied. Every satisfaction gives rise to greater passions without an upper limit. The only way to control them is to curb them. This is the only way to lasting peace and happiness. 6.3 Dharma : The functioning of substances according to their real natural attributes is their Dharma. As such, the dhrama of the soul is Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct. Conduct of worldly souls which leads to the manifestations of above attributes is also termed Dharma. In general, a conduct which helps to remove sufferings and takes the soul to lasting happiness is Dharma. Good actions like forgiveness, humility, honesty, straightforwardness, mercy etc., are also termed Dharma Dharma is that which gives inner joy now, immediately on its following, and which also results in a lasting happiness. Any conduct which does not satisfy the above test, cannot be called Dharma even though outwardly, it may appear to be so. This will be the case when a conduct is followed without ' right faith or right knowledge and then it will appear to be a burden For Personal & Private Use Only

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64 THE TRUTH and cannot result in happiness. Such people seek the result of Dharma in gratification of passions, acquisition of wealth, status, power, family etc. Obviously it is entirely a wrong concept of Dharma; infact this aim is diametrically opposite to the one for which Dharma was prescribed. The passions and desires are the real cause of sufferings and Dharma was supposed to annihilate them. How, then, should one expect to seek worldly gains by following Dharma. Such people naturally get soon frustrated and ascribe their failure to the inadequacy of the Dharma. Consequently, they again go back to methods which seem to satisfy their passions quickly even though in most cases, not only these passions are not satisfied, but they are aroused further resulting in untold misery. Such is the story of the World.. The correct aim of Dharma should be to subside and destroy the passions and the results should be tested in terms of the decline of intensity of passions. As passions decrease, true happiness follows even without any external gains. In case passions do not decrease, the conduct cannot be called Dharma. The virtuous conduct, which is associated with Dharma, will certainly give rise to punya karma prakritis. This is what is generally called good fortune, and will result in worldly gains of all types. But such gains are only a bye-product of Dharma and are unwanted. The real gain is the freedom of soul from .passions which means freedom from karmas and hence the attainment of supreme bliss. None should aspire or be satisfied by a secondary gain only and be ignorant or unmindful of the real and lasting gain. The wordly gain should not be welcome as it is also the result of bondage of karmas with the soul and prolongs the time for the soul to be free. We should follow Dharma with no worldly desires and with a conviction that it is the only natural behaviour of my soul. Then it will result in stoppage and shedding of karmas and early liberation. Some people expect super-natural powers to develop by following Dharma and like to see such powers in those to whom only they will like to call saints of high order. This again is an erroneous thinking because firstly a saint of high order will attach no importance to such powers and will never exhibit them to influence people, and secondly such powers will depend upon the influence of karmas of previous life also besides those bonded in this life. A true saint will not use such powers for any selfish ends. For Personal & Private Use Only

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OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS 65 Another misconception among people is that a person, truedy following the dharma is protected by Devas against all calamities and that he can grant boons, to others by way of wealth, children, curing of diseases, bringing rain etc. These are false ideas, as everyone has to be governed by his own karmas. Such persons can only be a help or guidance to others to adopt the correct conduct and then get benefitted w i 8 0: Some people fear that dharma is not practicable in the life of a modern householder or that it is a negative approach to life. Nothing can be more wrong than this. Dharma does not prevent the following of any profession, legally and morally acceptable to the people, to earn one's living. All it preaches is that means employed must be based on truth and ahimsa. Dharma does not prevent enjoying life, provided the senses remain within control and the conduct does not cause injury to others. * Dharma can never prevent development of Art, Science and Culture and the accompanied joy they bring, provided such developments do not arouse passions and are in the true interest of all living beings. Scientific discoveries are most welcome as the give true insight into the working of the Universe and thus help Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct. Modern inventions can be a great help to reduce the druggery of life and thus afford' more time and conveniences for the man to follow the path of liberation, provided they do not reduce man's physical strength and make him a slave of the machine. It will thus be seen that Dharma acts as a guide in all spheres of our activity and tries to stop misuse of our senses, art, culture, science and inventions. Can stopping of misuse be called negative approach to life? The so-called positive approach i.e., wholehearted involvement in worldly affairs without restraint, has always been proved to be sickening after some time (see the examples of countries like U.S.A.) and ultimately results in breakdown of society. It creates men whith no solid objectives of life and for whom morals have no more sanctity than force of law. Life degenerates to the level of animals who also live only for satisfying their senses. However if positive approach means selfless service of the underpreviledged; good morals, hard work, defence of the country, advancement of art, literature, science and culture, then these are welcome pursuits within the scope of Dharma provided they are carried out without any undesirable passions. Dharma cannot be practised in the full measure by one who is unhealthy or economically underpriveledged to such an extent that he remains worried to meet even his minimum necessities, For Personal & Private Use Only

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66 THE TRUTH It is, therefore, necessary in the interest of Dharma itself, that one follows rules of healthy living e.g., exercise, cleanliness of body, clothes and surroundings, nourishing and easily digestible food etc., and that he works hard to earn a living. For purposes of defence of the country, culture and our dharma from external aggression, it is equally necessary to be strong scientifically, economically and physically. Dharma does not come in the way in these efforts on a national scale. There is no minimum standard laid down to follow dharma and one should practise it to the extent he can control his passions. But there should be a longing to raise the limit by controlling the desires more and more. The most dangerous tendency, against which one should guard, is the habit to justify our weaknesses of conduct on some ground or other and thus clear the conscience. Such a person can never improve. A bad act of himsa, falsehood, unchastity etc., must always be identified as such and no attempt made to justify it, even though one is not able to leave it. There can never be any acceptable justification for such acts, except weakness of conduct. In short, Dharma only requires us to do all deeds, physical or mental, with discrimination and with full control over the self. There can be no two opinions about the usefulness and necessity of such a conduct. The practice of Dharma, in external appearance, is bound to change with time and place, and there should be no conservative orthodoxy in this respect. However, the basic truths do not change and our conduct must always conform to them. The self alone is true, good, lovely, real, moral. The non-self is error, myth, mithyatva, ugly, deluding, detractor from and obscurer of reality, immoral, worthy of shunning and renunciation, as bondage and as anti-liberation. The Pure, All-Conscious, Self-absorbed Soul is God and never less or more. Any connection, casual or effectual, with the non-self is a delusion, limitation, imperfection, bondage. To obtain liberation or Deification, this connection must be destroyed. Thus and then the bound soul, di bandah, becomes the Liberated Soul lui Khuda. Self comes to Self, who wis Zat-e-paka, "Pure Entity". The man becomes Man. The son of man returns to His Father in Heaven, Man becomes Himself. Man becomes God... For Personal & Private Use Only

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OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS 67 The mere insight (samyak darshan) into and knowledge of this Real Reality, is of everyday use in the conduct of our individual and collective lives. It is true and the only panacea for all our ills. Its rigour may be hard. Its preliminary demand may occasion a wrench from our cherished habits, customs, and fashions or thought and action. But its result, which is immediate, instantaneous and unmistakable, justifies the hardship and the demand. The relief and service, the sure uplift of ourselves, the showering of calm balm, by the practice of self realisation, upon the sore souls of our brethern justify the price paid. Indeed, it is the temporary yielding of a hollow, fleeting pleasure for the attainment of a real, permanent happiness and peace, which once gained, can never be lost. In Christain phrase, once the Soul has seen the Presence of God, it can never go away from it for ever. It must come back to the Presence sooner or later, and oftener; till in the end it is always There and nowhere else. Self- realisation deals with our inner warring impulses and feelings by suppressing some, eliminating others and by self-control, selfdiscipline and self-respect regulating the others into a self-guided harmony, which is a helpful refiection of God Himself. Once you sit on the rock of self realisation, the whole World goes round and round you, like a crazy rushing something, which has lost its hold upon you and is mad to get you again in its grip, but cannot. The All-Conquering smile of the victor (Jina) is on your lips. The vanquished deluding World lies dead and impotent at your feet. 6.4 Socialism : In modern times, this word has been so much * abused, that it has become almost impossible to define it. It is so because means of achieving it are sometimes confused with the objectives. The objective is obviously to develop a society in which there is no exploitation of man by man and everyone has equal opportunities to develop according to his capabilities. But it does not mean that everyone will become equal intellectually, economically, morally or spiritually. These differences will always remain depending upon one's past and present karmas (i.e., efforts). But what is intended is that weaker sections of society are protected from being led into such type of life from where they do not even aspire to rise. On the other hand, conditions should be created where they feel encouraged to develop their faculties. All this is intended to be achieved by framing laws with deterrent punishment. Whereas the objectives are noble For Personal & Private Use Only

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68. " THE TRUTH and laws are also necessary, but this sort of artificial control on society is not possible for all times. There is to be an inherent feeling for the necessity of such a social order and a self imposed control, not based on fear of law, but on the conviction that self control is the sarest way for one's real good--the spiritual uplift. But if socialism is preached in a way that it increases lust for materialistic possessions in the name of rise in living standards, then we are surely creating contradictions e.g., asking people to surrender what is supposed to be good to possess. The present day class conflicts arise due to such policies. The practice of true dharma alone can bring socialism in the real sense. . It will be recalled that among the five vows prescribed for right conduct, one of the vows is Aparigraha e.g., limiting one's possessions and giving the surplus in charity. This is the highest form of socialism and is a pre-requisite for spiritual uplift. There is a tremendous incentive and no fear to follow such a code of conduct. It results in a real and lasting happiness. For real socialism to spread, we must give it a deeper meaning and not merely call it a social order. We must preach hard work, simple living and high thinking to support socialism. All souls are similar basically and they all suffer from the same disease of ignorance and delusion. This is enough reason for a comradeship between them and to have a socialistic way of life. 6.5 Food and Vegetarianism: This is a topic on which much is being said through the Radio and the Press and yet there is no clear thinking. There is no doubt that all living beings need food for survival, till the soul has attained nirvana. A sound mind in a sound body is essential for spiritual development as well as for worldly life and as such the body has to be maintained by giving it suitable food. There are, however, some who live for food and use it for the satisfaction of sensual desires. Obviously it is a vulgar use of food and such persons are so much slave to their passions that they will not even like to hear a discourse as the present one. It is an unfortunate fact that all essential foods for building the body are obtained from organic sources i.e., life creates this food. This life is either plant life or animal life. In some cases, the food is merely a bye-product of the living being and in other cases, it is the body itself which contained the life. Food, thus, involves questions of relationship between one life and another and is not merely a matter which concerns only an individual and his health. Thus questions of morality, spiritualism, economics and health are all nvolved. : is, For Personal & Private Use Only

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OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS 69 therefore, a difficult matter. to analyse and answer. The difficulty becomes all the more because we are used to certain foods from times immemorial and have a feeling that it is natural, and morally correct to continue to do.so. Let us examine the problem from each aspect separately. . 1. Spiritual : Once it is recognised that the soul is an entity whose welfare is of paramount importance and which is affected by its emotions and beliefs-beneficially by the emotions of love and most harmfully by those of selfishness and hatred-men will certainly refrain from doing what is harmful and adopt the rule of love. According to the Indian philosophy, all living beings possess a similar soul and are subjected to rebirths, pleasures and pains due to their own Karius. To obtain perpetual bliss, the rebirths must be stopped. This can happen only by following the right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. This needs complete Ahimsa. Thus no life should be destroyed or injured in any way for any cause by thought, word or deed. Even in Jewish religion, Christianity and Islam, it is considered as a sin to kill life. Were it not so, the faithfull will not abstain from eating meat during the sacred days. What is sinful on sacred days is certainly sinful on any other day. However, these faiths perhaps believe that plant and animal life have no soul. That is, these foms of life are intrinsically different from life in human beings. They further seem to believe, that these forms of life are not capable of feeling fear, pleasure or pain. The Indian faiths do not agree with the above ideas. To them, all life is as sacred and important as their own. Hence even if the westerners do not mind killing for food or pleasure, the same cannot be logically accepted by Indians having. faith in kinship of all life and in ahimsa as the only path to salvation. However if food is essential to live, it should cause the least himsa. Thus there is need to search for those items of food where himsa is least. This brings us to the definition of himsa and how it is caused. Naturally it depends upon the intensity of passions, the elaborateness of steps to carry it out and on the evolution stage of the life injured or killed. Also see Art 6.7 on page 76. Thus lower the form of life killed, the less is the himsa. It can be minimised by eating fruits, 'cereals, milk and vegetables and keeping the consumption as For Personal & Private Use Only

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70 THE TRUTH low as possible. It should be considered as a necessary evil. One should aspire for a stage of spiritual development when no food is necessary. Vegetables are seemingly lifeless and do not produce the same revulsion of feelings in us as the sight of dead carcasses and the slaughtering of living animals does. Vegetables do not wriggle about when cut, they have no visible sense organs that in animals look so terribly grim in death; they do not appeal for mercy with their eyes or with shrieks. He, who eats vegetables, therefore, has not to shut his eyes to the suffering and shrieking and the appealing looks of the victim of his appetite, as he who proceeds to kill or devour an animal that does all that. It is, therefore, clear that vegetarianism implies much less of a sinful taint resulting to the devourer than flesh. And as stated before, the eater of the vegetarian diet hopes also one day to escape from even the little himsa that is certainly involved in the act of eating vegetables. Some people hold the view that there is no harm in eating flesh which has not been killed by the eater himself or specially for him. Obviously such a view has no depth of logic, for who is going to have a trade in meat unless there are cus tomers to buy it. Such people are, therefore, fully responsible for the killing involved and it has their full support. It is the normal state of the human emotions that the sight of a dead body excites the feelings of pity and sobriety in the beholder and the animal intincts and cravings are subdued and curbed for the time being. Nay, even nobler thoughts-regard for the hereafter and the means of escape from the cycle of transmigration-fill the minds of the enlightened thinking beings. But what kind of emotions can they be, which find expression, when the sight of death or an animal's corpse, not only does not excite the natural and nobler type of emotions, but sharpens the appetite and the eagerness to devour the carcass? It is obvious that when such a state of the mind comes to supervene habitually, the tender human instincts have been, and must be deemed to have been, dead long long ago. This shows how harmful changes occur in the disposition of man before he can tolerate the sight of flesh and becomes moved by the devouring zest of a flesh eater. Moral : It is a code of practice for everyday living such that life alround is happy. This calls for virtues like mutual help, honesty, trust, mercy and above all an attitude of ahimsa. These qualities impose restrictions on one's selfishness and sensual pleasures. But naturally, it is not possible to cultivate these virtues in a partial way, For Personal & Private Use Only

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OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS 71 namely applicable to only one species of creatures, the man,and treat other creatures in a different way. It can be partial only if these qualities are not deep rooted, in which case they cease to be virtues and becomes a hypocracy. This means that it is not permissible to treat animals unkindly, if one wishes to treat human beings with respect and kindness. All living beings wish to live and fear death. It will, therefore, be immoral to take away their life for our selfish ends. Even animals show care not to injure other animals in play or fights. Man is endowed with better mind and conscience and fully understands others' emotions and mental states. How can he, therefore, be so merciless as to kill animals who make frantic efforts to escape and cry piteously. Such persons gradually lose softer instints of love and mercy and become cruel, unsociable, unsympathetic and get provoked even on slight pretext. Even those who do not kill but eat flesh are fully responsible for such acts and suffer similar deterioration of character. Food certainly affects our character and behaviour to others. Animal food makes us cruel and warlike, more passionate and takes us away from spiritualism. It is said that man has no right to destroy an object which he cannot create. Killing animals who have been reared is still worse. They start having a feeling of kinship, and faith in our friendship and share our sorrows and joys. It is a rude shock to them when the above relationship is suddenly changed and they are slaughtered. It is a height of breach of trust. An immoral act cannot be justified for any selfish advantages it gives. One will not be permitted to steal because one has to earn a living. How can he be permitted to kill because he needs food. This may give him a licence to kill human beings one day for selfish motives. In this respect, the following incidents from Mahatma Gandhi's life may be of interest. See The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi by Robert Payne. Page 137 : "Gandhiji's second son, Manilal, was suffering from Pneumonia. A doctor recommended eggs, chicken broth and milk to increase the boy's strength. Gandhi was appalled. As a vegetarian, he could not countenance either eggs or chicken broth....... There were some things which could not be done even to preserve life, and one of those things was the taking of life." For Personal & Private Use Only

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72 THE TRUTH Page 270 : "One day Ba collected a quantity of ginger roots from Mrs. Gool's basket and placed them in our room. I was struck with horror" to see them....How could one eat ginger ? This thing, a single joint of which proliferated into so many shoots, must indeed be full of lives. Moreover, to eat fresh shoots was as good as killing delicate bodies. I felt extremely disgusted with myself. L resolved that I would never eat ginger, not in this life." What is true of killing animals applies to eating of eggs. We destroy the means of reproduction of birds and a mother can very well understand what it means if her child is destroyed even before it is born. Birds are intelligent creatures and feel sorrows and pleasures. like us. The fact that we have unfertilized eggs makes no difference to the hen and she is doubly in agony for having been kept away from the cock and having lost her eggs. .It is a common knowledge that animal food very often gives. rise to other bad habits like drinking, smoking etc., and further lowers a man's moral status. Health : There is a certain misconception that animal food is essential and superior for proper health, because it contains more proteins and in a form easily digestible by the body. While it may be partially true, but more of it has been publicised by those who have been eating flesh for sensual pleasures, and wish to justify their actions or it may be through ignorance alone. According to a Govt. of India publication, the protein contents of various foods are given below : Vegetable food ... Food wheat pulses soyabean ground nut milk powder :: % protein 12.1 22 to 43.2 31.5 38 24 Non-Veg Food Food Egg % protein 13.3 . Meat 18.5 Fish 22.6 Thus the facts are otherwise than the misconception. . Dr. Bircher Benner of Germany, a famous dietician writes in his book Food Science for all that human beings fed on egg alone or with a diet with chief constituent as egg will get their kidneys inflamed and excrete albumen and may ultimately die... He says For Personal & Private Use Only

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OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS 73 that plant food units contain alli elements of food in correct proportions and will not upset the body systems. They have enough proteins and are a complete food. Excess of protein is not digested and cannot be stored in the body and causes over-acidity. The lever and kidneys have. to work harder to convert it into Urea and then eliminate it. These organs therefore get damaged early if flesh and eggs are eaten. Our protein requirement is very small e. g., 1/3 gm. per lb. of body weight and it is no use eating animal food in the hope of a high protein content. It is dangerous to health. In animal food, the various food elements are not balanced and it contains other poisonous matter which adversely affects our health. By a suitable choice of vegetable foods, one can maintain excellent health, with the additional advantage of longer life and pleasant behaviour to others. . But the real question is not whether flesh food is healthier than vegetarian food; but whether it is right to eat flesh. The answer is that no one who has the least regard for the future welfare of his soul, would ever think of eating flesh. General : There are certain animals who cannot live without flesh because they have no physiological adaptibility. But fortunately man is endowed with the twin bliss of a conscience and high degree of physiological adaptibility. Therefore he can change his habits and food to suit his conscience. Why should be have food, which though may be alright from health point of view but which comes in his way in moral and spiritual development. Theft cannot be condoned because it can bring you wealth. Hence, himsa in the name of health cannot be permitted if it is immoral otherwise and specially when man can have better alternative foods-the vegetable food. It is said that man can grow more vegetable food on a given land than animal food. Hence it is economically more desirable to depend on vegetarian diet. Young people sometimes have a misconception that non-veg. food is essential for people joining the army. It arises out of a feeling that meat eating gives rise to brute strength in a man, which may perhaps be needed for a soldier. This false belief will atonce vanish if we see that in our own armed forces, we have regiments which are pure vegetarians, like the jat regiment and yet they are famous for their valour throughout the World. Bravery is an attitude of mind For Personal & Private Use Only

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74 THE TRUTH and has nothing to do with meat cating. In modern warfare, it is equally the quality of mind that is essential. In any case, we had several famous generals in the past who were vegetarians. Some people, similarly, confuse the issue of health with extraordinary bodily strength. Although these are two different things but still both vegetarians and non-vegetarians are found to excell in these qualities. . Vegetarianism is an attitude of life which refuses to enjoy any pleasure at the cost of another's pain. It is the policy of living at peace with all beings as far as possible. It is a protest against harshness of nature and cruelty of man. It is a more radical innovation than any modern science to raise the cultural level of man. The rational conclusion from vegetarianism is that one should refuse anything for any purpose in which animals are slaughtered--even medicine and leather goods. It is more advanced culture and a matter of pride to follow it. It is very wrong for people to take to non-veg. food merely to appear more modern. Infact, it is a backward step and merely exhibits lack of will power or ignorance of real nature of self. How interesting it is to note that some people justify killing for food on the analogy that bigger fishes eat the smaller ones and bigger animals prey on smaller ones and that survival of the fittest is the Law of Nature. They atonce downgrade man to the level of beasts whose faculties of thinking are much inferior, who do not understand their real self, for whom this body alone represents the self and who have no alternative source of food to survive. It will be foolish for man to justify his conduct because it is the same as of uncultured wild animals. Man is the fittest creature not because of brute force, but due to his mental and spiritual qualities. These qualities will further develop, not by following the animal instincts, but by following the path of wisdom. Some young men have the fear that without taking to animal foods and drinks, they will not be able to rise high in llife. There can be nothing more wrong than this. In the recent past, we have the examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. Radha Krishnan, Mr. Bernard Shaw, Sir Stafford Crips etc. These gentlemen were perfect vegetarians and each of them not only rose to the highest status in his field, but was respected internationally. They had tremendous capacity to work. For Personal & Private Use Only

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OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS 75 Some people go even to the extent of celebrating solemn occasions and happy events with flesh food and hope to invoke divine blessings. It does not stand to reason as to how happiness can result by an act which has already resulted in the misery of another living being. They say, as you sow, so will you reap. All talk of universal love and stoppage of wars becomes a mere hypocrisy, unless we practice love and mercy in everyday life towards all living beings. How can love and mercy be partial and selective ? Infact we only talk of these virtues and do not practice them. That is why, we are nowhere near universal brotherhood. To make the world happier needs far reaching social, political and economic adjustments which depend upon the co-operation of many others. But this single step of avoiding killing of animals for one's own sake will be our great contribution to the above cause. 6.6 Morality : In the modern society, there is lot of talk about morals and an impression is sought to be produced that the present society has a much higher culture. Morals include honesty, truth, non stealing, equality, love, service to those in distress etc. No doubt, these are laudable virtues and will go a long way in raising the cultural standard of a society. But the practice of these qualities requires a considerable self control and restraint on one's desires. A man will not normally be willing to accept such controls unless he is convinced that this will result in lasting good to himself. So 'morals cannot be practised in isolation from the spiritual philosophy behind them. But the modern society talks of morals and ridicules religion. Morals are merely considered as a necessary code of conduct for good relations in a society. Morals are thus given only a working importance and do not reach the inner conscience. Force of laws is the only fear for a man to follow the morals. Individual interest may have to be sacrificed for the good of the greatest numbers. The individual and the society are not always at one on the ethical side of life and a man tries to byepass social laws or escape detection whenever he can make a big gain. Under such conditions, even when a society appears morally advanced on the surface, it may be quite degenerated morally behind the scene, because there is no urge from within to follow these morals. This is exactly what is happening nowadays. Outwardly, we appear very polished, helpful and straightforward in our dealings, but all our actions are selfish, full of deceit not only on personal level For Personal & Private Use Only

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THE TRUTH but also on national levels: Sexual matters are simply disposed off as being too personal to involve any consideration of morals. It will thus be seen that for moral conduct to have any meaning, it must be related to its effect on the soul. Then only they will be practised with the seriousness they deserve, with consequent benefit of spiritual uplift. It will be seen that the so-called morals form part of the Right Conduct recommended for spiritual emancipation. It is the love of this great ideal and the fear of automatic ill effect on the soul of evil deeds, which will constitute an effective check on our savagery, lust and greed. 6.7 Ahimsa : Ahimsa has been described as the highest form of dharma (religion) and the highest cultural development of man. Unfortunately, this is a doctrine which has been grossly misunderstood by men; by some on account of an inadequate acquaintance with the basic truth of religion and by others because of a fanciful notion that its observance interferes with the enjoyment of the pleasures of taste and the realisation of dreams of world power. A proper regard for one's welfare requires that one should control one's senses in all respects where they are in conflict with one's good. Uncontrolled sense indulgence has been described by the wise as a sign of lurking 'cattledom'. The object of life, it has been pointed out by every thinking man, is not living to eat, but eating to live. The same considerations apply to other ambitions, for what shall a man profit if he gains all the goods of the world but loses his own soul ? Life is dear to all, and it is the recogntion of the right to the joy of living in others that ensures our own joy. . It is wrong to imagine that ahimsa was the cause of political downfall of India. Were the Indians vanquished by invaders from West because they observed ahimsa ? or because their mutual fueds and jealousies prevented them from presenting a combined front ? Mahatma Gandhi demonstrated the true power of ahimsa in his struggle with the British might and disproved the above. It is the weapon of the stoutest 'heart. It is a method in its nature undefeatable. In non-violent technique, there is no such thing as defeat, it is all do or die' without killing or hurting. Ahimsa does not forbid a Nation from fighting in defence. The fight is against the evil and not against individuals. Such a fight . ends in friendship and love, while a violent fight gives rise to unending fights. ..! For Personal & Private Use Only

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OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS 77 So long as Indians followed the doctrine of ahimsa, they were powerful and were respected all over the World. Those who practice ahimsa become contented, thoughtful, self centred and brave. Fear of any kind is unknown to a person who is supposed to follow ahimsa. Cowardice and ahimsa just cannot exist together. Non-killing or noninjury due to cowardice, fear of death or loss of wealth, can never be called ahimsa. Ahimsa in its true sense is always associated with sacrifice of one's worldly gains, love for all living beings and bravely defending one's spiritual values without inflicting injury on others. It is not a helpless submission to brute force, but a brave adherence to one's principles even in the face of death. In actual practice, the operation of ahimsa varies with the circumstances of each individual and his spiritual development. A layman may begin the ahimsa dharma by avoiding the doing of unnecessary harm to others, then he applies himself to restricting of his desires and wants and finally when the powers of his soul are developed, the practice of absolute ahimsa becomes easy and natural' to him. It is the desires and passions that lead one to the commission of himsa. In the ultimate analysis, a mere selfish thought or a passion is a himsa to self, for these ideas destroy the tranquility and peace of soul, make it impure and thus injure it, even before they lead to commission of himsa towards others. Going still deeper, any act, which is not the characteristic of pure soul substance, results in making one's own soul impure and thus is an act of himsa. All living beings can be classified into five evolution stages with respect to the development of their senses i. e., senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. Living beings possess three kinds of forces of life e. g., ayuh (span of life), bodily strength and power of breathing. Some living beings are also endowed with power of speech and mind. These are called the pranas (or life faculties). All living beings feel pleasure and pain and fear death. Himsa is the causing of pain, emotional or physical, to another and includes all kinds of acts calculated to interfere with one's enjoy For Personal & Private Use Only

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78 THE TRUTH ment of life or freedom in respect of one's pranas. The main types of himsa can be classified abelow : Himsa Injuring one-sensed beings Injuring higher sensed beings Deliberate Accidental Necessary Wanton Due to implied in careless. struggle for ness existence Defence Law Medical Employof body, & reatment of property order men men & or animals country for trade Sport Slavery Sacrifice Killing for food, trade The degree of sin involved in himsa varies with the developmental level of the life injured and the degree of cruelty of disposition. The plant life does not show the usual indications of life as higher sensed beings do. Hence not much hard-heartedness can be associated with their destruction as compared to other higher forms of life whose deliberate destruction cannot but be associated with the deadening of that element of love, tenderness and sympathy which a living being feels, or should, but for the deadening of his tender nature, feel for another living being. The five sensed life, which includes man, cows, goat, pigs, birds, fish etc., cry out when hurt, and at times also in anticipation of being hurt, and mutely appeal to you from distressed pitiful eyes. All acts, including that of himsa, have phases which can be described as (i) intention (ii) planning (iii) actual doing (iv) doing one For Personal & Private Use Only

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OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS 79 self (v) getting done by others (vi) praising or encouraging the action of others (vii) by thought (viii) by speech and (ix) by body. Each of these phases of himsa have to be avoided gradually. Eating meat, which has not been specially killed for oneself, involves a full share of himsa and amounts to encouraging himsa by others. A worldly man cannot avoid himsa in all forms, as described in above chart, except the wanton cruelty i.e., himsa marked 'A' in the above chart. Saints are able to avoid all himsa except towards one sensed beings. As a person succeeds in controlling his desires, and rises spiritually, he does not find it difficult to avoid himsa even in finer forms. A man engaged in the act of killing is not only indifferent to the suffering and pain he is causing to his victim for his own selfish endssometimes he actually delights in it-but has also no idea of the subtle forces engendered by such an act in his own system. Such a man has the three characteristics of thoughtlessness, selfishness and heartlessness. The analysis of the victim's mind discloses the presence, in addition to an intense feeling of pain, of horror, fear, hatred, resentment, and despair of the worst possible type. The mental states of the sinner and the victim both are highly inimical to the progress of the soul. Such persons who follow the path of himsa, are not only the enemies of their own souls, but also of those of their helpless victims. Since future births are decided by the nature of tendencies evolved out by the soul, such persons are drawn to a type of life marked by mental traits of cruelty, selfishness and thoughtlessness. It is to be understood that the soul is affected only by its own thoughts and feelings. Hence, where the mind is not tinged with passions, no harmful consequences will result from an act that might even end in the causing of death e.g., during operations performed by surgeons. To be logical, scope of ahinsa must be extended to all living beings and not merely limited to humanity. Let it be clearly understood that if you have no love for the life in the animal, you will not have it for man either. There is no such thing as a sudden rush of a ffection for one form of life all atonce. Ahimsa will purify, ennoble and sweeten life in all spheres and establish brotherly relations among men, communities and Nations, For Personal & Private Use Only

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80 THE TRUTH as surely it will, purge the heart of all evil inclinations and traits. This is the only way to end wars and the race for deadly armaments. I The philosophy of ahimsa is different from the modern concepts of 'might is right' and 'survival of the fittest: These are materialistic concepts and are responsible for all wars, hatred and cruelty in the world. They degenerate man to the level of a beast and completely ignore the fact that besides physical and mental fitness, even greater is the importance of moral and spiritual fitness. Ahimsa can only be foHowed with a background of universal love and not through a feeling of might. : They who practise ahimsa are the best of neighbours, kindest of friends, most law-abiding citizens; they are incapable of trickery, hypocrisy, or dishonesty in any form. They even conquer the hatred. of their enemies and turn it into amity and goodwill. Vow of ahimsa covers all other vows of truthfulness, honesty, chastity and detachment.. . For Personal & Private Use Only

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