________________
RESTRAINT OF WANTONNESS make life rich, noble and pure - all these are practical ways and means of avoiding wantonness. Thus one attains purity as well as sublimity in life. (6) A person always falls prey to wantonness, if he behaves in such a way as to scoff at the sublime teachings and commandments of the preceptor, and not being afraid of mundane worldly existence. Every command of the wise is conducive to our betterment. Let a person not, therefore, ponder over the high and low of it, or quarrel with insistence about it. Wantonness is healed only if one realizes that every command of the wise is blissful. If wantonness is healed, the soul (person) attains to bliss.
LIVING EXAMPLES OF CONTROL OF WANTONNESS (1) Shrimad Rajchandra had written his personal diary. He gave it to his disciple, monk Shri Lalluji to copy down some useful part of it. Shri Lalluji copied that part plus a few other parts which he found useful. He had thought of obtaining the permission for the other parts in the morning because his vows as a monk did not permit him to go out at night to see Shrimad Rajchandra.
Next morning, Shri Lalluji placed all the copied pages and diary before Shrimad Rajchandra and said, "As it was night, could not come to get your permission. I have copied from the diary a few more pages than you permitted." Shrimad Rajchandra kept his diary and all the copied pages in his own custody. He gave nothing back to Shri Lalluji. Lalluji repented of it and narrated everything before Ambalalhbai, a householder pupil of Shrimad Rajchandra. He too scolded him for copying extra pages without permission. Shri Lalluji requested Shrimad Rajchandra again through Ambalalbhai to return him the copied pages. He then handed over to Lalluji all that he had copied.
This was one of the ways in which Shrimad Rajchandra revealed the glory of control of wantonness and preached again and again to resort to self control (Atma-Sadhana) under the orders of the preceptor. (2) Bhudeva Mukhopadhyaya was a great man of the state of Bengal, India during the last century. He was a great scholar who specialized in philosophy and logic. He was a strict disciplinarian and he had brought up his family with his traditional SWACHHAND-NIRODHA
69 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org