Jain Philosophy

SR No.: 002014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Agamoday Samiti
Publication Year: 1924
Total Pages: 406
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Religion
File Size: 17 MB

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ward. He wants a reward because there are still cause within him many desires controlling his very being He has not yet mastered his lower nature; at times he becomes its slave. Now, in order to liberate him from this slavish condition, the wise men of the East prescribed certain rules for man. He was asked to do certain things, not hoping to reap fruit therefrom but in order simply to perform certain duties that he owed to the world. In this way step by step he can free himself from the shackles of animal desires and learn the truths of a higher degree. One of those rules was that he should perform every day five sacrifices. The first sacrifice was to the Devas, the shining powers and intelligences of the upper world. Everything that gives nourishment to the human body is by correspondence related to the subtle energies of other worlds, is in fact fed and nourished by those energies. Man is therefore under obligation to those forces and if he receives so much from them, let him give something in return, let him not be selfish. If his body is being vitalized by pure air let him do something that will make the surrounding atmosphere pure. If he is nourished by pure fpod let him offer certain oblations to those forces that supply purity to food; and so in everything let him give someting in return; he will then fell the satisfaction of having done something for whatever benefit he received of others. He will feel that he is not a beggar nor a thief, but an honest and self-dependent
person.