Pravachanasara

SR No.: 003289
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram
Publication Year: 1964
Total Pages: 612
Language: Hindi, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 16 MB

Page 576

-III, 42]
objectivity is certain; this certainty (of knowledge) is possible from the study of) scriptures; therefore application to the (study of) scriptures is of the highest importance.
33. The Sramana, who is lacking in the study of scriptures, does not know his self and the things other than his self; without knowing the objectivity how can the monk destroy the Karmas?
34. The saints have scriptures as their eyes; all the living beings have sense-organs as their eyes; the gods have clairvoyance as their eyes;1 and the Siddhas have eyes in every way.
35. All the objects, with their various qualities and modifications, are known from the scriptures; those, who know them learning from the scriptures, are the Sramaņas.
36. He, whose right faith is not preceded by the (study of) scripture, cannot possess self-control: so says the sacred text; and if he has no moral discipline, how can he be a Sramaņa?
37. One does not attain liberation (merely) by the (study of) scripture, if he has no faith with regard to the nature of reality; or one who has faith cannot attain Nirvana, if he is devoid of moral discipline.
38. The man of knowledge, who is controlled in three ways 2, destroys within a breath the Karma which a man devoid of knowledge could destroy in hundred thousand crores of lives.
Pravacanasara
39. Further, he, who has an atom of attachment towards body etc., cannot attain liberation, even if he knows all the scriptures.
*21. Especially in ascetic life, moral discipline is said to consist in renunciation, in abstaining from activities (leading to sin), in refraining from sensual pleasures and in destroying the passions.
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40. That Sramana, who has five-fold carefulness, who is controlled in three ways, who has curbed his five senses, who has subdued his passions and who is completely endowed with faith and knowledge, is called self-disciplined.
41. Enemies and the members of the family, happiness and misery, praise and censure, a clod of earth and (a lump of) gold, and even life and death are alike to the Sramana.
42. He, who is simultaneously applied to (the cultivation of) the trio of right faith, knowledge and conduct, is said to have attained concentration; and he has perfect asceticism.
1. TS. I, 9, 21.
2. Mentally, verbally and physically.