I am The Soul Part 01

SR No.: 006790
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Tarulatabai Mahasati
Publisher: Shri Gujarati Shwetambar Sthanakwasi Jain Association
Total Pages: 468
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 60

I am the Soul
and all towards the path of prayer and penance. This season, as it impresses upon us the need to restrain, is conducive for worship. Today is the beginning of the four-month season. Since the tradition is there to follow, a being could make efforts towards spiritual uplift in right earnest. One way of doing this is to absorb the discourses of the learned saints.
Such a righteous path has been indicated in the great 'Atmasiddhi Shastra'. What, after all, is this 'Atmasiddhi Shastra' about? What does it have to say?
What else would the scriptures say, other than talking about the uplift of the soul! These scriptures do not propound any new theories. They merely reiterate the essence of the truth as realised and experienced by our Tirthankars. The great scholar, Yakini Mahattarasunu Shri Haribhadrasuri, who enormously enriched the Jain scriptural literature by authoring an astounding 1,444 volumes in Sanskrit and Prakrit, has succinctly summed up the universal truth in six simple Sanskrit statements, in his work 'Dharmabindu'. Those are -
1. Soul exists, 2. It is eternal, 3. It is the doer of its own Karma, 4. It is the sufferer of the results of its own Karma, 5. It can attain moksa (liberation), and 6. A path to such moksa (liberation) exists.
These six statements constitute the basic assumptions of Jainism. They are repeatedly discussed in the Jain Agamas (the early scriptures). Originally the Agamas were set in the Ardhamugudhi language. Today it is difficult for the layman to follow that language. It is with this need, of the layman, in view that the great spiritual yogi Srimad Rajachandraji, rendered the fundamental truths in simple Gujarati. Perhaps this creation of his is the outcome of our combined punya (good fortune). How else could we be gifted with such a great store of knowledge?