________________
Aptavani-2
37
just like the stench of the sewers in Bombay. Nowadays there is no limit to the perfumes and oils people use. The worldly people today have become such that they consume rotten mangos after spraying them with scents. The Lord has called this, 'abhogya bhogata' (enjoying that which is not meant for enjoyment); it means people are enjoying the very things that are not appropriate for the Self. There is one's own eternal bliss to be enjoyed, which one does not. How can he? Everywhere you look, all you hear are the crows and the cockerels, screech and crowing!
Critical thinkers will consider whether this worldly path is worthy of pursuing devotedly. If it is not, they would search for a Gnani Purush and attain the path of liberation from him. There are as many paths of religion as there are hairs on the head! Out of these, there is only one path that leads to liberation, and only a Gnani can show you this path. The path of liberation is not ornamental and glamorous as all others are; all other paths are like dream palaces in the sky.
Evolution as exposed by Lord Mahavir
The worldly life is constantly evolving (samsaran marg). The scenery changes at every mile, at every furlong. Human beings suffer because they become engrossed and entangled in the scenery. Evolution of all living beings, except human beings, in the entire universe is a naturally flowing process. Only for human beings it is not natural and there is suffering in it. These crows, pigeons, fish etc., do not have any hospitals nor do they have to take a bath everyday, do they? Yet, they look so clean and beautiful! Do they have to accumulate or hoard anything? They are considered ashrit; having dependency on God or nature, whereas human beings are the only living beings who are nirashrit i.e. they do not have any dependency on natural forces. Every human being is without dependency, whether it is a monk, an ascetic or even the one who renounces the world. Any living being that has even the slightest of worry about what is to become of me?' is without dependency and support. Those who do not take support of God or natural forces and hoard things are all non-dependant (nirashrit) and that is why they have worries and anxieties.
One has wandered in the worldly life for countless lives. No living being likes being in bondage; they all have a desire to be free but what can they do if they cannot find the path of liberation? Besides in which life has one not been an ascetic? Whether one is born a Vaishnav or a Jain, one becomes an ascetic, gets tired of being one and thinks about how nice it would be to be a family man. Then in his next life he becomes a married man with a family, but gets tired of that life so he begins to wish he could be an ascetic and so he becomes an