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Muni-life and Emergency.
85
And one should be ready to abandon this body for the sake of Dharma by taking the vow of 'Sallekhana'; but how can one abandon the Muni-pad! For the sake of Muni-dharma, I have already surrendered everything, which I have been nurturing with great love till now
and which is the only basis of my goal, can I abandon it? Can I abandon it out of fear of hunger or to avoid it? Can I sacrifice it for the sake of a little pleasure arising from sense objects? This cannot be. Will this body remain in the same state and be happy forever by resisting these pains of hunger etc. or by experiencing the little pleasure arising from sense objects? Will there be no rise of pain of hunger etc. in this body again? Will death not come? If nothing like this is there, then what is the virtue in resisting these pains of hunger etc.? What benefit can it be to this body or the embodied soul? * I will never abandon Muni-dharma to avoid pain; even if this body is destroyed, I do not care; my soul is immortal, no one can destroy it; I had taken Muni-dharma to welcome pain, not to be afraid of it and to avoid it; this is the time of my test, I will not
* This feeling of yours regarding the resistance of pain of hunger etc. is also expressed in the following verse of 'Swayambhu Stotra'
'Kshudadidukhapratikaraatah sthitih chendriyarthaprabhavaalpa saukhyatah. Tato guno nasti cha dehadehinoritidmittham bhagavan vyajijnapat' ||18||
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