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The Great Meditation
The tenth Great Meditation, listen to this human Dharma, this meditation, O monks! The unpledged monk, having attained meditation, should wander among beings without attachment. ||1||
Commentary - The wise one, having contemplated the Dharma, listens to this meditation, which is straight and leads to liberation. The unpledged monk, having attained meditation, should wander among beings without attachment.
Translation - The great possessor of wisdom and knowledge, the omniscient Lord Mahavira, has declared the Dharma, which is straight, simple, and leads to liberation through meditation. O disciples! Listen to it. The unpledged monk, who has no desire for the fruits of his austerities, having attained meditation, should practice pure restraint, free from violence.
Commentary - This verse is connected with the previous verse, which states that one should strive for liberation by abandoning all worldly attachments (Grantha 5500). The Lord, who has attained divine knowledge, has declared this, and this is what will be explained now. Who is the one who has declared this? - 'The wise one' - 'mati' means contemplation, knowledge of all things, and the one who possesses this is the wise one, the omniscient one. Here, the use of the special epithet 'matimaan' refers to the Tirthankara, and by implication, it also refers to the Veer Vardhaman Swami. What has he declared? - 'Dharma' - the Dharma of the scriptures and conduct. How? - 'Having contemplated' - having known through omniscience, he speaks of the Dharma based on things worthy of being explained. Or, having contemplated the listener, he asks, "For whose sake is this worthy of being understood? What kind of person is this? From where has he come? What kind of vision has he attained?" Thus, having considered all this, the devotees of the Dharma think that the Lord speaks of the Dharma, considering each person's point of view, so that everyone can understand it in their own language and doubts can be removed. What kind of Dharma does he speak of? - 'Straight' - not crooked, describing the true nature of things as they are. Not like the Sakyas, who, fearing the fault of creating destruction and attachment, have accepted the impermanence of everything and have accepted the existence of beings. Similarly, they accept plants as inanimate and do not cut them themselves, but they teach others to cut them. Similarly, they do not touch gold and silver themselves, but they buy and sell it through others. Similarly, the Sankhyas, fearing the fault of bondage to karma and the absence of liberation, accept everything as unchanging, uncreated, stable, and eternal, and they rely on the absence of birth and death. Thus, the Lord has declared the Dharma, free from all such cunning and deceit. Similarly, it is understood correctly - liberation, the path to it, or the self, is made suitable, established by this Dharma. This is the Dharma that he has declared. Or, he has declared the Dharma, and that meditation, which is the meditation on the Dharma, etc. Sudharmaswami says, "Listen to this Dharma, or meditation, which has been taught by the Lord." For example, the one who is unpledged has no desire for worldly or otherworldly rewards, and he performs austerities without any desire. The monk who is a mendicant, who is a seeker of the truth, is the one who is truly virtuous. He is the one who has attained the Dharma and the meditation on the Dharma. Similarly, the one who is unattached has no attachment to beings, and he wanders among them without any attachment. Or, the one who is unattached, who is free from the flow of karma, who is free from the cause of karma, should wander well, should wander perfectly. Or, he should wander among those things that are unattached, that are like unattached things, such as knowledge, etc. Or, the cause, the reason, the suffering, is unattached, and he should practice restraint, striving for the highest good, without causing suffering to anyone. ||1||
Commentary - This verse is connected with the previous verse, which states that the virtuous should abandon all worldly pleasures and engage in the practice of liberation. The omniscient Lord Mahavira, as will be explained further, has declared the Dharma. Now, we will explain this. Inquiring about the qualities of Lord Mahavira Swami, one asks, "How is the Lord?"
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