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**Friendship's Perspective: A Feeling of Renunciation**
(135) Mother and wife, who are they? In this insurmountable ocean of the world, this soul wanders alone. All the relationships that arise in this ocean of the world become places of misfortune for humans and ultimately prove to be extremely dull. Oh soul! Don't you see this from your own experiences? The love and affection in this world, how much of it is false, illusory, and full of selfish schemes. Don't you have a strong experience of this? Loved ones are like the celestial city of Gagananagar, youth and wealth are like clouds, relatives, children, and the body are like lightning, fickle. Thus, the entire worldly existence is momentary. Oh soul! You know this, yet why do you rejoice in your mind when you see this fleeting splendor and family? This fleeting life is like a drop of water on the tip of a blade of grass. How long will it take for this fleeting life-fruit, which has fallen from the palm tree of birth, to reach the land of death? Therefore, oh foolish soul! Seek refuge in the Great One! Seek refuge in the Great One! Now, be free from this endless, sorrowful world! Be free! "Foolish, you are deluded, foolish, you are deluded, thinking of your wealth and family in your heart. Like water on a blade of grass, trembling with the wind, know that life is worthless."
Shri Vinayavijayjit Shri Shantasudharas.
And so on, by contemplating in this way, a natural feeling of renunciation arises in him. He becomes weary of the world, tired, and has a strong desire to escape from this cycle of birth and death. He desires liberation and truly becomes a seeker. Then, with renunciation, he searches diligently for a true spiritual guide to learn the means of liberation. When he finds such a guide, who is rare and has a pure mind, he considers it a great blessing and with devotion, he acts according to his instructions. Therefore, when the teachings of the spiritual guide reach such a renounced soul, he attains right knowledge and other auspicious traditions, because his mind has become soft due to the water of renunciation, and knowledge sprouts within him. Thus, true inner renunciation becomes the best seed for him. And until the color of such inner renunciation is not imprinted on the mind, the soul does not develop the capacity to attain knowledge. As long as the mind is hard, theoretical knowledge cannot penetrate it, it only passes over the surface. But when the mind becomes soft and moist through the watering of renunciation, then the seed of right knowledge can be sown in it.
Shri Mansukh Bhai (the revered father of this commentator) has rightly said in the introduction to Shantasudharas, "Until the mind's activities are cleansed of the dirt of desires by the purifying agent of renunciation, the soul will not be able to absorb the nourishing medicine of the teachings, which is like a chemical, and it will be unsuccessful."