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HERITAGE OF LORD MAHAVIRA : whole community of living creatures. To this end, the
individual is exhorted to forgo a certain Perfect Indivi. amount of personal happiness, or of the dual Welfare means of comfort, under even the most
guaranteed insignificant of Pratyakhyanas, or the by Jainism religious vows. This self-abnegation is,
more or less, bound up with every one of the individual's positive efforts to enhance the happiness of other creatures.
It is clear, however, that if the individual felt this apparent sacrifice as a breach of its primary right to happiness, then the balance of personal and general well-being advocated by Jainism would, indeed, remain incomplete. In such a case, Jainism could not evidently claim to have fulfilled its noble task of assuring both personal and general welfare in the ideal way propounded before. But, as a matter of reality, both the sides are in perfect harmony, there being considerations which reconcile the individual to the so-called self-sacrifice. They make him realise that, on the contrary, he is benefited by this sacrifice and that the benefit by far outweighs the apparent loss or inconvenience involved in the act of selfdenial.
First of all, the motive cause of such sacrifice is itself deeply rooted in the individual's desire to enhance its own personal welfare. For, if the individual submits to those restrictions, it does so in order to shun incurring unfavourable Karma and, therewith, storing up latent suffering. Similarly, if the individual resorts to those actions considered to be beneficial to other beings in a positive sense,
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com