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25
THE MESSAGE OF JAINISM
25 बहुं खु मुणिणो भद्दमणागारस्स भिक्खुणो। सन्वतो विषमुक्कस्स एगंतमणुपस्सओ ।।
“To the begging monk who has renounced familylife as well as all secular activity, nothing appears desirable and nothing undesirable.
“Great, indeed, is the bliss of the monk, the homeless mendicant, who is free from all attachment and who is inspired by a serene solitude.”
And then, affirm the wise, you may hanker for its attainment or trouble for its preservation; all this happiness which you are so particular about, means slavery in the last resort. The anxiety you feel about it fills your mind and mars your thinking from morn till night. So much engrossed are you in your continuous worrying about your business, your position, your hobbies, your friends, your pleasures, and your wife and children, that you never find time to ask yourself why you are doing all that. Nor do you ever inquire as to what you are living for or whither you are steering to. You think that you do not care to ponder over it. But in reality, you have not the freedom to do so, for you are the slave of your attachment to that hollow bit of fleeting happiness, which, in truth, is no happiness at all. Would it not be much better for you to detach 'yourself from all this, to be your own master, emancipated like the Rishis (sages) and Munis (recluses) of old ? Without comfort and property, without ambition and position, without wife and children, were they not truly the lords of this world in their solitary meditations, unaffected by any secular considerations ?
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
