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Preface
the human psyche and the results of accumulation of wealth. Mahāvira was not opposed to meeting the primary needs of the rapidly growing population, but his opposition was to the ideology of unrestrained ambitions. The scripture under study proclaims the effects of ambitious mentality of modern society.
The seeker of happiness indulges in acquisition of wealth. In search of happiness he repeats indulgence. Deluded by suffering produced by himself, he gets bewildered on attaining suffering in place of happiness. He seeks pleasure but gets sufferings.
Modern society has largely succedeed in eliminating death by starvation, but accumulation of wealth by a handful of people has compelled a large majority to live in poverty. Excessively rich people also have their own problem in that they have to pass their time in perpetual mental tension, fear and terror. Humanity has not yet succeeded in finding a way of life that could satisfy the primary needs of all and simultaneously mitigate the inhuman cruelty, a by-product of excessive acquisition of wealth. It will perhaps never be feasible to find out the way without delimiting personal ownership. Availability of goods is limited. Consumers' demands are unlimited and their desires are vaster still. We have no arithmetic that can induce balance. This is why Mahāvīra, keeping the truth in view, proclaimed that what is most dreadful is that man has focused his attention exclusively on acquisition of goods. Modern man equates his mental health with consumerism. The root cause of the problem of violence is of tying up the sense of mineness with things. The truth however is that things do not belong to anybody. The attempt at denying this truth breeds violence.
Declared Mahāvira: do not rest satisfied with striking only at foliage and flowers of violence but also strike hard at the very root of it. Violence varies proportionately with the sense of mineness. The deeper the sense of mineness, the intenser the outburst of violence. This sutra is a super-commentary on the concept of violence. The message of the Achärānga is generally identified by the majority of scholars as the measage of non-violence. This view has originated from the subject-matter of the first chapter which details abandonment of the weapons of violence. The subsequent chapters, however, deal with the doctrine of possessiveness and non possessiveness, which have been relegated to a secondary position by those scholars. Our initial attention goes exclusively to the foliage, flowers and fruits ignoring the root. An issue cannot be finally decided without going to the very root of it. We wish to solve the problem of violence by concentrating on the pursuit of non-violence. But this is only an approach that focuses exclusively on outside surface. The approach that focuses on the root is quite different, which is embodied in the dictum : solve the problem of possessiveness, the problem of violence will then automatically find its own solution. The effect cannot be got rid of so long as the cause is in function. Violence is an effect, possessiveness is its cause. It was only in order to bring home this truth that Mahāvīra again and again declared "Know the truth. The supreme truth is : the souls are conscious entities, things are not conscious. The essence of soul is consciousness, not materiality." This philosophy of the Achārānga Lave a new turn to the science of ethics and advanced thought in the direction of peace, announcing "Be a seer. Look at every event and bring about a change in your attitude to sensual objects. Do not enjoy objects like the person who does not seek truth. But bring about a radical change in your attitude to sensual objects." In other words, bring about a complete change in your life-style. The value of the realisation of this truth is in no way inferior to the realisation of the self.
The programme of editing the scripture started in 1954 of the Christian era. Annotations were prepared in Hindi of the Daśavaikālika, Uttarādhyāyana etc. His Holiness Shree Gurudeva once suggested, inter alia, the composition of a critical commentary on the Achārānga in Sanskrit. His suggestion gave me a new direction. The Sanskrit commentary was prepared. The benign inspiration of Shree Gurudeva was my constant companion in this project. Mahashraman Muni Mudit Kumara and Muni Mahendra Kumara kept engaged in preparing the manuscript of the commentary. The work practically remained suspended for several years. Muni Dulaharaj took over the initiative. Many queries and suggestions came up. Consequently there was increase in the volume and change in the methodology
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