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स्मृति - मंजूषा
not accept the address without the permission of Government. I explained to him what the rules were. I told him that I would be happy with his blessings and I needed no address. He understood the delicacy of the situation. He said that if acceptance of the address meant some trouble to me, he would ask the people to drop the idea and that a simple farewell meeting would suffice. Accordingly a meeting was held and I received his blessings. He advised me that if I conducted myself according to the principles of religion, religion would protect me and save me from all troubles. 'धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः । ' His words inspired me with enthusiasm for a code of righteous conduct, consistent with principle of Ahimsa. His blessings and advice contained all the religion that I needed to know in my social conduct and discharge of my official responsibility.
After this fruitful year (1944), I had few occasions of having the Darshan of the Maharaj. I once called on him at Phaltan. When I was in Bombay as Special Officer in the Political and Services Department, he had sent some leaders to take my advice on the temple entry by the Harijans. At Phaltan, I was profoundly impressed by the singularly novel service rendered by him to the Jain Sidhants by getting the scriptures engraved on copper plates for being preserved to posterity. These copper plates stand out as monuments of his vision and foresight as much as of the universal and eternal validity of the principles they embody.
९१
Barring a few visits of casual nature, the last Darshan of the Maharaj, was at Baramati in March or April 1955. I was then District and Sessions Judge at Satara. He was then camping in a garden away from the town. I had a quiet discussion with him. He asked me about my daily puja and study of religious scriptures. He told me that mere puja and repetition of Namokara Mantra would be of no use unless they were followed by quiet meditation on the nature of the self and its contact with Karma, besides making conscious efforts for liberation from the bondage of Karma. The short discourse was a great enlightenment to me. It was a sermon on Jain philosophy and the practice of it by a devoted house-holder.
When I parted the next morning, little did I dream that it was to be my last Darshan of him. It was an irony of fate that when he took
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