Ahimsa Times 2008 07 SrNo 97

Author(s): Ahimsa Times
Publisher: Ahimsa Times

Page 10

AHIMSA TIMES - JULY 2008 ISSUE - www.jainsamaj.org
Page 10 of 15
bomb-throwing in a local cinema hall and publishing material to the British Government. Arrest warrant was issued against him and police eventually arrested him. He however fled in disguise from the jail and reached Ranchi in Bihar, a safe hide-out place for the freedom-fighters at that time. He actively continued his activities against the Government. He came in contact with Abdul Kalam Azad, who had also fled from Calcutta and took shelter in Ranchi with the help of local businessmen. After independence of the country, he was offered state pension both by the Bihar Government and Rajasthan Government, but he accepted it only from Rajasthan Government. He has left behind a flourishing family consisting of two sons and four daughters.
DEVLOK GAMAN
Acharya Shri Ajit chandra Surishwar ji maharaj belonging to Shwetambar Murti-pujak sect left for his heavenly abode after a short period of illness at the age of 75 years at Ahmedbad on the 18th July, 2008. Devotees from all round reached the place of death and offered their prayers. Thousands of people joined the procession carrying his body for the funeral.
READER'S VIEWS:.
DIGAMBARATWA DESERVES NEITHER BAN NOR BANE
Dr. C. Devakumar, E-Mail: cdevakumar@grouply.com, Shri Mahavir Sanglikar Ji called for a total ban of digambaratva in the name of nakedness. When I first read this message, I knew that he has taken an extreme position. Some of the reactions from some non-Digambar were on expected lines. Any reaction must be guided by unbiased analysis. One's like and dislike should not influence one's reaction. So let us ignore such comments borne out of likes (by Digamber folks) and dislikes (by others). The paradox of the times is that we inadvertently promote monologues and single line of thinking forgetting the natural flow of diversity of views and cultures at all times.
My learned colleague 'jokes" that every one is born as a Digamber Jain. Joke apart, one should know that digamberatva is the ultimate and signifies the total renunciation from within.. As the immortal Tirukkural (no. 345) states, even the body envelope a by-product of birth is redundant for those who are in the path of terminating the cycle of birth and death. External removal of cloth must coincide with this total renunciation. Your ling or insignia must be harmonious both within and without. Yes, there are any number of dravya lingi and pakhandi. Our sacred agam warns of dire consequences to such misguided seers. Nakedness alone is nothing if one has not renounced his illusion, likes and dislikes or if he has no will or determination to stay atop of this supreme journey. Any animal is born naked and survives naked, let us remember. Me-too-likes (pakhandi) are not the bane of only Jainism, it is the dreaded disease of all other religions and in every walk of life. Each of us must be wary of them. Having said, what is our stand?
In any system, the population dynamics is governed by behavioral, temporal and spatial factors. At no times, either excellence or poor quality was uniform. The population is always distributed asymptotically, so called Maxwell distribution with the probability of finding super-excellent samples in any given population is not exceeding 2.5 per cent. Let us look at the population spread of the most venerable samyag drishti Muni totaling 8, 99, 99, 997 in various gunasthan. In 6th Gunasthan, 59398206 (65.998 %), In 7th gunasthan 29699103 (33.999%), 13th gunasthan 898502 (0.998 %) and the remaining Munigan spread in the intermediate gunasthan. You can agree with the Maxwell distribution at work here too. Please note pakhandi, dravya lingi and mithya drishti are not included in this list. Acharya Gunabhadra in his Atmanushashan asserts that there would be most venerable Muni even in these testing times. Thirdly, the sixth gunasthan is very valuable. He can project his taijasa (astral) body and touch the divine body of kewali and clear all his doubts. So let us not write off digambaratva and instead adore such status. Lastly, the venerable Muni after successful conduct reaches loukantika (8th) heaven. This heavenly status is supreme for three reasons. These Muni are worshipped as Devrishi by fellow celestials and lead a life of sadhuhood. They motivate Tirthankar at the time of Their Diksha. Lastly, they are left with maximum two or three births.
What we need to do is to provide ambience and support for the survival and proliferation such excellent population after proper valuation and evaluation. So, total ban is not a solution. As Dr Ameet Prakash Jain Ji has argued, there have been odd cases of outliers in such population. We shravaks are as much responsible for the not-acceptable behavior of certain section of Digamber muni folks. We expect them to attend to our needs. We invite them to our colonies so that the temple may come up in grand style. We expect them to teach the basics of Jain tenets the| knowledge of which can be easily acquired through self-study or with the help of learned shrawaks etc. The sadhus are expected to guide our youth in their career and help us in our business or mundane comforts with mantra, tantra and
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