Amar Vani

Author(s): Amarmuni
Publisher: Sanmati Gyan Pith Agra

Page 90

SELF-PURIFICATION
and easy and fall is unnatural and hard for man. Progress is a part of human nature and fall is alien to it. The conversion of anger, pride, ignorance and greed into forgiveness, humility, simplicity and generosity is innate to human nature... For this no external aid is needed. On the contrary, it is unnatural and difficult for man to fall into anger, pride and animosity. For this some external circumstance is needed. A gourd floats on water naturally. Floating is innate to its nature. It does not need any external aid to float. On the contrary, would need some external weight to sink into the water. If we tie a piece of stone with it, it would sink. It does not sink of itself, it is made to sink under the weight of the stone.
75.
This equally applies to the human soul. It is natural for the human soul to float upon the ocean of the world. Sinking into the ocean of the world is unnatural to it. If it sinks, it does so under the weight of human weaknesses, temptations and evil actions. If we keep off all these evils and temptations from our soul, it would keep on floating, and cross the ocean of life without any fear of its sinking on. the way.
Self-purification
Soul is intrinsically great, pure and clean. It is, however, submerged in the mire of evils and passions, and therefore it remains so suppressed and cast down. Like a piece of gold lying in mud, it loses all its natural lustre. Therefore whenever it seeks to rise above this mundane plane and steer clear through the ocean of the world, it has to take: the difficult path of truth, non-violence and penance. On this arduous path of purification, it sometimes stumblesinto pitfalls of evil thoughts and temptations. But an ascetic