________________
3TTHET-8968
act on his precept, with the united activity of the energies of mind, speech and body. 12 In the three ages of past, present and future, the path of the Highest Ideal is one and the same, and that life alone is worthy by which the Highest Ideal is attained. Keeping this in the mind one should acquire the proximity of a True Teacher, and one's mind should be rid of all other diseases, and have the desire for Selfrealization only.'3 When passions recede, and the only desire is for liberation, and there is sorrow for continuous rebirths, as also compassion for all beings, that is the abode of SelfIdeal.!4 Where this condition is attained the wise teaching of the True Teacher is palatable, and from it there arises bliss-giving Right Thinking.' .
A soul-seeker that gives up his bias for one's particular school of thought and religion, and follows the precept of the True Teacher, gets pure Eight Beliefs, in which there is neither distinction nor partisanship.6 If such aspirants for Self-realization get wise guidance of a True Teacher, they acquire Right Belief, and lead a life of purification." By the teaching of the True Teacher new light dawns in a pupil, he gains self-knowledge and his ignorance disappears. To him his own nature appears to be pure and consciousness itself, undiminishable, immortal, indestructible and of a nature entirely independent of and separatre from the body. He come to see that he is the doer and enjoyer of Karmas, only where there is delusion about the identification of the soul and body. As soon as his life flows in his own nature, he at once becomes non-doer and non-enjoyer.is
In conclusion, Śrimad declares that there is no desease so bad as soul-delusion, and there is no doctor so skilled like True teacher; there is no prescription so good like the commands of the Teacher; and there is no medicine like contemplation of and concentration upon the true nature of
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
