Aspect of Jainology Part 1 Lala Harjas Rai

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi

Page 78

Religion of Man
The Ideal of True Love
The realize this Self one must love all. Selfless love, with infinite sympathy, will overcome all objective and physical limitations, For, love is the unifying force which binds not only man to man but also man to the universe and to his Maker. The love of a nurse-maid towards another's child she is in charge of, is of the unattached and unselfish kind She feeds the child, loves it, plays with it, and is all kind towards it as if it is her own child. But, on being dismissed from service, she leaves the child, given up all attachment to it, and is ever willing to take service elsewhere and nurse another child. Similarly should one in the world behave in respect of all the things which one considers one's own and feels called upon to love and serve. Even as the nurse-maid looks after another's child in a spirit of non-attachment, keeps it safe and sound under her custody as a trust, and serves it with all the love she is capable of bestowing on it, so also should men learn to live and act with a deep sense of detachment, selfless love, and generous service and to view everything in our possession as a worthy trust from the Divinity, which we call God, remembering, at the same time, that HE can deprive us of any. thing when he so chooses and that we should not then feel pain or misery at the thought of loss or separation. Pleasure and Pain and their Cause
Attachment brings transient waves of pleasure and pain. When our relation with other things is characterized by physical and sensuous attachment, and we, for some reason or the other, fail to obtain those things, we feel pain. If we obtain them, we feel pleasure. But such pleasure or pain lasts for a short while only. It is not and cannot be permanent. For, all the material things of the universe with which we get attached are, by their very nature, perishable. Therefore, the pleasure or pain that we derive by our attachment to the material objects of this universe fades away within a short time. However, from this transient experience of pleasure and pain, man learns the great truth of life which leads him towards real knowledge. In all living beings, and especially in man, there exists an intense desire for permanent pleasure or happiness. And a time comes in the life of every man when he begins to realize the unreality and transitoriness of pleasure and pain. Then he understands that by attachment to material things he can never get permanent happiness, and that if he seeks spiritual union (Yoga) with