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ASPIRANT'S GUIDE
things as also family, friends and servants, horses and cows. However, with the dawning of self-knowledge, one curtails these belongings as well as the attachment for them, so that one can fix one's mind firmly on the path of liberation.
5. Charity may also be considered as part of a householder's renunciation. When one limits one's covetousness and uses one's wealth in appropriate religious and philanthropical works, the virtue of charity develops in one's life.
6. False convictions are to be abandoned with determination and vision. This means giving up the false belief, "I am the body," and being firm in the conviction, "I am the indestructible element, the Soul." Again, abandoning passionate feelings like anger, pride, covetousness, jealousy, and abuse is internal renunciation. The four main types of hindrances which require to be renounced are (a) society, (b) family, (c) the body, and (d) provocative thoughts. One should try to overcome these hindrances and gradually free from their bondage.
7. It is the illusory attachment that leads a person to be engrossed in objects of sensual enjoyment, makes one experience their over-powering influence, makes the mind tardy, induces the bondage of Karma, and in the end, leads one to a series of sorrows. The renunciation of this attachment is therefore, the chief means to end the series of all sorrows.
8. The supreme virtue of renunciation is cultivated at its best, indeed, by the monks, who have renounced all their belongings, have cut off all worldly ties and have untiringly and delightfully devoted their life to the Sadhana of self-control, penance, meditation and detachment. Salutations at the feet of these great incarnations of salvation !!
LIVING EXAMPLES OF RENUNCIATION
(1) In 1955, in the month of August, the famous Jain Acharya Shree Shantisagarji, aged 82,had a cataract in his eye and had become physically very weak. He was at Kunthalgiri in Maharashtra.
It is a rule with Jain Munis to move from one place to another with proper care and vision. However, due to the cataract and weakness, it became difficult for Shantisagarji to observe this rule. He therefore started feeling that his body was useless
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