Atma Dharma

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

Page 14

Worry, jealousy, peevishness and the like are indications of intense mental pain and disquietude which cannot be said to appertain to the soul. They all have their origin in the mind, and are, in some form or other, connected with our individual desires. Deception also leads to mental agitation when it fails to secure its end, and the same is the case with greed. The happiness which is temporarily experienced when deceit is successfully practised or when pelf is amassed, is also the product of imagination. All these forms of happiness are unreal because they depend on the acquisition, preservation, or destruction of things external to one's own self, and because the very existence and conditions of existence of such things are not within one's control. Suppose a man is very fond of his wife and loves her with all his heart : he will, no doubt, experience great happiness in her company ; but since the conditions of her life are beyond his control, his happiness is liable to be marred by her infidelity. ill-health, death and the like. This is tantamount to saying that his happiness is parâdhin (c.e., depends not on himself but on the being of others), and is, therefore, more imaginary than real.
This unreal happiness never yields satisfaction* * Cf.“ This soul is not satiated even with things which it enjoys for a long time. Without satisfaction the mind remains disturbed and wanders from one thing to another. As fire