Atma Dharma

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

Page 75

( 68 ) himsa, led by such a foolish belief.--Subhachandrachiềua.
121. Neither asceticism, nor study, nor longor short-term vows, nor anything else, can confer the joy and blessedness which ahimsâ alone consers on the soul ; this ahimsa is a protector, like a mother, a source of delight like a wife, and a true guide, like the goddess Saraswati. O, brother ! grant thou the gift of life to all living beings ; love them in a praise worthy manner, regard thou all the moving and unmoving forms of life as thou regardest thyself. The greatness and blessings that accrue to the merciful cannot be fully described even by Saraswati. He who lovingly grants the gift of life to living beings, what form of asceticism is there which that Great soul can be said not to have performed, and what charity that he did not give ? As the principle of mercy takes root in the hearts of men, the Goddess of Wisdom begins to display Her Supreme affection for them. Know that the seed of whatever affliction, grief and fear that overtake living beings in the universe, and of illluck and all other misfortunes, is produced by himsâ.-Subhachandrâchârya.