Atmanandji Jainacharya Janmashatabdi Smarakgranth

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Atmanand Janma Shatabdi Smarak Trust

Page 107

Pandit Ajit Prasad
Beath, it is the sim
is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent Death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one. I
Public opinion is changing on this subject. The time is approaching when we shall consider it abhorrent to our civiliżation to allow a human being to lie in pro-longed agony which we should mercifully end in any other creature. Believing this choice to be social service in promoting wiser views on this question, I have preferred chloroform to cancer."
The above statement is vitiated by several assumptions. It assumes that one is "assured of an unavoidable and imminent death," that "all usefulness is over," and that " no power of service rema: ins”. As an absolute statement, such an assurance is an impossibility our kuowledge is all inferential, and never absolute, all approximate and never perfect. One moment of life may be of immense use and service to oneself or to another. Again “ quick and easy " and "slow and horrible" are creatur:s of fancy, sentiment. A philosophic mind is above such moods; it has conquered all such weaknesses; it is above pain and pleasure; it is indifferent to like and dislike; it is centred in the absolute reality, beyond vacillation; it is supremely happy in all conditions and circumstances, absorbed in the realization of the Self-the Ultimate Reality.
The greatest fear for man is the fear of Death. It makes life a living death. A person who lives in constant dread of death is dying miserably every moment of his life.
Realize therefore, that I am not the body. The body is a temporary vehicle, through which I work. When the vehicle is worn out, is beyond repair, I should let it fall off. I should so develop my functional capacity as to be able to live eternally without a body; in the full and the completest enjoyment of infinite knowledge and uulimited power. That is the ultimate goal of life, life eternal, a state of Redemption, Emancipation, Beatitude, Godhood, Nirvana, Moksha, Parmatma-pada.
.: 42
[Shree Atmaramji