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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
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rest of life-time is the producer of Karmas, fasterner of Karmic bond and that is why it is futile and it multiplies worldly existences.
We said in the preliminaries of the current discourse explaining the meaning of a stanza beginning with the words, "JinavayaneAnuratta (Devoted to the commands of Lord Jina)". "The souls which are devoted to the commands of Lord Jina, which bear firm conviction in them which follow them with cordial zeal and which have their actions spotless and which are without mental excitement get their worldly existences minimised.
FOUR FACTORS WHICH GET THE TEMPORAL EXISTENCES MINIMISED
By now you must have grasped the significance of this meaning. There are four factors which contribute to reduce worldly existences. First is the firm faith in commands-preachings of Lord Jina. This is the affectionate devotion to His preachings. How can one tread on the path enunciated by him unless one has entertained firm faith in the form of holding as true whatever is laid down by Lord Jina and one achieves one's highest welfare by translating in life the very preachings. We have already pointed out in the preceding discourses that charity, righteous conduct, penances, worships, pilgrimages, mercy, and sacred vows only bear fruit when equipped with right-belief. No mansion would stand without foundations. But we have to consider as to how one would entertain such affectionate devotion or firm faith. Some of the Souls exhibit such faith in an inborn manner but they are very few in number. Now the rest of the souls acquire such faith through the contact of an ideal-preceptor. When you listen to the preaching of the Lord from the mouth of your religious preceptor, right belief begins to sprout in your heart and assumes rigidity in course of time. Thereafter, your mind remains stable when any sort of agitation confronts you.
Some one would ask a devotee of religion, "What is religion?" If such devotee fails to satisfy the inquirer as regards the nature of religion then he would be again confronted with a retort that it is useless to practise religion without understanding the true nature of religion. With such retort a lay man would be non-plussed and would even renounce whatever scanty religious rites he observed;
