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Chapter 1: Background
of the composition, and (4) Prayojan: the purpose of the composition. The first two are covered in this stanza. The Mängalik is in paying homage to the graceful Guru and Sambandh is in the form of Guru explaining to pupil. The remaining two aspects are in the next stanza.
From time immemorial, the worldly soul has been going through cycles of birth and death. Its main pursuit has been to gain happiness, but actually it only ends up in suffering. In spite of trying hard to mitigate that suffering, the soul fails in reducing the same because it does not make out the cause of suffering. Delusion, the real cause of suffering, prevents it from understanding its true nature and hence deprives it of its inherent happiness. By virtue of delusion, the soul identifies itself with the body and treats the comforts and discomforts of the body as its own. This is the root cause of its misery, wandering from birth to birth and suffering from old age, disease, death, etc. Thus Shrimad summarizes in this stanza the basic tenets of Jainism, the cause and the remedy for human suffering and misery.
This suffering cannot end, unless the soul realizes its true, blissful nature. That realization can come only with the help of a true Guru who has realized the self (soul). One, who has not realized the soul, can never explain its true nature. Here, explaining does not mean merely clarifying the terms, as is done in school. That type of explanation, the worldly soul might have got on innumerable occasions during its infinite wandering. If it got the right explanation at times, the same remained at the superficial level and never reached the depth within. However scholar one may become by reading books and studying scriptures, he still cannot bring an end to suffering and misery until he realizes and experiences the soul (attains selfrealization)
Explanation coming from the heart of a self-realized Guru convinces the pupil thoroughly. The pupil therefore makes
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