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Chapter 1: Background
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did not come across the path of liberation. Now, if one tries to seek liberation, how is he going to make out the right path? Without knowing that path, would not his efforts amount to traveling in the dark? Would it not be like a person looking for an unknown place without getting help from someone who knows it?
If a person thus tries to find the place on his own, he would simply wander here and there and not reach the destination. Such effort can be termed as self-indulgence. In the worldly sphere however, one may reach his physical destination by chance without help from any one. But in the spiritual realm, such self-indulgence is of no avail. Since it is impossible to gain right insight without proper guidance, the approach selected by one's own intelligence cannot be right. The intellect, which has never even dreamt of the truth, is not competent to overcome ignorance. A spiritual aspirant therefore needs to give up his self-indulgence and go to a self-realized person. Only such a person can show the right path. That would enable him to proceed in the right direction and reach the destination.
This stanza therefore states that one, who gives up selfindulgence, certainly attains liberation. The omniscient Lords have stated that infinite souls have attained the same accordingly. If one therefore tries to figure out why he still continues to wander, he can conclude that he has not yet given up self-indulgence. Had he given it up, he would have taken recourse to a true Guru, who would have put him on the right track. Giving up self-indulgence is therefore the main precept of the omniscient Lords. Those Lords are perfect and flawless, because they have got rid of all flaws by virtue of eradicating bondage of Karma and have become omniscient. So whatever they have stated cannot be anything but true and flawless.
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