Basic Jain Culture Non Possession

Author(s): Padamchand Shastri, N L Jain
Publisher: Veer Seva Mandir Trust

Page 38

courageously even once, becomes immortal and he always repents who lets it fall. I am going to tell such a bitter truth which everybody knows, but does not admit and he does not follow it even when he admits it.
One day a gentle man came to me to have my autograph. He said, 'I am always reading your clear and audacious thoughts in 'Anekanta' Journal (Polyviewing). I had to come to Delhi for my personal purpose. I thought I must pay a visit to you". On his insistence, I gave my autograph to him. When he read them, he was surprised and said, "Oh, you are a Jain? You never wrote yoursfelf as Jain. You are always writing as Padamchand Shastri only".
I said, "Yes, it is so. But please do not take me as if I am not a Jain I am a born Jain, I have grown up as a Jain and I wish I should die as a Jain. How best it would have been that people should let me die as a Jain or let my body may he left but I should remain as a Jain".
I further added, "However, I do not know how much and what I will have to do to be a Jain or to become a Jina (victor)? Of course, if I could lean the possessions and attachment. I could write myself a Jain in not a distant time".
The words 'Jina' and 'Jain' are closerly related with each other. The 'Jinas' are those who have won over the karmas and the religion of Jinas is called 'Jain'. In general, we find two definitions of the term 'religion': (i) The religion is the innate nature of an entity or (ii) The religion is an instrument which leads the living beings to enjoy supreme bliss and releases them from worldly sufferings.
As far as the first definition is concerned, I have nothing to say and the innate nature of 'Jina'will be called as 'Jain'. For example, the fire has an existence by itself and hotness is its innate nature. Neither does the fire forego hotness, nor hotness foregoes fire. Similarly, those