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head again. Its suppressed lust covets satiation, and keeps a person in terror. The manner in which we suffer the fruits thereof and the state of mind in which we accept them attracts new karmas that are added to our sanchit (accumulated) karmas. Suffering attracts karmas and karma's bring about suffering. This vicious circle goes on until a point of equilibrium is reached where new karmic bondage is stopped and penance, austerities and negation of desires burn the previously accumulated karma. This is respectively the stoppage of karmic inflow (Samvar) and dissociation of bound karma (Nirjara). The natural trait to avoid coming in the claws of anger, ego, deception and greed, loosens the clasping grip of karma on soul. But if this awareness is nourished in our inner being, then there is karmic influx (Asrav) of a new karma. To be free of ego is a good thing. However, there is no dearth of people who have the ego that they have no ego! For this, Mahavir does not support the desire to earn punya (merit). To covet for merit is to covet for the mundane (sansar). Merit is a synonym of good state, not of liberation. For liberation, one has to rise above merit also. Even the desire for moksha is an impediment on the path of moksha. One has to rise above merit and also above the desire for moksha.
May be, merit is made of gold, but after all, it is a chain. If you cling to it, it will bind you in fetters. Therefore, you have to become not only vitadvesh but vitarag also. Although a storehouse of virtues including knowledge, faith, character, loyalty, and happiness, the soul attains its pristine glow through detachment (Vitaragata), in the same way as dirt'is wiped out of the mirror. This is the return of the soul / 'the thing' in its nature. Mahavir says the nature of any substance is its dharma. 'As many persons as many religions' (Hind Svarajya: Mahatma Gandhi) - In such quotations we hear the echo of Mahavir's thought, even after centuries. Return of any substance in its nature is like returning to ones' home, for which there is yearning. This is getting rid of homelessness and release from alien wandering. Medieval Hindi Jain poet Daulataram says: 'We never came to our own home / but wasted much time in wandering to other homes.'
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