Bhavana Bodh

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

Page 46

BHAVANA BODH
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tattered clothes and belongings to their fate, I shall save my precious soul from this burning worldly life, leaving oldage and death like old tattered clothes soon after you permit me to do so."
Hearing these words of Mrugaputra, his parents were deeply sorrow stricken and they addressed :- "O you son! What do you say this? It is very difficult to follow the ascetic's discipline. The ascetic has to adopt forgiveness and the rest good saintly qualities; not only he has to adopt them but also he has to maintain them through thick and thin; he has to behave very carefully for keeping these noble qualities firm in his behaviour; the ascetic has to adopt equanimity of mind towards friend and foe; he has to treat equally, his soul and those of other living beings or in other words he has to adopt equal attitude to all living beings on earth. This is called Pranatipat Virati, the first vow and it is difficult to keep it on throughout the rest of life. In second vow, the ascetic has to carefully indulge in only necessary talk and vigilantly keep away from erroneous or wrong sayings, he has to talk only that which is beneficial to the hearer. While observing this second vow with due care and strong determination, he has to adopt the third vow namely abandonment of even a blade of grass, without being given by somebody for cleaning his teeth, to beg and accept food that is faultless and fleshless, and while observing this third vow carefully, he has to adopt the fourth vow that is to abandon all the knowing tastes of sensual pleasures and profligate life and to adopt strict celibacy and this the fourth vow is also very difficult to observe and maintain. The fifth vow of minelessness is still more difficult to adopt for an ascetic than the previous four and that is abandonment of wealth, corn, group of helping servants, avoidance of all possessions, of all sense of mineness, renunciation of all worldly actions. Besides these five vows, the ascetic has to abstain from night dinners, has not to keep Ghee and such other eatables overnight - all this is very difficult.
O son! You should know what an ascetic life is! Is there anything more troublesome than maintaining an ascetic life.? To suffer tortures of hunger, and life killing thirst, to bear extreme cold