________________
184
COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
deride those who may be faltering in their pursuit of religion; vi) sthitikaraņa-anga is the quality of rehabilitating others in the path of right faith or conduet by preaching them or reminding them of the religious truths, whenever they are found to be going astray; vii) vātsalya-anga is showing affection towards co-religionists and, respect and devotion towards the spiritually advanced by receiving them with courtesy and looking after their comforts; and viii) prabhāvanā consists in weaning people from wrong practices and beliefs by establishing to them the importance of the true religion by arranging religious functions and charities; one should endeavour to demonstrate the greatness of the Jaina tenets and scriptures.
- These eight angas (organs or members) or vital consituents of right faith require the individual to be thoroughly free from doubts about the real attributes of the Omniscient, the scriptures and the preceptors. They require him to follow the path with devotion and clear understanding of the possible pitfalls. While attaining spiritual excellence himself, he should do nothing by deriding his companion travellers who may be going astray. He should bring them to the right path by advice and pursuasion. He should do nothing that will bring discredit to his religion. He must protect his co-religionists from scandal whenever they might go astray by educating them in the true tenets. Pious and meritorious person's ought to be respected and treated with devotion so that he himself might have occasion to ponder over their virtues and others might be influenced by their spirltual conduct. One should also, by the best of one's own capacity spread the tenets of the Jainas by precept and example.
Amstacandra Sūri has pointed out the kind of doubts which might beset a mind in the attainment of firm belief of the right kind (samyag-darśana). Doubts arise as a consequence of our limitations in understanding or may be induced by our friends and neighbour following other faiths and extolling the merits of their own faiths. When the mind is in a state of cogitation, miseries and calamities may add to our mithyātva as interested persons
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
