Comtemporary Jain Legends

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

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Human life:
• We have had this human life many times in the past but we have not been able to do much for ourselves. Now know well the learned men, follow their directions and you will fulfill the purpose of human life.
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Life is short but engagements are enormous. Cut down you engagements and attachments so that you will feel happiness in life and you will take your life to be sufficiently long.
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The activities, which happen to be the cause of happiness in this life as well as in future lives, are good activities and good behavior.
Good manners and good behavior are the root of holiness.
Detachment from worldly affairs (Vairagya)
• To be disinterested in family and worldly affairs is called Detachment (Vairagya)
Only the Vairagya can lead you to eternal happiness.
Detachment of devotees must be much more than that of a saint. Devotees must awake and withdraw their attachments with family life and worldly affairs. Hear the saint carefully and realize your vices. Then only you can be free from vices and evil thoughts; then only virtues will enlighten your life.
All living animates long for happiness and there is no exception to it. This desire can be fulfilled in human life only. Yet the soul goes to be unhappy instead of stepping towards total bliss-Salvation. This happens only because unhappy attachments with the world.
• Detachment is successful only if it is followed by the knowledge of the self. If there is no renunciation and detachment in mind, there will be no knowledge of soul. One, who stops at these stages of renunciation and detachment, loses his life in vain.
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Knowledge:
⚫ That is knowledge with which we are able to know the form of things.
• Knowledge is like a thread in the needle. This is said in Uttaradhyayan Sootra. Just as a needle with thread in it is not lost so if you have the knowledge, you will not lose your right path in this world.
⚫ That is knowledge with which (a) external feelings can be controlled, (b) love for life, family and worldly pleasures decreases and (c) reveals truth by truth.
Only the knowledge of soul can make you free from all miseries. The knowledge of self is not possible without thoughts. The soul does not gain thinking power if it keeps itself in the company of evil-minded persons and evil-circumstances. This is undoubtedly true. The purpose of knowing the true form of every thing is to attain self-knowledge. If there is no self-knowledge, the knowledge of worldly thing is in vain. The more the selfknowledge, the more intense is the self-meditation.
If you know yourself, you know the whole world, If you do not know yourself, your knowledge is worthless.
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