________________
CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
109
postponing it either; you may have no opportunity for it later on. Whether it be penance or fasting or any other method of self-denial, you must impress each and every one of them into service to vanquish the foe. It is no use your expecting to reach nirvana by lolling in your arm-chair; you cannot destroy the forces of karmas that way. Begin to prepare yourself from now for a life and death stuggle with the enemy in all seriousness of purpose, or be ready to face the inevitable consequences-birth as a dog, a cat or a caterpillar, longcontinued intolerable suffering in hell and the like-that flow from a life abandoned to passion and desire.
Thus while there is no royal road to perfection, there is a narrow scientific path out of this Vale of Tears; it is one for all, from which you can only deviate to fall into the ravines below, to be broken against the hard boulders of falsehood and infatuation. It is not a question of individual tastes either; there is and can be no choice of means in a scientific pursuit of the ideal, We cannot allow the soldier to determine for himself whether he will go through the prescribed drill. He has got to do so if he wishes to join the army.
This narrow rigidly scientific 'path' consists in the acquisition and adoption of Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct. Of these, Right Faith has its eye constantly fixed on the great ideal of Perfection and Bliss, and never loses sight of it for a moment, Its function is to determine the direction of individual
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
