Drushtant Kathao

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra, Dinubhai M Patel
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

Page 32

Bhavnabodh - Nivrutti Bodh
think about as to how difficult it is to observe the vow of celibacy which is like a sharp dreadful weapon to destroy bondages. Really all these vows are very
difficult to observe by an impatient soul. Dear son! You are quite fit to enjoy happiness. Your youthful body is worthy of taking pure bath in the most beautiful way. Loving son ! Certainly you are not capable of observing an ascetic life in which there is no rest till there is life in you. The great collection of virtues of an ascetic is very heavy like iron. It is very very difficult to bear the burden of restraints. As next to impossible it is to go on the opposite shore of akashganga, so difficult it is to observe restraint in the youthful life. As it is difficult to go opposite to the direction of natural flow of water, so difficult it is to observe restraint in youthful life. As it is difficult to swim the ocean by one's hands alone, so difficult it is to swim the ocean of good qualities in useful life. As the mouthful of sand is tasteless so also an ascetic life is tasteless. As difficult it is to walk on the edge of sword, so difficult it is to practise penance. Such as a serpent moves lonely with sole attention so in the life of an ascetic, one has to move with sole attention of soul for preservance of Irya Samiti which is equally difficult.
O dear son ! As difficult it is to chew iron barley, so difficult it is to observe a life of restraints. As difficult it is to drink the flame of fire, so difficult it is to adopt an ascetic life in the prime of youth. It is difficult for a cowardly person possessing weak body to adopt and maintain the strict discipline of an ascetic. As you cannot weigh the Meru Mountain in a scale so it is next to impossible to observe the ascetic discipline of Das Lakshan Dharma - ten sorts of spiritual virtues with firmness and doubtlessness. As difficult it is to swim the ocean namely Swayambhu Raman by one's arms, so difficult it is to swim the ocean of quiet repose for one whose mind has not yet achieved a quiet repose.
O son ! You should enjoy all five sorts of sense pleasures viz., hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch relating to human form and then after getting full satisfaction in them, you observe religious discipline in oldage."
Hearing this advice of his parents for enjoying sensual pleasure in youth and follow religious ascetic discipline in oldage, Mrugaputra replied to parents as under:
"It is not at all difficult to maintain ascetic discipline for one who has no attraction for sensual life. This soul has suffered and gone through bodily and mental tortures innumerable times. This soul has suffered much by way of going through extremely painful and heart rending experiences. Birth, oldage and death which are the repositories of fear and this soul has gone through all these experiences while moving from one worldly life to another. O elders! This soul has suffered the heat infinitely more intense than that of burning fire while living in hell, similarly it has gone through cold infinitely more intense than the extreme cold known on the earth. It has suffered extreme pain while crying with tied legs above and head down in the midst to firecely moving blazing fire; It has been roasted many times in the extreme heat of burnt sand of Kadamb river - the sand that is found in the desert of Marudesh.
This soul has been tossed and turned many times in the frying pans as if it was to be cooked. The denizens of hell had bound my hand and foot with legs up and head down to make me suffer the fruits of my evil deeds; I was torn into two pieces by a sharp saw with no friend nearby to save me from such tortures. They gave me much pain by tying me to a Shalmali tree full of sharp piercing brambles. They tied me many a time and pulled me hither and thither, causing me extreme pain. I was being pressed like a sugarcane many times and all this ! suffered as the fruits of my evil deeds. In hell one denizen by name Samnama turned me in the