Golden Steps To Salvation

Author(s): Padmasagarsuri
Publisher: Arunoday Foundation

Page 85

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cannot reach your destination just because another man reaches his destination. You have to reach your destination by your own efforts. अरिहंतो असमत्थो
तारिउं लोआण भवसमुद्दम्मि । मग्गे देसण कुसलो
तरन्ति जे मग्गि लग्गन्ति ॥ Arihanto asamatto, Tarium loāna bhavasamuddammi Magge desana kusalo
Taranti je maggi lagganti. “Arihantadeva is incapable of taking people 0:08: the ocean of samsāra. He can only show the way. Only those can cross the ocean of Samsāra who cross it by their own efforts. In other words, salvation can be attained by people by virtue of their own practice of ethical principles."
The man who does not act according to the dictates of his knowledge is a fool though he may be learned.
शास्त्राण्यधीत्यापि भवन्ति मूर्खः यस्तु क्रियावान पुरूषः स विद्वान ॥ Shastrānyadhityapi bhavanti murkhah
Yastu kriyāvan purushaḥ sa Vidwan “Even though some might have mastered the Shastras, they are fools if they do not act according to them. A true scholar is one who acts according to his knowledge."
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan who was for some time Presi. dent of India remarked that India needed not formal education (measured by degrees) but character. Here is a beautiful English couplet which expresses the same idea.
“A man of words, not of deeds, is like a garden full of weeds."