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I am the Soul
does not result in a detachment towards those things within us. The inner detachment arises out of a conscious mind; a strong disrelish develops towards sensual pleasures and then one begins to feel that the attachment with inanimate things is the reason that binds one here; one has to extricate oneself from it, one has to escape its clutches.
To achieve this one has to relinquish all attachment. How does one go about it? Enlarge the area of your attachment. Spread your affinity. You may ask, “Maharaj! Is that right? Should the area of attachment be reduced or enlarged?'. Just as the Tirthankar goes through Diksa, (gets ordained for penance), when he is full of pity for all fellow beings, in much the same way spread your personal affinity among all beings for the welfare and happiness of all. That is the spirit of universal friendship, universal love.
What is the limit of your affinity or love? Your own children and perhaps if you went a step further, your nieces and nephews. Well, that is the limit. You do not go any further. Similarly your friendship too, is limited to a few. But, that is not the way. Spread your love and affection across the universe.
__ आत्मवत् सर्वभूतेषु
Treat everybody as you do your soul and shower your love and affection among them.
Why should you treat everybody like your self? Why has this been said? To you, the most dear thing is your own life. There could not be anything dearer. You may say “to me my child is most dear’. Yet when it comes to a testing time, when both of you are stuck in the same life-or-death situation, would you try to extricate yourself or your child?
It so happened once, that a rich man's house suddenly caught fire. Everybody ran out scared for the life. In the melee, his eightmonth old baby was left sleeping in the cradle. Each one thought the other might have picked up the baby. Yet after a search they
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