________________
I am the Soul
murdering, yet the same person would be anguished at the smallest injury to his own child. He might shed tears at that. That is the feeling of affection lying dormant in him which gets awakened. It goes to show that all human beings have affection in their heart and this feeling is expressed at some place or the other.
This love of ours, that is spread across the external world, tries to extract pleasure out of it. Look at it from the psychological point of view; wherever our love is attached, whether in a person, a thing or a situation, the selfish desire to extract pleasure out of it is also combined. The urge to extract something, some internal pleasure out of it creates a trepidation in the Jiva. When that in which our love rests, fails to generate the pleasure imagined by the mind, when the desired level of happiness is not reached, when the recipient of the love fails to rise to the expectations, then the Jiva is greatly distressed, feels aggrieved. Yet this is not true love. True love is that which is devoid of selfish desire of any sort.
53
Mahayogi Anandghanji immersed in his devotion to the Jina, places all his love in Him and says - और न चाहूँ रे कंत
I do not need anybody else. I want my Rishabha alone, and nothing else. Here Rishabha is only symbolic. Rishabha here is not the son of Marudevi, but the supreme element of Soul lying within us. It is a manifestation of infinite energy. Nothing else can be as beautiful, unparalleled and incomparable. “I desire nothing else but this supreme element. Whatever desire I have, whatever effort I am putting in is solely for this supreme element of Soul. Without it my effort is futile and sightless".
The learned say that when your sight is drawn away from the external world and directed towards the incomparable treasure chest within the Soul, with an intense desire to achieve something out of it; when some attraction, out of the many lying within you, begins to allure you, then that is your true love. But are we aware of the many attractions that reside in our Soul?
Jain Educationa International
For Personal and Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
