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..... to earn worldly respect!
The pursuit of the three-fold path is the pursuit of the goal of the soul. One whose interest in the soul has awakened, has commenced the pursuit. But for the foolish Matarthi, the devoted practice never begins.
Here in the 'Atmasiddhi Shastra', while enumerating the characteristics of the Matarthi jiva, the faults in his faith, knowledge and beliefs were mentioned until now. There is also a fault in his conduct. He has never realised what conduct is. As a result he does a lot of things, but without understanding - aimlessly.
लह्यं स्वरूप न वृत्तिनुं, ग्रह्यं व्रत अभिमान,
the , star wilfach HF .....26 The Maturthi jiva does perform vows and daily rituals. It is generally noticed that any jiva begins the foray into religion with a vow-ritual which is the form of dravya-charitra. He does not know much as to why a vow is to be observed or what purpose it serves. But he has developed some interest in religion. “I want to be religious, I should be religious' having so understood, he sets about observing vows. In many cases their life is overwhelmed with penance and sacrifice. It goes on round the year.
Such jivas have a limited understanding - 'I am a Jain, a follower of Bhagwan Mahavira. My Lord performed a twelve and a half year penance. So shouldn't I?' Some go a step ahead and believe that fasting leads to the waning of karma. With this belief, they perform the severest penance and at the same time believe that their millions of karmas were washed away!
But Brothers! I ask you, "You observed the Ashtam - three days of fasting, in the three days of penance how much karma was reduced?”? What would you say, “Mahasatiji! How can one ascertain that? How can it be measured? But everybody says that penance leads to reduction of karma, and since I observed the Ashtam, it must have reduced.”
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