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240
I am the Soul
This 'must have' is the hazard that keeps us from understanding the essence of the dharma. Look Brothers! Nowhere else is this sort of account maintained. Profit is equal to effort. That is the simple arithmetic. You spend five rupees and if you do not get equivalent goods, do you approve? You send your errand-boy with a hundred rupees to buy the groceries. When he returns don't you first tally to ensure nothing is short? If something is short you send him out again. But for the hundred rupees given you ought to get equivalent goods. You will not settle for anything less.
Brothers! Whether you observe Ashtam or Maskhaman - one month of fasting, shouldn't the returns on such severe penance be commensurate? Look! I am not referring to worldly returns. There cannot be worldly returns on penance and sacrifice! I am referring to that return which is bound to be received and that is the dispelling of Karma. I ask my brothers and sisters who are into penance whether they have ever thought after going through a severe penance like Maskhaman - 'I have gone through such a severe penance, what would be the amount of karma that is redeemed?' Of course! You will convince yourself that certain redemption 'must have' occurred. Can so many days of fasting go without redemption of Karma? It must have been redeemed. But no, it is not the 'must have happened', but the 'did happen' that can be experienced. You experience that the strength of your penance has redeemed so much karma - that there has been nirjara of karma.
What is nirjara? In ‘Natak Samaysar' it has been thus defined
जो पूरव सत्ता करम, करि थिति पूरन थाउ खिरबेकौं उद्यत भयौ, सो निर्जरा लखाउ .
When the karmas which are lying in supremacy within the Atmapradesh, reach a state of culmination and get redeemed, that is nirjara. With penance, this process of culmination is completed earlier and the karmas are plucked away from the atma.
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