________________
I am the Soul
643
Once a lady from an affluent family in Mumbai was heard saying, "When I am lying on my bed in my room, and I see all those things that decorate my room, the wealth, the ornaments and so on, I begin to feel that I keep saying all this is mine, my own and I feel very possessive about them, but will I have to leave this all here and die? I just cannot bear it!"
But that is how it is. Everybody has left and gone and we will be doing the same. In practice we say that 'punya and papa will go along'. But even they do not accompany us permanently. When their time is ripe they too go away. So Brothers! In this entire world no thing or person belongs to us, nor will ever belong. It is very important to understand this to break the illusion.
The second illusion is the imagination of one's own happiness in a thing or a person. Earlier we have noted that no thing or person is capable of giving happiness or sorrow to us. Our happiness or sorrow is in our thinking, our believing. Substances, things are useful necessities of life. They provide convenience. But they are not the whole and sole of life. Likewise, people too are merely companions in life. Nothing more than that. They are not capable of giving either happiness or sorrow.
Once both these illusions are broken, the jnanadrishti -inner vision - of the jiva opens up. Illusion is like a dream. Just as the dream disappears when the eyes open, the affected disposition from infinite time also disappears when knowledge occurs.
Jnana is the quality of chetan. That quality of jnana has been battered until now by transforming it in the perverse direction. Once the chetanavant one endowed with chetan - takes control of things, the atma which had been wallowing in affected disposition and ignorance, transforms into the state of knowledge, and then the affected disposition is removed.
-
In practical life, if there is a debt of Rs.10 lacs, then Rs.10 lacs have to be paid. The same debt can not be cleared with
Jain Educationa International
For Personal and Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
