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I am the Soul
813
old. Father had finished food and was strolling in the verandah outside. I went there and noticed tears in his eyes. I did not like it and asked him the reason for the tears. I was a kid, would he tell me? Then I went in and brought along my grandmother from the room within. Grandmother saw the tears and asked, “Bhai! You are shedding tears? What is the reason?'
Father replied and I recollect that answer even till date. He said, “Mother! Jain dharma has been made into pieces. How many are the matas, paths and cults within? All believe their own community to be true and try to prove the others as false. Such is the growth of aversion and jealousy in the name of dharma. dharma is not something that you can tie up in your back-yard. dharma is all encompassing. It is not in the cult, but in the atma. Today the stubborn jivas do not understand and I am sorry about that. Those are the tears that have come to my eyes.'
Jawalba said, “I may have got the words different, but the feelings were certainly these.'
Brothers! This is the matter heard directly form Srimadji's daughter. Such lofty thoughts of Srimadji should be the goal for all of us. He has repeatedly written in his letters etc., 'I am not in any gachcha or sect; I am in the atma.' Let us also desire to live in the soul and not in some mata, sect or community. Let us give shape to Srimadji's feelings.
Today is also the birth anniversary of another great man. That is Mahapran Lonkashah. Almost 500 years ago this person studied the Shastras deeply and exploded the true principle and held the red light before the people. He removed with a great effort the laxity that had crept into the Sadhu samaj and the shravaka samaj. He presented a fail-safe pattern for conduct and established the Sthanakavasi tradition. Lonkashah too had been a very benevolent experience. Let us remember such great people and offer them our hearty homage today.
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