________________
In Search of the Ultimate
After renunciation, if the mind is tempted by external pleasures one should conquer the attachment with true understanding that "This is not mine" or "I do not belong to this". (This type of understanding helps to make one's mind stronger and determined. Jainism believes that the soul is different from the body and if you can train your mind in the line of thinking -that this body is not mine- then you will be able to detach your true self from your body and you will have a completely different outlook towards the pleasures and pains associated with the body. When the soul is separated from the body i.e. when the body dies, the soul attains freedom and becomes happy. (This has been proved now after interviewing some people who were pronounced dead after accidents or heart attacks and then brought back to life after medical treatment)
Give up softness and accept hardship. Give up all desires leading to misery. You will obtain happiness only after destroying your faults and attachments with the weapon of a balanced and disciplined mind.
Before we go on to the 4th lesson of the Dasavaikalika Sutra, we should try to understand the six types of living beings (Jiva). These are:---Earth bodies, Water bodies, Air bodies, Fire bodies, Vegetation bodies and the Mobiles (Tras). Jainism has divided and subdivided all living beings in various ways and various categories. The chart on the next page gives only a slight idea about these categories.
Jainism is a religion which is based on the principles of extreme nonviolence. Killing or injuring of any of those types of living beings is forbidden. (Jains are certainly vegetarians).
No one should punish or harm these 6 types of living beings. No one should order anyone to harm them and no one should approve of any one doing so. In these 3 ways (that is doing it personally, telling others to do it and approving of another person's acts) whether by mind, word or body, those 3 ways, I would not kill (or harm), I would not have it
10
