Book Title: Introduction to Jainism and its Culture
Author(s): Balbhadra Jain
Publisher: Kundkund Gyanpith Indore

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Page 23
________________ breads bliss not misery. Tension gives rise to tension and sorrow gives rise to sorrow. The outcome of this contemplation is knowledge and bliss. THE FORM OF BLISS Bliss is the intrinsic nature of soul. Bliss is also called happiness. These two terms are synonymous. What is the form of that bliss and happiness? How can one try to acquire it without understanding its true form? Every being desires happiness and detests sorrow. The desire to gain happiness is a natural sentiment of every being. Every act of a being is directed at obtaining happiness. In whatever state it is, no being desires sorrow. Each being tries to avoid misery always. The universal existence of the desire to get happiness and avoid misery points at the fact that happiness is in accord with the real form of the soul, and misery is in discord with that. my true form is It is a universal experience that when a person is absorbed in joy his mind is exhilarated, his life energy becomes vibrant, the body is filled with strange pulsation and the face exudes liveliness and glow. On the other hand, when a person is in misery his mind flinches and mental powers go week. The body constricts with gloom and the face looses its glow. Thus it is evident that bliss has affinity with soul, whereas misery is in discord with the attributes of soul. But in absence of the awareness and understanding of bliss and the means to gain bliss, man continues to seek bliss in material things. How surprising it is that when bliss is available in soul we search it in material things. We do not derive bliss from material things, as it does not exist there. And we do not search where it exists. Thus it is not surprising if we do not get it. Generally people consider wealth and material comforts as sources of happiness and availing these to be happiness. Therefore, they work day and night to accumulate wealth and material conveniences. It is their firm belief that the more wealth or material 6 Jain Education International · For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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