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JAINA
ग
2005
110
Jain Education International 2010_03
while living. Dharma in its right spirit and not only in its usual meaning of rituals etc. as understood nowadays, has got to be adhered to while accomplishing Artha and Kama. To indulge in wealth and desire wihout adhering to righteousness in its right meaning, is not only self-destructive but destroys the culture of the entire society. Once these Artha and Kama are accomplished to the extent necessary, one should start withdrawing oneself from the same and gracefully enter the period of retreat, which is the third span of life. In this stage which can be said to be the golden period of life, one should devote himself to the serious study of scriptures and live a life of selfless service of the society around us without expecting any reward whatsoever even in the form of recognition from others. The study of the scriptures helps us a lot in rendering great service to our fellow beings in the right spirit of the great aphorism. appearing in shrimad "Bhagwad Geeta"
"To action alone hast thou a right and never at all to its fruits".
This in turn gives us great strength and courage to live the life of spontaneous Bliss and joy. We then reach the state of renunciation where we try to tune ourselves with nothing but the Truth, the Self, the Atman which is the Lord of the Lords and merge therein to become one with the same and thus attain liberation from limitations meaning bondage of life, commonly known as Mukti alias Moksha in this very life while alive and are never reborn after the fall of the body.
This is the life that we are expected to live in the short span of about eighty to hundred years and reach the pinnacle of Truth while alive and that is possible only if we adhere scrupulously to the teachings of our scriptures laying down the funda mentals of life. 'Look within' and 'Know thy self' is therefore the screaming cry of our great Rishis for treading the path of spirituality leading us to the pinnacle of Truth.
Let us all wake up to this great call of our great Rishis and redeem ourselves from the vagaries of our present day life.
Try... Try we can... Try we must.
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