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Samani Rohit Pragya jvbnj@yahoo.com
Samani Rohit Pragya is M.A. in Jain Philosophy
and Comparative Religions, and M. Phil. In Jainology. She has participated in several seminars and conferences. A disciple of Acharya Mahapragya, she was initiated in to the Saman order in 2002.
THE ROOT OF MISERY
Strange is the fact that the only entity that can experience pleasures and bliss stays entangled in the whirlpool of misery. When all crave for happiness and want to keep away from misery, then the problem arises why misery? Answer is that good goal is achieved only through good means. The means and goal should be equally revered. After sowing the seed of misery if one wants to get the fruit of happiness then how is it possible? Impure means never yield a pure end.
Where is the Peace?
Man has many beliefs and one of the strongest beliefs is More-is-better. It is the root of all ills. "More is better" is a twentieth century disease. This belief becomes a part of man's daily life. Man spends a lot of life energy on "More is better." Some of the signs for "more is better is the foundation of human life" are the following:
He must be busy to be fulfilled.
He must make more money than he currently is making.
He must get a promotion to prove his worth.
→ He must need to have more of every thing.
'More is better' keeps a man exclusively in the physical domain. Man's inner energy is concentrated on accumulations, acquisitions, rewards, trophies, approval and money. He does not know, there is no peace in this pursuit. The feeling of peace is there when we are facing away from 'More is better".
In Uttaradhyayan sutra Lord Mahavir says:
He who is indifferent to the material world has no grief. He is not affected by the miseries of the world. He is like an unsullied lotus which rises above muddy water.
According to Mahavir's philosophy, happiness neither lies in the material objects nor in its enjoyment. Happiness lies in the individual's own attitude. If man learns to live within himself, he can find the greatest happiness available in the world. More desires mean more poverty. The poor is one who has lack and an ambitious person always has lack. On the other hand, the person who is satisfied in every way is the richest of all. This distinction of poor and wealthy person makes clear that poverty and prosperity are not related to the wealth but to a person's attitude. Unfortunately, in the blind race to make money for comforts and enjoyments, the distinction between. the proper and improper means is also forgotten. These are the views of some spiritual or religious people. But some people are of the opposite view. They say that money alone is the root of all human ends. They make the money being inspired by such ideology.
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