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AINA CONVENTION 2011
"Live and Help Live"
ingrained virtue. We get to relate to bad people by virtue of our accumulated vice. Which means each soul is responsible for his or her relationships. All the souls are responsible for their own destiny. To get rid of the ingrained relationships among souls, one must put an end to qualities like love, attraction, hatred and rivalry. As long as souls do not leave these qualities relationships are not cut off. From the viewpoint of the soul, no soul is in need of relationships with other souls. Relationships only replenish mundane life (samsara), do not reduce it. As per the Sutra, parasparopagraho jivanam", in Thathwartha Sutra (5. 21), favor and disfavor occur among souls in the world. Though this is quite natural, real happiness and eternal happiness come only by getting rid of it. Therefore it is necessary to know how relationships occur among souls.
hatred which causes aversion to unpleasant things. By leaving both love and hatred, attraction and aversion, one gets above the tendency to own or renounce things. This is compulsory for Jains. This prevented encroachment of properties in society due to greed. Because of the teaching of Lord Mahaveera, kings stopped attacking other kings and annexing their kingdoms. The rivalry and tension among kingdoms vanished. Not only Jains but other religionists also followed Lord Mahaveera's teaching. For example kings of other religions like Ardhak of Iran, Udayan of present day Pakistan, Sultan Dara Sha and many others gave precedence to Lord Mahaveera's teaching in their kingdoms. The inspiration for Koutilya's Artha Shasthra is the "Pancha Anuvrathas", three "Guna Vrathas", and four "Shiksha Vrathas" taught by Lord Mahaveera. Kings like Bindusara, Chandragupta Mourya and Ashoka planted trees along roads to give shade to humans and animals and also put up bird houses (called Chidiya Griha or Kabuthar Dham) to feed grains to birds. He also prevented overloading and torturing of beasts of carriage like donkeys, buffalo and horses. Influenced by Lord Mahaveera, kings of those days banned caging of animals and birds. Hunting was limited to scaring away cruel animals. It became compulsory in Jain religious functions to offer feast to the poor and followers of Jainism. When natural disasters struck, compassionate Jainism enjoined upon all to follow the principle of Live And Help Live. All have to adhere to this divine instruction of Live And Help Live. Our religion teaches that evil deeds cause downfall of the soul and good deeds uplift it. Through virtuous conduct and with Samadhi Demise or Sallekhana, souls can attain salvation. Therefore it is incumbent upon one and all to spread the universal message of Live and Help Live and to promote compassion for immobile beings like water, fire, air, the vegetable kingdom and earth, and for beings of one sense, two senses, three senses, four senses as well as five senses. In this direction the 16th biennial Jain Convention of Houston, Texas, is doing commendable job in promoting religious and cultural awakening.
Live and Help Live Lord Mahaveera opposed accumulation of wealth. Each person should keep only as much as necessary for him and give away surplus wealth to society. He called it "Parigraha Parimana Vratha" or "Aparigraha Vratha". The five sensibilities of Aparigraha Mahavratha are: There are unlimited things in the world. Some of them are pleasant and some, unpleasant. Pleasant things attract love and unpleasant things, hatred. It is because of love and hatred that people tend to own or disown things. Therefore in the matter of "Aparigraha Mahavratha" one must leave love which causes attraction to pleasant things and
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