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eradication of Karma can be achieved by austerities. Lord Mahavir resorted to that in order to destroy his bondage of Karma and he ultimately attained the omniscience thereby.
Do we, however, examine whether any degree of Nirjarä has been gained by our austerities? Not only we do not ask that question to ourselves, but if some one asks us, our reply would be; "How do I know that? It is written in the scriptures that Nirjarä can be gained by austerities and as such, I must have gained it!' It is hard to understand how can we afford to remain so vague about the outcome of austerities observed by us. Does it not show callousness? We do not adopt such callousness in our routine life. If we work for some one, we insist on being paid; if we fill up the gas tank for $ 15.71, while presenting the bill of $ 20, we make sure that we get back $4.29; if we lend some amount, we insist on the principal being repaid together with the interest; if we buy some thing, we make sure that we get in proportion to what we spend.
Thus, we do not remain callous in the worldly life and stay vigilant that we do not lose in any of our transactions. Then, why do we harbor callousness in the spiritual field, where vigilance is of the utmost importance? Is it not amazing that we are guided by the faint notion of getting some indefinable benefit and resort to long or short fast without keeping in view the purpose of Nirjarä? How is it justifiable to contend that we do not know the result of the austerities that we have observed? If we had observed it with a view to gain Nirjarä, we must have achieved some definable degree of Nirjarä.
Unfortunately, such callousness is not restricted to the austerities. Most of the religious activities are undertaken without knowing the purpose and we do not even care to know the reason for anything that we might be doing in the name of religion. We are naive enough to believe that whatever has been laid down, must be right. Let me make this clear by giving an illustration. Lord Parshwanath's birth day is on the 10th day of the dark half of the month of Posh and that is known as Poshdashami. Actually, however, we celebrate it on the 10th day of the dark half of Märgashirsh and call it Poshdashami. No one tries to inquire, why Poshdashami is observed in the month of Märgashirsh.
This apparent anomaly occurs on account of change in reckoning of months. In ancient times, months used to be reckoned as starting from the dark half and ending with the full moon. The month of Märgashirsh therefore used to terminate on the full moon day and its dark half was reckoned as the part of the next month. The 10th day of that dark half was reckoned as the tenth day of the month of Posh and that is actually the birth day of Lord Parshwanath. Poshdashami thus actually occurs in the present month of Margashirsh and is rightly celebrated as such.
Coming back to the concept of Nirjarä, if it has been gained as a result of the austerities, we can surely know about that. We should be experiencing the reduction in the defiling instincts.
18/JAIN DIGEST. WINTER 1999
Jain Education International 2010_02
The sense of ego, anger, arrogance, deceit, greediness etc. should have come down. How can we remain unaware of such vital changes? Such benefits are not noticeable, because they are not our objective. We do not have the correct insight for undertaking the austerities. That is the missing link of our religious activities. We simply undertake them without the insight. For instance, we pray or worship with a notion that the omniscient Lords would favor us by giving the right perception or some miracle would happen and the right insight would be dawned to us.
The most common concept is that by undertaking the religious activities, we would earn Punya. We would, thereby, get the favorable situations, when we would be endowed with the insight. It is true that the wholesome Karma would lead to more favorable situations, but no situation can automatically lead to the insight. As a matter of fact, more comfortable situation may also give rise to vanity, haughtiness, infatuation etc. which can lead to the unwholesome Karma. Only the right insight can save us from such predicament. It is therefore necessary to have the insight while undertaking any religious activity. That can be done by remaining conscious of what we are doing and why we are doing.
Our activities are usually governed by our tendencies. Such tendencies can be divided in two main groups, a) those leading towards the self realization and b) those that tend to perpetuate the worldly life. Anger, ego, arrogance etc. come within the purview of the second category. We need to fight against such tendencies and try to overcome the same. That can be done by observing the austerities. But unless we are conscious of our wrong tendencies, how can we overcome them?
It might have been noticed that many observers of austerities indulge in anger. The people generally take for granted that anger may arise on account of observance of austerities. But that is fundamentally against the purpose for which austerities are to be undertaken. They are actually meant for overcoming the defilements. If the observer therefore remains prone to get mad or harbors anger or any other defilement, he misses the very purpose of undertaking the austerities.
It is also seen that the observer may feel proud of his austerities. He would think that he can observe the austerities which very few people can. He would expect respect from others and the people usually do that by saying that so and so is a great observer of austerities. That nourishes his ego. As such, if some one does not acknowledge his greatness, the observer might get haughty and may even behave with that person arrogantly. Such indulgence underscores the fact that the austerities are undertaken without the purpose of overcoming the defilement.
Such undesirable instincts occur mainly because austerities and other religious activities are undertaken with the belief that those activities would lead to Punya. But the concept of Punya (Continued on Page 19)
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