Jain Journal 1968 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 10

OCTOBER, 1968
55
was called upon to join business pretty early. So he could acquire further knowledge only by reading himself at leisure. And even when he was in business, he would keep some loose papers by his side so that whenever some thought pressed in him, he would put it down on paper. Much of his writing has emanated in this manner. When he was sixteen, a collection of such writings resulted in a small work, Puşpamālā. This
followed within a few months by Mokşamālā Bālāvobodha and in his eighteenth year he wrote Bhāvanābodha. At the age of twentyeight he produced Paramapada-prāpti-ki Bhāvanā which is a long poem of extraordinary beauty. His occasional discourses are contained in Upadeśachāyā, Vyākhyānasāra and Praśna-samādhāna. His Pañcāstikāya Samayasāra is a translation of Acarya Kundakunda's work entitled Pañcāstikāya. But the acme of his spiritual outburst was attained in Ātmasiddhi, which, within a nutshell, so to say, gives the gist of all philosophy. Needless to add, all these are strictly in Jaina line. He did not take much time to break away from the Vaişņava rituals; these failed to satisfy him. And soon he got in the Jaina notion of compassion what he sought for liberation. These are his own words:
koi kriyājad thai rahyā śuskajñān ma koi mane mārag moksno karunā upje joi
Some are entangled in barren rituals, others stuck in knowledge dry. And in these they view a road to liberation. I have pity for these.
The most crucial philosophy of Rajchandra is contained in the following verse from Atmasiddhi :
ātmā che te nitya che che kartā nij karam che bhoktā bali moks che moks upāy sudharam
1. ātmā che- The Soul exists.
2. te nitya che-It is eternal.
3. che kartā nij karam-The Soul in its pure conscious state is the creator of its own inherent characteristics of knowledge, perception and equanimity. But in the state of its ignorance, the Soul becomes a creator of emotions like anger, conceit, deceit, and greed. Not only that, under the influence of these emotions, it becomes a creator of things like