Jain Journal 1981 07

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

Page 44

36
He stopped in front of some, exchanged a few words, sometimes threw joke. He seemed to enjoy laughing and his laughter was infectious. He was followed by a small, handsome Indian woman, dressed in a sadi and displaying a red spot on her forehead-his wife, Pramoda.
JAIN JOURNAL
Guru sat on his chair and lapsed into silence, keeping eyes halfclosed. This took some time. Perhaps he was plunged into meditation or was thinking about what to say. Finally, he started, saying: "The day is beautiful. We are enjoying the rays of the sun. The month of May is so expressive, it revitalizes our forces, and is ideal for beautiful thoughts and good experiences. So it is the best day for the subject which will be considered: Live to love, and love to live."
Then he exposed this subject, using simple words and pausing from time to time to think over what to say. In the light of what he was saying, we have to understand the real scope of our life. Why do we live ? Only to carry the worries of the world? To copy others' doings? No, we live in order to love others. And we love in order to live, because without love, life is death.
He developed and deepened the subject, stressing that the attachment to and accumulation of material things add sorrow to our life rather than making it free and happy. Plunging into our intellectual power, being blindly guided by learned books do not fulfill what we need taking; they do not liberate us from the fears which pray upon us.
Books can guide us, but "a painting of the sun cannot warm us". We must, before anything else, understand and deepen ourselves, our relationship to our own life, and to others. Most people are like uncut diamonds the brilliance is there, but it is covered by rough, unpolished edges. Through meditation we may raise our awarness and discover who we really are; and then we will understand the purpose of life. This means, to quote a Jaina holy man, "to fulfill God in life". When one knows who he really is, he experiences the essence of being immortal, and realizes his inner qualities of peace, bliss and consciousness. Every atom of our being is replete with the supreme strength of joy; to release this strength constitutes the ultimate aim of life.
If one becomes dogmatic about one's own thought without respecting others, violence is the result. To be mentally, morally and physically non-violent, one must understand relativity; otherwise there is killing in the name of opinions and 'isms'. Everyone has the right to