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Letter 3
15
Monks of the highest intellectual and spiritual order are called Ganadhara purure. By listening to Divyadhvani they transcribe it into twelve scriptures. In the beginning they are taught and remembered by word of mouth only. They are passed on to different monks from one generation to another only by oral recitation and memory. Then they were written down in the form of different texts or volumes by many great Monks. Some of these volumes which we study today are about 2000 years old.
Our ancestors have been very kind to us to preserve them and make available for us. Formerly they were manuscripts and now with the advent of printing facility they are available to all of us everywhere.
Ishwar, Monks and Scriptures (aa, T6, PIRT) are no doubt respectable. Because through them we know the truth about the religion and Cosmos.
Arihant, Siddha and Monks are called Loguttama Fiyat or the supreme entities in the universe, they are also called benefactors i.e. Mangal 16. Arihant and Siddha have reached this stage of being supreme, pious and benefactor because they are devoid of passions i.e. they are Veetaragi and along with that they are Sarvadnya too at the same time.
We always bow and go to them for shelter; but whose shelter did they take ? They took refuge in their own pure self which is Veetaragi and Sarvadnya.
We go to them to follow their path and consider them to be our ideals. And not just to worship them as Idols; in other words not just to follow them blindly and to keep on praying and worshipping them. But we have to bear in mind that each one of us is capable of attaining the status of Arihant and Siddha. And it is our aim to follow the monks and Arihant and practice whatever they have themselves practised to achieve that status.
In real life we usually see that a businessman always keeps his servants happy by paying and treating them well. But he will never tell them the tricks of trade by which they themselves can become good businessmen. But the greatness and uniqueness of the preachings of Arihant is that they have clearly shown us the path of salvation so that we can head upon it and become like them.
Just as the graduation degree can never be acquired by just praising the professors for their knowledge and by bowing before them and running around them. But we have to learn and perform experiments and practicals under their guidance to achieve knowledge.
