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Letter 7
49
You will gain a lot by doing this exercise. The greatest advantage of learning the Swachatushtaya is that it directly thrashes on our habit of taking the credit of doing things, it points out the futility of the egoistic feeling of doing all the things in the world. In short it frees us from the idea that I am the doer or the cause of things that happen.
The Swachatushtaya of each substance is different from all the others. And no substance at any time can leave behind one's own Chatushtaya nor can it enter into the Chatushtaya of any other substance. So the different manifestations of any substance at any time are happning within that substance itself, without any help or disturbance from any other substance. Thus each substance is so to say, an impregnable castle which cannot be disturbed by any other substance.
So to take the example of paper, ink and the person writing. The manifestation of the ink in the form of letters written on the paper is its own and the feeling of the person that he is the ( writer) Karta gat or the cause of the good or bad writing is false.
The study of nature of substance i.e. Dravya, attributes i.e. Guna and manifestations i.e. Paryay is a very interesting subject.
Actually the exact true deep meanings of entire Jain scriptures and Jain philosophy can be understood satisfactorily, through the application of these principles. They form the basis of all the contents in the scriptures. Thus, the nature of the substance, attributes, and manifestations are the basic foundation of all Jain principles.
The application of these principles is similar to solving riders and riddles in geometry. We enjoy solving them only when one is well versed with the theorems. Similarly when we apply the principles and then read the scriptures, we will really enjoy them.
If you want to enjoy the theme and story of a novel, then it is very essential to know thoroughly the language of the novel.
Similarly to know and enjoy the interesting subject like Jain philosophy, first of all we have to learn well these basic theorems or principles. All the further principles are based on and can be proved by these basic theorems. One principle is logically proved by or derived from the earlier principle.
To tell you the truth, as a student there is always a challenge to your intellect. We are all the time leaming new things and grasping and mastering them. While one is busy in one's own profession or business one's intellectual reasoning and analytical faculty gets sluggish or rusted. One utilises a very minute part of one's intellect. And rest is wasted in improving one's own status and earning more and more wealth. And yet one is never really satisfied or happy.
