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Jaina Acara : Siddhanta aura Swarupa
127
asked for an umbrella, flapper etc. Srikrsna said that he would do it all himself. He made him seated in a palanquin which could be lifted but by a thousand persons and participated in the grand function gleefully.
Before they were initiated, they were grilled to see whether their detachment was just like the colour of turmeric which does not last long and disappears in the sun. They were told about the hardships of ascetic life. How dull and dry like sand! You may walk on the naked sword, you may chew iron grams with waxen teeth; you may even weigh Meru mountain on a weighing scale, but the path of self-discipline is all thorny without any roses blooming. They are to eat, but not relish food by turning morsels to either jaw. Acārānga, Dasavaikālika etc. have dilated on trials and tribulations faced in the ascetic life. A bachelor novice is tempted by offers of numerous beautiful girls. As such, he should better renounce the world in his old age. A married person is asked to wait till a son is born. The wife entices him by all kinds of persuasions. The parents offer him a throne, saying that he is the king and they his subjects. The test is always hard and exacting, but none condemns asceticism as such. Everybody takes it to be the ideal, but alas! it is within the reach of but a few, because the world is too much with most of them.
When all but one member of the family are going to be initiated, when all but one have died in a plague epidemic or the like, when some boy is under the tutelage of a well-meaning righteous householder, when there is an illegitimate child, when the expectation is that the initiation of some boys will redound to the credit and glory of the Order, even such children may be initiated without any hitch.
To discover atoms, to invent things may be feats in the scientific sphere, but all this is physical and external. Man is not mere body. This is why bread and butter satisfies some of his physical needs no doubt, but his appetite is for higher things. It is because he is a rational. discriminating being. There are many kinds of beings, moving and non-moving,from one-sensed to the developed man. But if man demeans himself to the level of quadrupeds, if his thinking be perverted, his belief distorted, his conduct unbelieving, his behaviour obnoxious, his overbearing nature, his egoism, his false pride, his covetousness, his passions, he can never be free from the cycle of births and never at the same time attain peace of mind. Initiation is a step in the right direction. It is no guarantee of release from the world and it is no accomplishment. All the same if he should ever be cautious in all walks of life, if his faith, knowledge and conduct be right, there is every hope of his being liberated. Initiation is not the goal, but the bright beginning of fresh pastures, evergreen and new.
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