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Jaina Acara: Siddhanta aura Svarupa
189
A proud person, in a huff, may leave his dear and near ones, but cannot forsake his pride.
A Vedic sage has written,-"The thousand-headed serpent bears the weight of the earth on its hood. It has a store of poison but is not proud of it, whereas a scorpion, if caught, cannot even free itself. With so little of poison, it keeps its sting raised. Likewise a wiseacre looks toward the sky. And yet people bend at the feet and never at the head of a venerable person.
Lord Mahavira said in answer to a question that a soft and sweet person is never arrogant. Augustine, when asked what the essential religion is said that humility is its first and last characteristic.
(3) Arjava It is straightforwardness. A hypocrite says one thing and does another. He appears different from what he is. He labours under the misconception that duplicity is the hallmark of success. But he should know that a wooden pot can hardly serve the purpose even once. Duplicity is sure to be exposed. Corruption is the order of the day but a corrupt person is never at ease with himself. He harbours many physical and mental ills. Tranquillity is not his lot.
There are persons who are good within and without. Some others are simple at heart but twisted in behaviour with others. Some others are hard inside but soft outside. Others, however, are perverted both within and without.
Persons of the second type appear hard outside but contain goodness within as guardians and teachers are for their wards and pupils respectively. They are like almonds.
Persons of the third type are really crooked but pose to be sweet-tongued. Kabira says that they are like a pomegranate. Its rottenness is not visible outside. Like invisible ghosts they are a source of trouble to others. Persons of the fourth type are crooked both inside and outside. Deceit can be defeated by straightforwardness and honesty which, by themselves annihilate Karma. A child is pure-hearted but as it grows, it acquires the ways of the world. A needle is straight, it joins but a pair of scissors is not and so it cuts a thing into two. It separates.
Our old moralists have averred that simple persons tend to be simpletons. Trees that go up straight are cut but not those which are curved. Politics and sociology may concur, but no religion will suffer crookedness. Be good. Understand the ways of the world but do not practise them. Do only what is right.
(4) Mukti - It is abstinence from greed and means purity of heart. He alone is free who is not bound by the chain of endless craving. The longing is not for money or property alone but also for name and fame.
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