Jaina Acara Siddhanta aur Svarupa

Author(s): Devendramuni
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 45

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Jaina Acara : Siddhanta aura Swarüpa so much as to foul them. The sun shines bright but when clouds cover it, its shine is dimmed. Our self is luminous, but it is encrusted with evil propensities. It cannot see itself. The Self, in its original state, is immaculate but passions make it look dirty. If we will, we can remove alt obstructions but this we cannot do with an impure and dirty mind. A beggar lives on the mercy of others. He is ignorant of the power within. Let us realise what we are and what we can be. We are in the state of becoming. We become happy or unhappy. Let us be in the state of being. Why hesitate in being guided by right faith, mind you, not a blind one. Faith should be the outcome of our right knowledge. Let us manifest the power that is within. Such manifestation alone is the right faith. A tiny seed blooms forth into a big tree with the help of the right soil, timely rain and care-all together. We have to improve ourselves not every day but every minute. Let us be resolute but not self-willed. Umāsvāti says that the right faith is nothing but the right perception of elements. Some say they are nine, others seven and still others two. Truly speaking they are two: Self and Matter.
Merits, demerits, passion and bondage are in the category of matter. Prevention of the influx of Karma, and stoppage of their inlet as also liberation readily fall in the category of spirit. The conscious and the inert are the two elements. There are innumerable space points of the self. Each one of them is beset with Karma particles which are all unconscious. Because of such enveloping particles, there can be no self-realization. A piece of crystal adopts the colour of the rose when placed beside it. The self is like the pure crystal but because of the Karmic particles its image does not come out distinct. It is necessarily dimmed as a result of which a man confuses between the animate and the inanimate. Without discrimination, it is impossible to reach the goal. The self is different from the body, different from all senses and mind, different from all that is inert. Matter, though eternal, cannot vitiate the soul, unless the soul likes to be enmeshed in it. To know the difference between the two is right knowledge, and to separate the modificattions of matter from the self is right conduct.
In arithmetic there are figures as also a zero. A zero without a figure or figures is valueless. The two together acquire Value-great value indeed-but only in unison. Right faith is the figure whereas right conduct is zero. Bereft of right faith, one is like the blind man who knows how to walk but knows not his destinaion. Without a clear aim in life, man's attempts would be directionless.
. Right faith means right vision. Self-confidence, faith, trust and fidelity are its ingredients. Without realising the self, it is aimless wandering in the undiscovered caves of fallacious reasoning. A businessman goes out but only to return home. The self is tempted hither and thither, but feels distracted till it is conscious of its own abode. He who knows his own self