________________
DAS LAKSHAN DHARM
209
who give free scope to all the five senses. Eye always wishes to see the most beautiful sights. Ear wants to hear good songs. Nose wants to smell good scents. Tongue wants to eat all the delicious dishes and does not care even if the lives of others are taken away to satisfy its tastes. Hands and other parts of the body want to come into touch with all tender things of the world, and mind is so fast that in one second it travels over thousands of miles. So a man who becomes a slave to all these five senses and can not keep control over his mind is always after worldly things and becomes liable to commit sins by taking the lives of others to satisfy his own sense desires and goes far far away from liberation. A man desirous of obtaining liberation. should have control over his senses and mind and then only he will have peace of mind.
man a way
The seventh quality of soul is Tapa or penance, which becomes overcome by Moha (love). Without doing penance a man cannot get rid of previous karmas. Love of body, love of wealth, love of children, wife and other relations, love of all worldly things keeps a from doing penance. It requires great effort on the part of a man to resume this quality of soul, which has been destroyed by attachment towards all worldly things. One way to obtain this quality is to keep some leisure hours in the morning and evening and then go to some lonely place and think over the instability of worldly things and concentrate one's mind, and produce some inclination in his mind for dharm.
Though penance is the chief dharm of munis, the householders also should do some penance in order to purify their souls. As fire purifies the gold, so penance purifies the soul; it burns all the previous karmas (bad deeds), without getting rid of which one cannot obtain liberation. For householders it is sufficient, if they can do small penances, such as sometimes to take less food than one has appetite for, sometimes to take food once a day, sometimes to fast, sometimes to give up Rasa (such as ghee, oil, milk, etc.), to perform Sandhya, to read scriptures. etc., etc.
The eighth quality of soul is Tyag or giving up of worldly Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com