Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: World Jain Confederation

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momento The Occult Law of Sacrifice for the gratification of the sense. And looking around us today we shall find that the majority of human beings are in that category
Few are the men and women whose life and conduct are purely based on altruistic motives; rare are the people in whom the thought of the little self does not control some of their acts and movements. Persons, who have devoted their whole life to the service of humanity, aye, to the good of all living beings, are few and far between. And still the majority of human beings in whom the lower nature is more powerful can by degrees be elevated to a higher plane, where they can be taught to look upon life as a field for the performance of duty and not as an arena for self-gratification. This idea can be introduced in all departments of life. Just analyze the mental condition of the person who works for his own gratification.
For everything that he does he wants a reward. He wants a reward because there are still within him many desires controlling his very being. He has not yet mastered his lower nature; at times he becomes its slave. Now, in order to liberate him from his slavish condition, the wise men of the East prescribed certain rules for man. He was asked to do certain things, not hoping to reap fruit there from but in order simply to perform certain duties that he owed to the world.
In this way step by step he can free himself from the shackles of animal desires and learn the truths of a higher degree. One of those rules was that he should perform every day five sacrifices. The first sacrifice was to the Devas, the shining powers and intelligences of the upper world. Everything that gives nourishment to the human body is by correspondence related to the subtle energies of other worlds is in fact fed and nourished by those energies. Man is therefore under obligation to those forces and if he receives so much from them, let him give something in return,
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