Book Title: Jainism The Cosmic Vision
Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: UK Mahavir Foundation London

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Page 93
________________ Jainism : The Cosmic Vision his journey. On the way he remembered having lost a cowrie through carelessness. Moreover, he would have to get change for another rupee for want of a cowrie. But he had a purse of 999 rupees tied round his waist. It was not safe to return alone with the purse. He dug up the soil at a particular spot and buried the rupees there and returned to fetch the cowrie. He searched for the place where he had halted. He ransacked the place where he had his meal. At the place where he had drunk water, he put his hands into the mud, looking for the cowrie. But nowhere was the cowrie to be found. He ran back to the former place only to find that someone had meanwhile taken away the rupees that he had buried there. He lost both the cowrie and the nine hundred and ninty-nine rupees." Bhagwan Mahavira says that as the man lost nine hundred and ninety-nine rupees for the sake of a cowrie, so man loses his valuable soul for the sake of his desires. He loses the dignity of the soul for the sake of the body that is worth only a cowrie. Significance of Samvatsari In the propitiation days of the Paryushana-parva, we need to search the soul. Let the body which is worth a cowrie, along with the passions that inhabit it, be lost, but let us search the valuable soul. Paryushana is the festival (parva) when we should examine the soul, search the soul. Forgiveness is its culminating original incantation. The festival (parva) of penitance and spiritual love has came today for the soul roaming in the darkness of animosity and the fire of jealousy, with an evil desire for retaliation, on the festival Deepavali. We draw up the 76 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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