Jinamanjari 2001 04 No 23

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

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disciples devotion and surrender to the sadguru is the upādana kāraṇa, or principal cause, for his self-realization.
7. If we survey different stages of Śrīmad's life, we find that though there is a great influence of non-Jain schools of philosophy and religion, such as Vedanta and Vaiṣṇavism, he ultimately sticks to Jainism. However, he discovers the common philosophy of atma dharma and the spiritualism of ātma siddhi which may be termed as the common meeting ground of all the ātmavādin aspirants. Śrīmad propounds his philosophy of atma dharma ātma siddhi mainly in his marvellous work Ātmasiddhi, which is a unique and immortal contribution to human civilization.
8. Rājacandra identifies the ātman with the sadguru and briefly defines the principal characteristics of the sadguru, ku-guru, kriyājaḍa, śuṣka _jñāna, ātmārthī, matārthī etc. at various stages of his work, but mainly in the Atmasiddhi. Since we have discussed these matters in detail in the main body of this article, we need not repeat them here.
9. Śrīmad's concept of upadesa bodha and siddhānta bodha seems to be a specific device invented by him to accommodate non-Jain religious literature in the former category and Jainism in the latter one. This illustrates his firm faith in Jainism and his catholic attitude towards non-Jain philosophies and religions such as Vedānta or Vaisnavism.
10. Last but not least, we seriously contend that Śrīmad was caught in a paradoxical situation. There was a conflict in his mind regarding his role as a reformer of Jainism. Sometimes his spirit was so high that he declared himself to be the second Mahāvīra. But he was always aware of his externally low religious status as a householder and sincerely believed that unless he becomes a monk, he should not publicly assume the role of a master and vigorously propagate Jainism as laid down by Tirthankaras such as Mahāvīra. The conflict between this external state as householder and his internal stage of a renouncer remained up to the end of his life.
We sincerely feel that Śrīmad Rajacandra should have cast aside the Jain dogma that only a monk can be a sadguru. There are many examples of past and present sadgurus who
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