Jinamanjari 2001 04 No 23

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

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passing, but there is no achievement (liberation)."3 This thinking is the same as the very first line of the poem we are discussing here. In this same article Śrīmad also states, "Even if you are happy, because you have a wife, children, family, wealth, etc., this happiness does contain some misery. Think about this, and start your day with this consideration."4. This idea has been again put forward by Śrīmad in the Amulya Tattva Vicāra. Another example of similar thinking can be observed in a piece of writing consisting of 125 handnotes (hasta nomdh). This small collection of 125 instructions named Bodhavacana was also written before Amulya Tattva Vicāra. Here, Śrīmad says in handnote No. 94: "Where did I come from? Where will I go? What bondages have I? How can these bondages be broken? How can I release myself? These sentences should be kept in memory".5 This line of thinking is same as in the Amulya Tattva Vicăra.
Śrīmad starts the poem by stating a fundamental point of Jain karma theory, that we have realised this beautiful human form only after the accumulation of meritorious deeds (punya). But then alas! Not a single turn of this endless cycle of rebirths has been reduced. It is believed in classical Jainism that human birth is only possible for those living beings who do good deeds or punya. This is the theory of cause and effect. On the one hand, one receives the reward for doing good deeds and, on the other hand, one receives the punishment for doing bad deeds. To be born as a human being is a result of good karmas. The price paid and the sufferings undergone by the soul for achieving the birth as a human being is immeasurable. This point has been explained by Śrimad to stress the importance of the value of human birth. In the first verse, he says, please bear in mind that real happiness is destroyed when he strives for the material happiness. Why live in astate of feelings of fear of death (bhāva-maraṇa), which arises due to the accumulation of karmas. Śrīmad emphasizes that we get an opportunity of utilising our abilities and to realise our own pure self only in the human birth. Therefore, we must put in every effort for perfect liberation of the self, i.e. to attain mokṣa. Śrīmad has suggested the same in lesson No. 4 of the Mokṣamālā. The whole lesson
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