Laghurajswami Biography

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 22

comprehended to the extent the thinking power and the purity of character arise.
"You may manifest such an accomplishment that you can innately stay within Self, and we can cross over by resorting to your shelter.
During that monsoon Ambälälbhäi happened to go to Karmälä. Shwetambars, Digambars and Sthänakwäsis in that place had been gripped with conflict and tussle against one another for thirty years. Lallujiswämi had helped in removing the same and setting up unity among them.
While moving in the South at the end of monsoon Lalujiswämi stayed for some time at Ghornadi village. One woman as well as her daughter belonging to that village had become Sthänakwäsi nuns. She had passed the monsoon in the village along with other nuns, and had continued to stay there because of her illness. The nuns had written to the monks of their sect about her acute illness and had sought their advice for her undertaking fast unto death. Having reverence for the Khambhät branch and knowing that Lallujiswämi had been at the place, those monks had asked the nuns to act as per his advice.
On the very day the nuns received the advice, the illness of the nun reached the climax and she became unconscious. Thinking that she would not survive, the principal nun administered to her the vow of renouncing all the four types of food and drinks and by reciting the relevant Sutra she was put to fast unto death. Dying without such fast was considered disgraceful in that fold. However, as the night passed and it was time for dawn, the nun started regaining consciousness. In the morning she asked for water. The principal nun was nonplussed; how could she give water after administering the vow of renouncing all types of intake? With utter confusion in mind she went to the place where Lallujiswämi had put up and told him everything. She also said what the monks of the sect had suggested, but ‘it was not possible to come here at night and in view of her impeding death I have administered to her the vow of fast unto death. Now what to do? I am in a dilemma; please show the way out.
Lallujiswämi calmed her and went to the nuns' Upåshray. All the nuns showed respect to him. Then he said to the sick nun, "There is no reason to feel perturbed. You can freely take the food or drink that you need."
Nun: No sir, they have administered the vow to me; I cannot, however, do without water.
Lalluji: The vow administered to you without your seeking is ill conceived; that is not the true vow. If you think it sinful to beak that vow, I am undertaking the sin over my head. Now don't consider it objectionable to take pure food and water that you may feel inclined to have.
Everyone was amazed to hear that. The sick nun said, "I want to renounce all intakes except water. Please do something blissful at the time of my death."
In view of her request for death in quietude Lallujiswämi regularly used to go to the Upäshray and talk to her about the words of saintly beings. He used to give the instructions that she could make out. The listeners found those talks very tough, but no one dared to speak out under the ascetic force of the great man. Later, Lallujiswämi used to describe that event in an interesting but detachment-oriented mode. His instructions to her were:
"Soul is different from the body, you are not the body, you are not afflicted by this disease, you are neither old nor young, neither a lay woman, nor a nun, neither a pupil nor the head. You are pure, enlightened, conscious soul. These are not your clothes, not your books, not your articles, not your settee; you are not the daughter, nor the chief. Even this body does not belong to you. Renounce everything. By resorting to contemplation and detachment one needs to be free from every aspect to which the soul is entangled. It is not worth getting attached to or having affection for anything in the entire universe. It is necessary to resort to objectivity forever. Try to see the soul while walking, sitting, rising, speaking, sleeping, getting up, in every condition. In absence of soul one cannot move, walk, speak, think or experience happiness or misery. We know everything in the presence of soul. As such, do not keep anything in the mind except the soul; do not hold sense of belonging for anything else, if there be any such sense, give it up
"The soul has come alone and is going to leave alone. Neither can one take over another's pain nor can he make one happy. Similarly no one can bear the consequences of our Karma; we have to bear the same. Why should we then