Life of Shrimad Rajchandra

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 43

"If right receptivity thus arises, one would surely keep faith in the teaching of those, who have been liberated or who have been presently moving with the sense of liberation or in the state of self-realization.
"Looking to the styles of different schools of thought, it seems that the school of the disentangled propounded by those, who are free from craving, aversion and delusion, is more reliable....
“There are too many opinions prevailing at present within the Jain fold in the name of detached Lord. They are opinionated and cannot be termed as true so long as they do not prevail in tune with commands of the detached Lords. The following seem to me the main reasons for prevalence of those opinions.
1 Some people might have reduced the prominence of the disentangled state on account of their own slackness,
2 Disagreement between two Achäryas,
3 Rise of deluding Karma and behaving under its impact,
4 If the right way is seen after adopting the wrong approach, not to adopt the same on account of non-receptivity.
5 Shortage of intelligence,
6 Existence of more people, who behave in accordance with the indulgence of those for whom they have preference,
7 Hard times,
8 Decrease in scriptural knowledge.
"It is, of course, not possible that everyone would have the identical sense, would undertake research and go along the path commanded by the omniscient Lords. It is, however, possible that the best results can be arrived at, if the receptive persons consistently strive for that.
"In these hard times, those, who have been educated, do not seem to have any faith in religious matters. Those who have it due to their straightforwardness, do not have the knowledge about religion. If there happens someone with that knowledge, he would come across those, who would not be helpful but would function as obstacles in that area. Such is the state at present. It has thus been hard for the educated to get access to the religion.
"The uneducated have one natural trait, viz. we should resort to the religion, which has been accepted by our forefathers and only that can be the truth; similarly we should have faith only in the words of our guru and treat him as knowledgeable, though he might not be knowing even the names of scriptures; what we believe is the religion propounded by the detached Lords, all others prevailing under Jain labels are untrue' Such being their understanding, those poor people remain concerned with their creed. In a way, they are not at fault.
"It is obvious that the various opinions within the Jain fold relate to Jain oriented rituals. As such, those, who get initiated, remain involved in the rituals of their fold. Initiation also takes place out of naïveness or by being disgusted of a state identical to begging or by virtue of cemetery-prone detachment. You will hardly see an initiated person, who was inspired towards initiation by right instructions, and if you see one, he would be sick of the opinions and be earnestly resorting to commands of the detached Lords....