Life of Shrimad Rajchandra

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 67

"Every soul is godly, there is no doubt about it. As such, if Devkaranji thinks himself as godly, that is not wrong. But so long as the godly state does not accurately manifest, it is better to remain a liberation-seeker, a knowledge-seeker. The true godliness manifests that way. One cannot get the idea of that state by forsaking the right path and he merely happens to behave disrespectful to the omniscient Lords. There is no other problem."
“Death is surely going to overtake us."
Under these circumstances one is saved by the grace of Guru, if he has one. Otherwise he cannot look to his own faults and thinking them as merits, he remains unconcerned.
In the company of Lallujiswämi, Devkaranji used to meditate, turn rosary-beeds and give discourses. After his discourse the people used to come to Lallujiswami and say that Devkaranji gave a very good sermon. But when Devkaranji came down, Lallujiswami used to say that he had indulged in more arrogance that day, after meditation Lallujiswami would point out that he had indulged in fancy. Devkaranji would not respond, but he had made up his mind to talk about it to Shrimad, when he came to Surat.
As Shrimad came to Surat, he went to the monks. That time Devkaranji said, "When I come back from a sermon, Lallujiswami says that I indulged in arrogance; if I meditate, he terms it fancy. Are the omniscient Lords partial to admit what he does and not mine?"
Shrimad (peacefully): "Whatever is done with self-indulgence is arrogance, it's a foul; whatever is done as per commands of true Guru is blissful, is true in religious sense."
After the monsoon, the monks had stayed in Kathor for some time and Lallujiswämi had observed 17 days' fast there in 1895. Once Shrimad had been there and stayed on the upper floor of Upäshray. While going there Lallujiswami told Devkaranji that if he wanted to seek selfrealization, he should resort to reverence, obeisance etc. The latter said that he would do so if only two of them went upstairs. So they went up keeping Chaturläl Muni downstairs and sat down after observing reverence, obeisance etc. Shrimad satisfied them with appropriate instructions.
Meanwhile Chaturläl Muni became keen to see what was going on upstairs. As he climbed a few steps for that purpose and peeped up, he noticed that both the monks were bowing. He instantly got down with the idea to disclose it in Khambhät. After a while Devkaranji came down and Lallujiswämi stayed up. Shrimad asked him, "How come! Devkaranji came up and the other monk did not?" Lallujiswämi: "He has a little adverse tendency, so we did not bring him here." Thereafter Shrimad went down and sitting by the side of Chaturlälji he said, "Muni, for us, you are at par with those two monks; we have equanimity for all; if you can properly observe five Samities (meticulous care while undertaking any activity) and three Gupties (controlling the physical, vocal and mental faculties), that is the essence of 14 Poorvas (very sacred ancient scriptures)." By that much contact, Chaturlälji's tendency took a turn. His wrong approach was gone and he got faith in Shrimad. The next day Shrimad went to Bombay and the monks went back to Surat for monsoon. Lallubhäi, a jeweler of Surat was ill for 10/12 months; Lallujiswami also was having fever since that long. No medication worked and the disease grew. As Lallubhai died thereby, Lallujiswami also felt that he might pass away. So he wrote letters after letters to Shrimad and requested, "Lord, this body is now not likely to survive, if I leave without right perception, my human life would go in vain; so please endow me with the right perception." In reply Shrimad wrote with utmost grace the Letter of Six Fundamentals and said that it was not worth being afraid of death. When he came to Surat, he dealt with the contents of that letter at length and explained its significance to Lallujiswämi. He also recommended for memorizing and repeatedly pondering over it. The letter is like a small independent composition written in the form of aphorisms. The elaboration of seven (or nine) fundamental aspects can lead to the entire Jain scriptural knowledge, and Tattvärthasutra and other major books have been written for explaining those