Life of Shrimad Rajchandra

Page 7

MOKSHAMALA AND BHAVANABODH Shrimad Rajchandra had composed Mokshamala at the age of sixteen years and five months and it was completed within three days in Vikram Samvat 1943 or 1887 A.D. He wrote this book in an easy style understandable to young boys and girls with a view to turn their minds from trash readings to reading of good books by which they can obtain the invaluable results of Self-liberation. In the opening lesson he requests the reader to read the book with due care and consideration which it deserves as its goal is very high. While other books deal with worldly life, this book deals with Self-liberation. All religious readers have agreed in liberation as the goal of life and discrimination of the different natures of the soul and the body as the means to its realization. Hence, as a sound educationist interested in the lasting benefit of young minds he has offered this book to his readers. He suggests his reader to think of the inequalities of life and thereby to reflect all the good and bad deeds as causes of these inequalities. Human birth is the only stage opportune for a soul to think of and work for its salvation. If it is misused in doing other things, a golden opportunity is lost. Hence, with the intense desire to work for the spiritual salvation of all living beings, this book and such others are written by Shrimad Rajchandra. Those who write such books are called men of unqualified sympathy and compassion and they live for the benefit of other souls. The soul gets human birth as a result of many good deeds done in previous births and therefore it is very precious. If a man controls his mind he can attain Godhood. Shrimadji says, every word of Mokshamala has been properly considered and after much thought it has been composed. He holds that his readers should not be guided by his writings simply because they flow from his pen. Every reader should weigh the thoughts expressed and should develop the habit of discriminative thinking. The writer should stimulate the reader's thinking but not substitute it. These expressions indicate the high maturity and balanced views on education on the part of Shrimad Rajchandra and that too at a very early age. Though Mokshamala was composed in three days Shrimad Rajchandra found that it would take a long time to publish it. So, he composed a small book of 50 pages called Bhavana Bodh or the instructions to cultivate twelve sentients necessary for leading the life of non-attachment to the world; and gave this book to his readers in anticipation of the delay in publication of Mokshamala. The twelve sentiments to be cultivated are briefly as follows: 1. Everything in the world except the soul is transitory and subject to destruction. The soul alone, is, in its nature, eternal. 2. In the world none can protect a living being from death. Therefore the only shelter one should