Lord Mahavira and His Teachings

Author(s): Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 85

Lord Mahavira and His Teachings
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shashtra which, daily reflected upon after the dawn prayer, will prove helpful :
"In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self, and should therefore refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves.”
But a philosophical principle is essential. How can one, even one born in a Jaina family, accept and practise these ideas if his heart's faith and his mind's inclinations are wrong? Every Jaina by birth and all who follow the Jaina Discipline should perceive this :
"Right belief is conviction in one's own self. Knowledge is a Knowledge of one's own self. Right conduct is by absorption in one's own
self. How can there be bondage then?"
This creates and confirms self-confidence and without self-confidence we are slaves. Mortals can be divided into two groups: those who are capable of acting with a sense of responsibility to the Self within and then those who rely on others; the former are masters, the latter, slaves of life. Says the Acharanga Sutra:
"Man! Thou art thine own friend. Why wish for a friend beyond?”
But mortals are weak; their past Karma hangs round their necks as a chain which eats into the flesh;