Mokshamala

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 40

Lesson 50: Indolence
Disregard for religion, infatuation, idling and defilement constitute indolence. In Uttarädhyayan Sutra the Lord says to Gautamswämi, 'Oh Gautam, the human life is like a drop of water on a fig leaf; as the water drops in no time, the human life also soon comes to the end.' It is worth bearing in mind the fourth line of that stanza, which states, 'Samayam Goyam Mă Pamäe'. It means that one should not indulge in indolence when he gets the right occasion. Alternately it means that one should not idle away even for a Samay, which is the infinitesimal part of the time required in a wink. The body is destructible; the hunter in the form of death is standing with arrow on the bow and is going to hurl it any moment. One would thus miss what he needs to do by indulging in indolence.
Very smart people therefore give up all worldly worries and vigilantly stay with religion day and night; they do not stay indolent even for a moment. Ordinary smart ones spend at least some part of the day in religious activity and stay with it on certain occasions. The foolish people, however, spend the life in sleep, food, worldly talks and various types of enjoyment; consequently they get destined to the lower state of existence.
It is therefore necessary to resort to religion vigilantly and diligently. Out of 60 Ghadies (of 24 minutes each) of a day we use up 20 Ghadies in sleeping and spend the rest in fretting, roaming and vain talks. How nice would it be, if we spend at least a couple of Ghadies in religious activities instead of whiling away all those 60 Ghadies? Every moment is valuable; even a sovereign ruler cannot get one single moment in return for all his wealth. From the philosophical point of view therefore losing a moment is as good as losing the entire life.
Lesson 51: True discernment
Pupils: Sir, You have been repeatedly telling us that discernment (Vivek) is very beneficial, that it is the lamp for recognizing the soul in the midst of darkness, that religion rests on the foundation of discernment, and that there is no religion in absence of discernment. Please explain what you mean by discernment.
Guru: Young friends, discernment consists of correctly understanding the truth and untruth.
Pupils: Everyone considers truth as true and falsehood as false. As such, can they be considered to have gained the fundamental of religion?
Guru: Will you clarify your point with an illustration?
Pupils: We call bitterness as bitter and sweetness as sweet; we term ambrosia as ambrosial and poison as poisonous.
Guru: My boys, those are the material objects; how can they help in making out the abstract concepts and figure out what is bitter or sweet to soul, what is poisonous and ambrosial to it?
Pupils: We have never thought over that part.
Guru: What needs to be understood is that true nature of soul consists of right knowledge and perception that has been obscured by ignorance and wrong perception. They have been so mixed up that it has become very hard to differentiate them. The soul has availed of worldly happiness on infinite occasions, but it has not come out of the delusion relating to it and still considers it ambrosial. That shows its indiscretion, because the worldly life is bitter and leads to bitter outcome. Now detachment is the medication for that