________________
“My disease did not go down by affection, medication, grief or endeavor of anyone and I continually underwent the unbearable pain. As such, I got disaffected with worldly life and made up my mind that if I got relieved of the excruciating pain, I would adopt the forgiving and restrained life, free from the worldly activities. With that decision I went to sleep. When the night was over, my pain was gone and I was free from the disease. Hence in the morning I secured the permission of my parents, brothers and other relatives, and adopted the highly forgiving and sense-restraining monastic life free from worldly worries and involvement."
Lesson 7: Anäthi Muni, Part 3
Continuing his talk the ascetic said, "Oh king, thereby I became the Master of my soul as well as of others. In a way I am now the Master of all living beings. The questions that had arisen to you might have now been solved. Everyone in the world, inclusive of the sovereign rulers, is actually helpless. Wherever there is worry, there happens to be helplessness. As such, contemplate over what I have said. Make sure that our soul itself becomes subject to miseries of Vaitarani (The river with highly hurting water) and terrible Shälmali (Very thorny) tree. The soul is also capable to gain the happiness available from Kämdhenu (The desire-yielding cow); it is pleasurable like the Garden of Eden; it is the acquirer as well as the eradicator of Karma. Our soul itself leads to happiness or unhappiness; it works as a friend or a foe. The soul itself stays with good character or a bad one."
Anäthi Muni thus extended soul-oriented teaching to the king. Shrenik was gratified thereby. He said with folded hands, "Sir, you have given me the right insight; you have correctly presented the concept of helplessness. Your holiness, you are the brotherly resort and truly imbibed with religion: you constitute the 'Help' for the helpless. Holy one, I beg you to forgive me; I have been enlightened by your teaching. Graceful one, I beg with my bent head to be forgiven for my invitation to avail the worldly pleasure that comes in the way of religious orientation." Thus adoring and courteously going round the ascetic, the lionlike king Shrenik went home.
The teaching of Anäthi Muni to Shrenik, the king of Magadh effectively depicts the concept of helplessness. The ascetic was disentangled and enlightened; he was reputed as a great ascetic and an observer of penance. The amazing and worth pondering over fact is that we see the infinite number of people undergoing that much or even much more pain than what the great ascetic had undergone! In the worldly life there prevails infinite shelterlessness and helplessness. That can be averted only by resorting to true enlightenment and high character. That itself leads to liberation. As Anäthi Muni was helpless in the worldly life, every being stays helpless in absence of true enlightenment. In order to be one's own Master it is necessary to know true Godliness, true Guru and true religion.
Lesson 8: True Godliness
True Godliness, true Guru and true religion constitute the basic trio that we should know about. So long as there is ignorance about that, it is not possible to get the spiritual beneficence. In this lesson I want to talk about true godliness.
The sacred books of disentangled Lords define those as Godly, who have attained omni-perception and omniscience, who have consumed Karmas by resorting to very acute austerities. They have achieved pure meditation which is brighter than the moon and whiter than a conch. Though they had been sovereign rulers or the royal princes, they gave up the same treating the worldly life as the abode of infinite misery. They overcame the trio of affliction (mental affliction, disease and worries) by resorting to compassion, peace, detachment and spiritual wealth.
