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GREAT HYMN OF OBEISANCE: A CONTEMPLATION
talk of going to the shelter of 'para' (substances other than the soul), he talks about going to the shelter of one's own soul.
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In this Gatha (stanza), he proves logically the talk of going to the shelter of the soul. Prior to discussing this thing, I would like to draw your attention towards one important thing that is recited after the 'Great Hymn of Obeisance', which describes welfare (mangal), supreme (uttama) and shelter (sharan).
In the 'Great Hymn of Obeisance', all the five permeshtis (venerable souls) have been remembered, but while mentioning welfare supreme and shelter, Acharya and Upadhaya have been left out. Do you know, why this has been done?
For achieving liberation, it is essential to become monk, it is essential to be Arhant, it is also essential to be Siddha, because after all the attainment of Siddhahood is to achieve liberation, but it is not essential to become Acharya or Upadhaya for achieving liberation. This is the reason they have not been included in the discussion of welfare supreme and shelter.
Not only it is not necessary to have the status of Acharya for achieving liberation, it has been said to the extent that the Acharya cannot attain perfect knowledge (kewal jnana), till such time as he remains Acharya. His many disciple monks achieve perfect knowledge, but he does not. When he abandons the status of Acharya, becomes an ordinary monk and becomes introverted, then only he attains perfect knowledge.
Although it is true that Acharya and Upadhaya have been included in 'permeshti' in the category of all monks (sadhus), they have not been left out; but nonetheless they have been ignored and the only reason for ignoring them is the fact that the above mentioned status has no utility in achieving liberation.
Here a question is possible that instead of including Acharya and Upadhaya in monks, monks should have been included in Acharyas; because Acharya is older, he is the guru of monks, he is venerable even for them (monks). Therefore, there should have been a specific mention of Acharyas and monks should have been included amongst them.
GREAT HYMN OF OBEISANCE: A CONTEMPLATION
Oh Brother! Here the question is not who is older or younger. The thing is that Acharya permeshti is also monk permeshti, but monk permeshti is not Acharya. The purport is that Acharya permeshti possesses thirty-six basic virtues of his own, which include twenty-eight basic virtues of monks as well; but monks possess merely twenty-eight basic virtues, they do not possess thirty-six basic virtues of Acharyas.
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The fact is that an Acharya is both monk and Acharya at the same time, but the monk is mere monk; therefore, his inclusion in the status of Acharya is not possible.
If someone says that on the one hand you say that Acharyas and Upadyayas have not been included in welfare, supreme and shelter because these ranks are not necessary for acquiring liberation, these do not help, instead, these are hindrances and on the other hand it is said that they have been included in the status of monk. Are these not contradictory statements?
No, because this is the visualisation of various expectations, there is no contradiction in this. Besides, the other thing is that Acharyas have been included in the status of monk; this has been done because they do have the status of monk, not because of the status of Acharya.
Therefore, the important thing is that the ranks of Acharya and Upadhyaya have been ignored because these are unnecessary in the path to liberation.
What is surprising is that one gets consecrated etc. by Acharyas and Upadhyayas, one listens to their preaching, even then going to their shelter has been ignored and the shelter of those Siddha and monks has been desired who are unable to bestow any direct favour.
From this it is evident that the main objective is to show utmost importance to the liberation and the path to liberation, the meaning of 'going to the shelter' is not beyond this.
In liberation and the path to liberation, the ranks of Arhant, Siddha and monk are very much there but it is not essential to have the ranks of Acharya and Upadhyaya. The rank of Acharya concerns administration and the rank of Upadhyaya studies; both have burden on their heads. Till
