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JON
SOTTO
45. Adversity Maketh the Man
n Vikram Samvat 1947 Shrimad attained Samyag Darshan, his first glimpse of the immortal soul. In his inner world, he experienced the bliss associated with great stillness of the mind. However, in his outer life, instead of stillness, there was a storm. Shrimad says:
Then arose the fruit of past Karmas, increasing my worldly ties. With every effort to push them away, they just continued to arise.
How blessed the day is today! When he was 24, his karmas assumed a vicious form: His business activities became very demanding. There begun an intense conflict between the spiritual needs of the soul and the practical needs of the world. It was an irony that one such as Shrimad, who was so indifferent to worldly matters, was compelled to devote most of his time to them. Despite these obstacles, Shrimad remained firm in his spiritual pursuits, with his inner peace intact. It is such outer difficulties which truly test the inner state.
He describes his mental state at that time:
"Mental stillness with inner bliss are not disturbed even for a moment and yet for several years we have continued these distracting external activities unabated....it is almost impossible to maintain equanimity when encumbered by an unceasing flow of external activities arising from all directions ... only an Enlightened being can maintain such a state. Even we are surprised ! However, that state is maintained and that is our experience. The mental stillness that we are experiencing is from being absorbed in the soul. As we have no other worldly aspirations, the stillness required to realise the nature of the soul, is almost always with us."
Neither the wise nor the foolish' are without happiness and pain
But the wise endure them calmly, while fools' cry again and again. In his state of Samyag Darshan, Shrimad remained calm and serene, experiencing his soul unencumbered. He had attained the perfectly blissful state 'One counts liberation and sansar (worldly existence) as the same,' as described by Yogi Anandghanji. In the ecstasy of experiencing the bliss of the Soul, he exclaims:
"I have found the right path, all my doubts have been dispelled; Whatever was there has been burnt, I have separated from this body in which I dwell."
Shrimad decided that he should not preach publicly until he, himself, had renounced the world. He said, "Only if one has fully withdrawn from worldly activities can one think of how to preach others. Then one ought to renounce the world totally, and only then encourage others to do so. This is the tradition of all the great souls."
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