________________
infinite charity. That is why the detached Lords Jina are said to be infinitely charitable. When a rubber balloon is blown, as it expands in size its walls become thinner and thinner and when it is blown to the limit it explodes and disappears in the infinite space. Similarly, as the balloon of mercy and generosity expands to progressively take the family, the society, the town, the state, the country, the humanity of the world and the entire living set, the walls of delusion, selfishness, pettiness, desires, passions, etc., get thinner and thinner and when the flaws are completely destroyed, the quality of mercy manifests itself in the form of infinite charity, infinite generosity and infinite affection. Like this, the expansion of the virtues of kindness, compassion, etc., eats away the flaws of selfishness, desires, passions and pettiness and makes the aspirant flawless. What is meant here is that except in the fully detached omniscient Lords the flaws of sensory desires, passions, attachment-aversion, delusion, etc., are always present in lesser or greater measure.
During the spiritual practice phase of an aspirant some flaws are present along with the virtues. Out of these, the flaws are fully abandonable but not the virtues that are mixed with some flaws. The reason being that as much we overcome and abandon the flaws the virtues increase and when the flaws are fully abandoned, the virtues manifest themselves fully.
Before becoming fully detached, the partial virtues and partial flaws manifest in the attached living beings. Let us take the example of wheat with pebbles. Such wheat is uneatable but we do not abandon the wheat along with the pebbles. Only pebbles are discarded and wheat is saved for eating. Similarly, when virtues are mixed with flaws, it is the flaws that are to be discarded and not the virtues. When kindness is mixed with delusion it is the delusion that is to be discarded and not the quality of kindness. The objects of our mercy are also not to be discarded. The reason for not discarding the quality of mercy mixed with delusion is that the quality of mercy and generosity themselves, melt away the attachment and delusion. What discarding the flaws of
172
Positive Non-Violence
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
