Reflection on the Life of Mahavira

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Z_Anandrushi_Abhinandan_Granth_012013.pdf

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46 Dr. J. C. Sikdar i. e., not to expect fruit of action. Worship and meditation are not to be made for becoming lokamañya (to be respected by the people) nor for merit (punya). Mahāvīra practised austerities and meditation for not becoming celebrated nor for punya, but for Kevalajñāna and Kevaladarśana. Work as such is karmayoga, but it is difficult to be done. Only the man who has realized paramātmā can do work with non-attachment. Mahāvīra worked as such after his attainment of Kevalajñana and Kevaladarśana.
It is not possible for an ordinary man to give up karma ; thought and action like "I think, I meditate"; also are karmas. Paramātmā is real, all other things are unreal, it is the subject, if it is realized, many social welfare works can be performed. So karma is adikāņda. Just as the flower drops down after the fertilization of the ovary and the birth of the fruit in a plant, just so karmas of Mahāvīra got dissociated after his attainment of Kevalajñāna and Kevaladarśana. He meditated on his self, realized paramàtma, went ahead, plunged deep into the sea of consciousness to attain it, the light of knowledge and emerged from it with spiritual knowledge and power and vision. He attained consciousness and did not go out of step nor he renounced or destroyed karmas by counting one by one. He had so much divine love for paramātmā that the work which he did was meritorious.
He had two marks of divine love, viz. (1) he forgot the world; he was insensitive to the outside world and (2) his dehatmabuddhi (thought of body as real) went away, i. e. he had no love for his own physique. Without spiritual insight, divine love does not arise in oneself. There are symptoms of attainment of paramātmāhood, wealth of divine love, viz. viveka, vairagya, daya, sādhusevā or sādhuvaivartya (service to ascetics), sådhusanga (association with ascetics), devotional recitation to paramātmā and truthfulness. Love for soul removes the sensual pleasures. Mahāvīra had love for soul, so he was free from the sensual pleasures. 11 He was modest,"2 hence he was high and noble, just as cultivation of crops is possible in the open low land, but not on high land, for water gets accumulated in the low land, just so he was modest in all respects in his ascetic life, even when he was provoked and charged by Gosala Mankhaliputta with censure at Sravasti.43 He enlightened the temple of his body with the lamp of his spiritual knowledge as a result of the union of his jīvātma with paramātmā. He realized the truth “You are I and I am you, you eat, I eat, everywhere there is the existence of paramātma, while house, family and sons, etc. are non-eternal."41
The Master knew that the world was karmabhumi (field of action) so something must be done. Sadhana (austerity) is necessary, after this one takes rest just like a goldsmith after melting his gold in a melting pot. Mahāvira had tenacity for sādhanā and firm determination, he kept his mind fixed on paramātmā by withdrawing it from Kamini-Kañcana; he thought of paramatma only and enjoyed spiritual honey like a bee from flower to flower.
First, purity of heart is necessary in a sādhaka (practiser of austerity and meditation), then sādbanā (austerity) is essential, next knowledge will arise