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THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE JAINAS.
203. In enjoying a substance there certainly is produced pleasure or pain. (The right-believer) feels such pleasure (or) pain as the resultant (of Karma). Thus the shedding (of Karmic matter) takes place.
Commentary. A right believer knows Karmas and their effects to be distinct and separate from his soul. He knows that the pain is the result of his own past deeds; and that he must bear it calmly. He also knows that pleasure is also the result of his good actions and is not lasting. Pain and pleasure both, he knows, are opposed to his real happiness which he acquired by self-realisation. He may become subjected to a slight bondage of Karmas, owing to operation of other slight passions, which is not of itself the cause of mundane sufferings for a long time. Such bondage need not be taken into account here. A right believer is therefore said to be only shedding off the old Karmas after suffering their fruits.
जह विसमुवभुजंता विजा पुरिसा ए मरणमुवयंति । पोग्गलकम्मस्प्लुदयं तह भुंजदि णेव वज्झदे णाणी ॥२०४॥ यथा विषमुपभुंजानाः विद्यापुरुषा न मरणमुपयांति। पुद्गलकर्मण उदयं तथा भुंक्त नैव वध्यते ज्ञानी ॥ २०४॥ .
204. As men learned (in anti-toxic science) do not meet death when they have poison ; so the knower takes the operation of Karmic matter, but is not bound (by new Karmas).
Commentary. A physician having the knowledge of antidotes is like the right believer endowed with the power of self-discrimination. The wrong believer on the other hand is like the ignorant person, who does not know such antidotes, and cannot withstand the effect of poison. A great monarch, like Bharata Chakravarti was not subject to Karmic bondage even when ruling over all six parts of Bharata Kshetra, and partaking of innumerable and immeasurable pleasures. Sense enjoyment of a right believer is not detrimental to his spiritual progress, as it is to a wrong believer; the latter is closely identified with sense-enjoyment while the former considers sense-desire a disease, and wishes to be relieved of it as early as possible. Rishabhadeva enjoyed household life for a long time, then renounced it and attained Liberation.
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