Santbal A Saint with a Difference

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Navjivan Prakashan Mandir

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problems would necessarily drag him in worldly activities and this would generate fresh lot of Karmas which would bind his soul. So remain away from all worldly activities and concentrate only on the upliftment of your own soul. If you feel that some social evils should be mitigated, your duty is to give proper sermons, but beyond that it is none of your business as a Jain Saint to take more active interest. If you want to be more active, better not to enter the saintly order.
Santbalji thought differently. He said, taking of Diksha as a Jain Saint makes you a part of larger universal scheme. It is, therefore, your duty to try to shape universal scheme in such a manner that the whole social structure becomes based on ethical standards. If every part of the machinery is expected to work in harmony with all other parts of the same machine, such harmony cannot be established, if any individual part feels unconcerned about the whole. Even after renouncing worldly affairs, a Jain Saint cannot be and in fact does not avoid the world he lives in. He has to take food for his daily subsistence, cover his body to protect it from the vagaries of weather, seek some shelter in a building and accept all sorts of worldly needs from the Society he lives in. If he feels unconcerned with the trials and tribulations of this Society and suffers from unjustified inhibitions that taking active interest in social amelioration would bind him with fresh Karmas, he does not understand that only those Karmas bind the soul which are done with some motivation. Karmas done without attachment or motivation are considered as "non-action" (no Karma) which do not bind the soul, and even if they bind, the bondage is so weak that it can be removed with very little effort. This was the main thrust of Santbal's arguments. It seems he was justified.
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