Santbal A Saint with a Difference

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

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progress. Such a training is very much necessary even for those who enter the order because simply because you have taken Diksha, it does not mean that you have conquered or even trained your mind.
This is not to suggest that one who concentrates only on his own spiritual salvation is on the wrong path. The point is that every one has to chalk out his own method to achieve freedom. Hence if one adopts the method adopted by Santbal we cannot . denounce him as done by orthodox Jains. Actually those who denounced him for the path he chose were denouncing the basic concept of Jainism which preaches Anekant and allows liberty of action because a spiritual path, according to Jainism, is not a steriotyped one. Someone asked Mahavira, “Sir, how should we move, stand, sit, speak and eat so that we may not be bound by Karmic bondage? The Lord's reply was devoid of any orthodoxy, He said:
जयं चरे जयं चिटठे, जयमासे जयं झओ। जयं भुजंतो भासन्तो पावकम्मं न बंधइ ॥
Meaning “If you move, stand, sit, sleep and eat with complete awareness, you shall not be bound by sinful actions”.
Here Mahavira asks you only to remain "aware" of whatever you are doing because awareness brings discrimination and once you are able to discriminate between right and wrong you have little or no chance to fall in trap of binding Karmas. This pragmatism of Mahavira is not followed by orthodoxy because fanaticism and pragmatism are strange bed-follows.
If you bring this type of awareness in your social actions, and can behave like the “Sthitapragna” (one whose mind and intellect are steady) of Gita, you are on right lines whether you are the man of the world or of the saintly order.
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