Selected 100 Letters by Shrimad Rajchandraji

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra,
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Prabhavak Trust Hubli

Page 64

SELECTED 100 LETTERS
deaths and he has identified himself so deeply in worldly life that he gets tired of discriminating it and returns to his usual rut, and before he approaches the moment of destroying that knot of his ignorance he leaves the right discrimination and this has happened many times in his past lives. Because of that bondage, the soul suffers from ages immemorial, cannot be abandoned by him in a short period except by exceptionally concentrated effort. Therefore such a soul should devote his mind to repeated spiritual saintly contacts to the study of the teachings of spiritual saints and to develop in him simple straight thinking of the pure eternal self. Only as a result of these right efforts he will surely get right knowledge of his self which will be eternal, indestructible and with everlasting happiness, and in the end the aspiring soul will realize his pure self. In this way all doubts are dispelled by peace and patience in thinking. By impatience or by wrongly imagining the nature of self, the living being has to abandon the way beneficial to him and by clinging to transitory objects he turns round and round like a rolling stone going nowhere, and he continues his cyclic rotation. I have satisfaction in knowing that you cherish a desire to think about your real self. In this satisfaction I have no selfish motive. I only feel that you will face an occasion to get relieved of the worldly afflictions as you desire to follow the path of Samadhi or mental equipoise - the path of right thinking about your pure self. Seeing this possibility in you, I naturally experience satisfaction.
Salutations to pure self.
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SELECTED 100 LETTERS
Mumbai, Falgun, V-S 1951
The teachings of enlightened saints are a strong support to a spiritual aspirant who tries to fix his mind in meditation on the nature of his pure self till it completely shines forth as it is. This teaching of Shri Tirthankara is perfectly correct. The spiritual aspirant experiencing the twelfth stage of virtue, fixing his mind in the concentration on the nature of his self is helped in his march to his pure self by the support of scriptural knowledge in the form of the teachings of the enlightened Shri Jin. This is regarded as a standard of right knowledge and right experience in the spiritual path of liberation chalked out by Shri Jin. Even after accepting the right teaching seed, and after having a firm decision on the path of one's release, a spiritual aspirant must consider the shelter of an enlightened guide or teacher as a continuous support and encouragement to him in his spiritual path for progress and this shelter he should have till he perfectly becomes his pure self. If this does not happen, then he is likely to detract from his path. Therefore it is rightly said that a man who has been deluded by ignorance of a long standing past, cannot by his own efforts, get fixed in the right path of spiritual knowledge and experience in the absence of a living spiritiual guide. Even when a spiritual aspirant has firmly decided about the nature of his pure self, he is misguided often by worldly considerations; then where is the scope for surprise that worldly considerations may divert a spiritual aspirant to a wrong path when he has not yet achieved firmness about his spiritual aim?
In the event of relying on his own thinking power and not enjoying the support and shelter of a living spiritual guide or spiritual contact of the guided teachings or scriptural instructions, this factor