Self Realisation

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra, Govardhandas
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

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The Self Realization
self-realization by self-improvement. Therefore, all what the liberated have said and advised is thoroughly believable and should be easily acceptable. The eternal path preached by the liberated souls is mixed with many undesirable offshoots and developments in course of time. One should distinguish between the path of the liberated and the path of the initiate and erring."
Srimad has been very strong in his criticism of these various creeds that have developed in the name of the religion of the liberated Jinas. He has shown in his Atma siddhi Shastra that the founders of the various creeds have measured their own level and substituated their imperfect beliefs for the true religion. The wrangling of the Jaina religious heads in support of their Self-chosen paths of liberation and ethical discipline flows from ignorance and leads to the sharpening of prejudices. Sometimes the highly advanced religious souls are misguided by the rise of (Mohaniya) infatuating Karmas in them and in such circumstances they offer sham religion for the real one, to their followers. It also happens that finding the difficulty of attaining to the path of the liberated souls, one decides for himself and for his followers that the path is not worth following and that what he has achieved for himself is the last limit of achievement for all. Besides, one may not have sufficient intelligence and discrimination to grasp the reasonableness of the path of the liberated Jinas. Unfavourable times, selection of wrong persons as the religious teachers, general ignorance of the Shastras and the reluctance to study them for oneself are also some of the causes why various religious castes and sub-creeds deveiop in the body of the old established religions.
Srimad Rajachandra says that the present times are such that the educated are bankrupt in the fund of
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