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SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
'I fail to cross over the ocean to reach the beach yonder'
Pepping up Gautam's sagging spirits the Lord said, 'you have fairly progressed in your oceanic voyage, Gautam Why do your spirits droop when you are on the verge of touching the banks beyond? Make haste Gautam to cross over Be not indolent for an instant '1
The Lord cheered him up, 'Gautam! What makes you so impatient? For ages you and I are bound together in affection I have won your admiration We have been familiar for so long You have given me your love for so long You have been my follower for so long You have emulated me for so long'
'In my last incarnation I had been a demi-god in my human incarnation also you have kept company with me Since ages back we have been together On being freed of this mortal frame you and I will be identical with each other We will mean the same thing, exist for the common purpose, function similarly We will be identical in all respects with no difference whatsoever All this is imminent What makes you disheartened? Awake and droop not for a moment "
The reassuring pat lifted up the drooping spirits of Gautam. He was ridden of his anxiety and rose once more to the everlasting wakefulness However, his deepest doubts still lurked Why do the courses leading to spiritual regeneration differ so much in length? He presented his doubt to the Lord The Lord solved it The solution is the immortal message of spiritual escalation from a great soul Thus does it run
The gross world can be fettered with rules The conscious world regulates things It enjoys the freedom that goes with consciousness It harps upon a thousand notes of spiritual regeneration It courses along a million free avenues of individual progress How can, then, one thrust rules and moulds over it? Where there is absolute freedom for inner growth, freedom of direction and pace, there is all likelihood of varia
1 'Uttarajihayani', 10/34 2 'Bhagwai', 14/77
