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48
SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
'Is not cheerfulness a consequence of favourable circumstances ?'
'I find it difficult to deny it and equally difficult to endorse that cheerfulness has everything to do with the circumstances attending upon the subject A cheerfulness generated by favourable set-up will crumble down with the advent of an unfavourable one However, the cheerfulness earned by a transcendental wisdom is never subject to the vagaries of circumstances
'How did the Lord suffer so much of inflictions and penances ?'
'A man swam in the ocean Another watched him from the beach The swimmer dived and the watcher wondered how he could bear the tremendous weight of the watery sheets He did not know that the upthurst makes it so easy for a body, to dive in free water A pitcher of water alone oppresses one with weight It is the oppression of the bondage A consciousness confined in bodily pitcher suffers pain During meditation it is as free as the ocean waves The sufferings of body cease to count It is when you watch aground the waters of meditation without delving into these that you comment on the bodily severities of the Lord'
The rational explanation brought my feet down to the rockbottom of reality The grandeur of the genius of meditation came home to me afloat like a verse .
The marrow-chilling whirl The fury-fired fumes Have access there none Nor tumult there consumes, The blissful holiness In meditation rules The resounding verses swept away my remnant doubts.
