Shrutsagar 2019 07 Volume 06 Issue 02

Author(s): Hiren K Doshi
Publisher: Acharya Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir Koba

Page 7

SHRUTSAGAR
July-2019
Awakening
Acharya Padmasagarsuri (from past issue...)
The serene, radiant brightness that appears on account of God's mercy, teacher's precepts and righteous conduct spreads everywhere; shines out in all directions; produces peace everywhere, spreads happiness everywhere and causes the rain of love to pour down. If you ask a man who is running, what his destination is and if the man is silent or if he says that he does not know, you will consider him a fool, but are we not also fools? We are surely living, but we do not know the aim of life. Even an insect flies from leaf to leaf with some purpose, but man who is highly developed being with wonderful mental powers does not know the purpose of life! What a wonderful thing this is!
Only when the aim is determined, progress can be made in the right direction. A Shraman (one who endeavours to attain spiritual objectives) strives to achieve his own spiritual welfare. But the ordinary Jiva i.e., the ordinary man who takes delight in pudgala (worldly things) engages himself in sinful actions and in selfish pursuits to achieve mere existence. The weight of an article can be known accurately only when the needle of the balance is stable. In the same manner, only a stable mind can know the aim of life. To know the aim of life one needs the powers of thinking, reflection and assimilation. One cannot know the aim of life by running after outward things. The fruitfulness of human existence lies in freeing the soul from the various attachments of life (samsar), by means of self-sacrifice, austerity, self-control and self-discipline. Just as Lokamanya Tilak declared that Swaraj (freedom) was his birth-right, all sages and ascetics declare that it is the birth-right of all beings to attain Moksha (final release). Those sages say that the aim of life should be to attain divinity. Every Jiv (creature) should aim at becoming Shiv (God) and every soul should aim at attaining the level of divinity. This should be the aim of life.
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