Spiritual Enlightenment

Author(s): Yogindu Deva, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Radiant Publishers

Page 81

Summary of Paramatma Prakash
and ephemeral, and this should specially be remembered. Those whom one meets in the morning are no more in the evening; so Dharma should be practised without any greed for youth and wealth. No religious merits are amassed and no austerities practised by this tree covered with skin (i.e., the embodied being); hell then is the destiny after being eaten by the ants of old age. The soul should be devoted to the feet of Jina; and the relations, even the father, must be abandoned, because they simply drag the soul into Samsara. It is a Self-deception if austerities are not practised with a pure mind in spite of one's having obtained human birth. The camels in the form of five senses should not be let loose; after grazing the whole pasture of pleasures they will again hunt the soul into the roundof-rebirths. Unsafe is the course of meditation; the mind cannot be settled at rest as it repeatedly reverts back to the pleasures of 'senses. The Yogin cultivates (Right) faith, knowledge and conduct, and being exempt from the influence of five senses meditates on the highest reality. The pleasures of senses last for a couple of days only, and then again follow the stream of misery; one should not be deluded, and one should not flourish the axe on one's neck. That man commands respect who gives up pleasures though they are at his disposal; the bald-headed fellow has his head shaved by destiny (for which he deserves no credit). By capturing the leader, viz., the mind, all others, (i.e., the senses) are captured; the roots being pulled out the leaves necessarily wither. A lot of time is spent in enjoying the pleasures of senses; therefore steady concentration on Shiva, (i.e., Paramatman) is necessary whereby liberation is reached. Those who are engrossed in the concentration on Paramatman are never seen to suffer miseries. Time has no beginning, the soul is eternal, and the round of rebirths has no end; the soul has not secured two: the teacher, Jina and the religious virtue, Right faith. (128-143)
Family-life is full of sin; it is indeed a steady net decorated with death. When the body does not belong to oneself, there is no propriety in claiming other things by neglecting the concentration on Paramatman (called Shiva). Concentration on