Surakshit Khatra

Author(s): Usha Maru
Publisher: Hansraj C Maru

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Dedication
Dedicated to Pujya Gurudev Kanjiswami and Pujya Champa Bahen Shree
The inspiring letter on the previous page was written by Pujya Champa Bahen Shree for the son of one of her devotees, an engineer residing in the United States of America. Since I have lived in the USA for the last 40 years, almost all my adult life, I connected with this letter as if it was written for me by my Bahen Shree. Every word seemed to awaken me, inspire me.
While no Tirthankar walks the planet Earth today, the first line of Bahen Shree's letter says that there is indeed a Tirthankar named Shree Simandhar Swami who is awakening us every day in a faraway planet known as Videh Kshetra. This emphasizes that our faith and our tirthankars are eternal: they were always present, are currently present, and will always be present.
In my upbringing, I understood that the key to Jainism is to discipline myself to resist greed, anger, and other vices. However, Bahen Shree offers a profoundly different perspective. She insists that souls do not require discipline; to the contrary when we discover the true nature of the soul, it is complete in itself, pure, free, and full of unlimited happiness. The soul is not the Doer, Controller, but is just the natural super-complete Knower. To understand, realize, and experience the
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