The Jain 1988 07

Author(s): Natubhai Shah
Publisher: UK Jain Samaj Europe

Page 78

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NOW - WAY - GOAL: EXTERIOR, INTERIOR, TRANSCENDENTAL
There are three words: NOW - WAY - GOAL. NOW means what is the conditon of our soul right now? WAY means on what road or in what process do we find ourselves? GOAL means the ultimate resting place, a state of peace in which one feels completion, perfection and fulfillment. In this state there is no fight, no movement, no journey, no desire to go anywhere because one has reached the ultimate fulfillment. In the words of Bhagwan Mahavira, NOW -WAYGOAL are expressed as BAHIRATMAN ANTARATMAN - PARAMATMAN. ATMAN means SOUL. The three adjectives used to describe soul are:
BHAIR, EXTERIOR;
ANTAR, INTERIOR;
PARAM, TRANSCENDENTAL. BHARIRATMAN describes our condition now. We are exterior souls. We are using our energy to get joy from the outside world through the senses. This we have to recognize. There is no need to pretend and say, "I am spiritual. I don't look for pleasures which come from sense objects". We may call ourselves spiritual, but still we are using energy on what to see, hear, speak, smell, eat and touch, and on how much to see, hear, speak, smell, eat and touch. This engages our brain which is connected with the senses. With the help of these senses, we are running the show of our day. The whole day we see how much we get from the world. That is our game. If you have satiated your senses, that day you are happy. If you don't get enough from the senses, that day you feel a vacuum, a kind of sadness.
That is the condition of our soul; we are out. We are in BAHIRATMAN condition. There are two religious approaches to stop the processes of turning outward, to curb or reduce the desires, and to turn the soul inward. One comes from the West; another from the East, in particular from Bhagwan Mahavira. Both agree that in order to evolve, sense desires must be reduced and soul must become ANTARATMAN. The EASTERN APPROACH is to watch and meditate, see and understand. It is to see that the senses are not to be blamed. They are neutral. When you understand these two approaches, you will see how, through them, different feelings and attitudes towards the philosophy of soul are built in our life. Our five senses are nothing but doors. They let the outer world in and the inner world out. Through them, we see, hear, create and function. So, one approach is to blame the sense object in order to create disgust toward it. You use the eyes to see beauty, but you go on making it ugly with your blaming. Woman is a state in which some beauty is revealed but in order to bring yourself back from sense desire, you start blaming woman as the cause of temptation. Eve was made the cause for Adam's fall. Birth is considered evil because it is born from desire, and desire is not good. So, all of us are born from mistakes. As a result of this approach, you criticize everything; we let the inner world out. Life comes from inside feelings, from unity, but in this negative approach, there is no unity.
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NON-VIOLENCE IN ACTION RELATIVITY IN THINKING
Jain Education Interational 2010_03