Tirthankar Mahavir and His Sarvodaya Tirth

Author(s): Hukamchand Bharilla, K C Lalwani
Publisher: Kundkund Kahan Digambar Jain Trust

Page 87

SARVODAYA TIRTHA
Otherwise, it is no penance, for the etimological meaning of the word 'penance must be met
Penance stands for the pure state of the soul with full detachment to the extent that external penances like fasting and internal penances like atonement promote the state of detachment these become penance in that form Suppose one does not know the penance to attain detachment, but continues to perform external penance, he can never exhaust karmaso because exhaustion can be attained only through determination based on pure attitude. One with a right outlook is alone fit to practise penance
Even the ignorant people undergo fast but they do not know the right nature of penances like fast and mistake the avoidance of food intake to be a penance. For instance, fasting for the avoidance of passions, enjoyments and food,si and not for the avoidance of food alone, no matter howsoever pressing may be the desire for enjoyment and the burning of passions Their notice is not attracted to these. Depicting the situation, the great scholar Todarmal writes:
"There are many living beings who in the beginning take resolves, but within they are not free from desires and passions, so that some how they try to fulfil the desires In such cases, the end, result of the resolve is misery. For instance, some one may undergo many fasts because of which he falls ill and spends his life in illness, but does not practise religion.. .Some indulge in play when on fast, some spend the time in gambling or sleeping For, they feel that they have to spend their time somehow ... ... And when they break the fast, they take rich food and eat it voraciously "52
The fact is that those with a right outlook go on expanding
50 Mok samarga Prakāśaka, p 233. 51 kasāyavı sayāhāro tyāgo yatra vidhiyate upavasah sa vijne yah sesam langhanakam viduh
- Mok samārga Prakasaka, quoted at p 231. 52 Mokşamärga Prakāśaka, pp 238-39