Way of Life Part 1

Author(s): Bhadraguptasuri
Publisher: Vishvakalyan Prakashan Trust Mehsana

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THE WAY OF LIFE
point deeply. Without understanding this if we merely engage ourselves in spiritual activities in imitation of others or as a matter of convention, it will not bring us any gain. You must have performed such conventional spiritual actions in countless earlier janmas or lives. Yet, you are, in the present life, wandering about experiencing agony and anguish. You have not attained any permanent or perfect happiness. What will happen to you if you do not think of your soul even in this life? There will not be any end to your physical, psychic and inherited ailments. The cycle of birth and death will not end. As long as we have to be reborn in Samsar, sorrow will continue. You must put an end to the process of birth and death by means of Dharma. You should put forth endeavours so that you may not have to be reborn again and again.
But this objective can be attained only gradually. It is possible to attain this end but it will take five to seven lives. But a beginning has to be made; is it not so ? Your eyes must be opened. Otherwise, you will have to go to Narak or hell or you will have to be born as an animal. Dharma can elevate you to the higher states of existence such as the human level or the divine level.
THE RIGHT VISION IS THE COLLYRIUM FOR A RADICAL REFORMATION
Question: Will those who act according to Dharma attain salvation ?
Answer: Yes. If the intellectual eyes of the Jivatma are opened; if the jivatma has attained the right vision, he will certainly attain the path of Dharma; and consequently salvation bound by the ayushya Karma. There is a rule that when the intellectual eyes are opened, ayushyakarma will bind the Jiva to go to the heavenly world. The right vision is a special virtue of the soul. After the soul attains the right vision, there will be a great change in the soul's comprehension of the universe and the inert and conscious things. The intensity of the passions would not be there; and one would get a glimpse of the atma (soul) and the supreme soul. Then, he will also see the