________________
DISCOURSE 64
209
What a unique personality Rudrasoma possessed! Do you go home and think about this? You will think of it at your leisure. Will you not? You naturally think of a thing which you like. I, of course, think much about Rudrasoma. She was an ideal Shravika. She was an ideal house-wife. Not only that; she was also a yogini, a woman who had renounced worldly pleasures and attachments. She of course, lived in Samsar; but her heart was completely detached from worldly life. She had discarded all attachments. If she was not disinterested and detached she would not have advised her scholarly and obedient son to study Drishtivad. She knew that without being a Sadhu and without self-restraint one could not study Drishtivad. Advising one to become a mendicant! What kind of a mother desires that her son, who is scholarly and obedient, should become a sadhu? Such a desire is entertained only by a woman who is disinterested and detached from worldly life.
A MOTHER WHO IS NON-ATTACHED SEES FELICITY IN RENUNCIATION
A mother who is non-attached sees only sorrow in sensual pleasures; and sees felicity in renunciation. A mother who is non-attached renounces worldly life herself; and desires that her children also should pursue the path of renunciation. Such a woman keeps instilling into her sons and daughters the noble ideals of self-sacrifice and renunciation even from their childhood and makes them cultured because the heart of a nonattached woman overflows with love and amity. Just as she thinks of providing comforts and happiness to her children; she also thinks of their spiritual welfare. She endeavours to make the lives of the members of her family happy and peaceful in the present; and she also endeavours to make their otherworldly life also felicitous and serene. But that endeavour should not assume the form of obduracy. It should not assume the form of harshness and cruelty.
Some mothers commit this mistake now-a-days. Of course, they desire that the members of their families should attain
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
