YJA Convention 1994 07 Chicago IL First

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

Page 36

we practice wrong, it comes out perfectly wrong". The means determine the nature of the ends produced. You aspire to do good, and yet so frequently achieve evil, simply because your means are bad. What the Tirthankars and the Jain sages have said, has been endorsed by modern leaders of thought like Aldous Huxley, Gandhi and Nehru.
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Healer of the Rift of Grieving
O rift of grieving That a soul its earth-body is leaving...
Monsoon of tears then, sacrifice of gold Stay not the crossing at the grey threshold. In vain the dear name is called by the
mourner,
The part that would heed is departing forever. In truth, the soul is leaving behind the body As evidence that worldly existence is a duality -Soul and body in combination from the beginningless time of transmigration.
Yet the mourner in a cold fever of grief Curses all things yet living, even marigold leaf, And laments in a wailing litany,
"My Beloved, how can ye forsake me?"
Memories take root in the monsoon of tears, Crowding like thorn-tree barriers,
For the tear-blinded eye no further can see Than the everyday viewpoint of reality -The half of truth that truly exists In the earth-body wherein the soul manifests.
Slowly, the mourner ponders the unending why All living things are doomed to die, Apparently cruel and useless fact
That the writ of life is a death pact. "My beloved's today shall be my tomorrow, Blowing, the ashes of our marigolds of sorrow." Out of the space of wasted sighs,
So slowly, a great notion begins to rise -Notion that securely persists
That beyond the half, the whole of truth exists.
Now, by faith carried over from past lives In rewarding proof that right faith survives, The mourner is led on a pilgrimage To the nearby shrine of a Jain image. "A bow to Ye, Ye Soul Wayshower. By grace, show ye the soul to this humble
mourner."
Upturned palms of devotion, Stern hours of Jain study and non-violent dedication -Fruit thereof, the mourner's vision of blissful infinity That is the pure viewpoint of soul identity.
Soul identity, by way of the blessed benefaction Of the truth of the righteous Jain religion, Truth in the essence of all spiritual wisdom. Ignorant soul, in material infatuation, By free choice had quit its immaterial
perfection. Yet by free choice of non-violence, restraint and penance The soul may return to its primal radiance -The pure, individual and eternal identity That is the Jain soul reality.
Good karma bears fruit, the mourner is free From the fragmented half-truth that life is
misery,
For now the mourner beholds the goal Of reunion with the self's own blissful soul. "My Beloved, let us dearly wish That our coming lives shall dearly cherish The truth and harmlessness of the Jain religion That shall lead us from body bondage to soul freedom." O praise the Faith, that as a soul its earthbody is leaving Right Faith in the Jain religion heals the rift of grieving.
By Leona Smith Kremser
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