Reader ! I come today to your lotus like hands. Read me with due care and attention. Take to your heart the truths told by me. Whatever I tell, you reflect on it with a discriminative mind; by so doing, you will obtain knowledge, meditation, moral conduct, discriminative understanding, virtues and peace of the self.

You may be aware that many ignorant men and women waste away their valuable time in reading worthless books and are led astray, censured by society and go to the netherworlds after death.

Whatever books you have already learnt and are still learning are only about this worldly life; but this book will be beneficial to you both in your present life and the next, as it contains to some extent, explanations of the sayings of Bhagawan Mahavir.

Do not underrate or insult this book in any way; do not tear it, do not blot it or spoil or defile it in any other way. Deal with it discriminatively. Wise men have said that where there is discrimination, there only exists religion.

Also one more suggestion to you is that you read out this book in its order to those unable to read it but desire to read it.

What you do not follow in this book, try to understand it with the help of a wise man. In so doing, do not allow idleness or indiscretion to disturb your mind.

I complete this lesson by praying to Arhat Bhagwan Mahavir that he may help you to secure the good of your soul, to give you knowledge, peace and bliss, to make you benevolent, kind hearted, full of forgiveness, discrimination and intelligence.

(Chopai - Poem)

Dharma Tattva Jo Puchyun Mane, To Sambhalavu Snehe Tane;

Je Siddhanta Sakalno Saar, Sarvamanya Sahune Hitkar.(l)

Bhakhyun Bhashanman Bhagawan, Dharma Na Bijo Daya Saman;

Abhaya Dana Sathe Santosha, Dhyo Pranine, Dalava Dosha(2)

Satya Shila Ne Saghalan Dana, Daya Hoi Ne Rahyan Praman;

Daya Nahi To E Nahi Eka, Vina Surya Kiran Na;li Dekha.(3)

Pushpa Pankhadi Jyan Dubhaya, Jinvarani Tyan Nahi Agnaya;

SarvaJivanu Ichchho Sukha, Mahavirani Shiksha Mukhya.(4)

Sarva Darshane E Upadesh, E Ekante, Nahi Vishesh:

Sarva Prakare Jinano Bodh, Daya Daya Nirmal Avirodh!(5)

EBhavatarak Sundar Raha, Dharie Tariye Kari Utsaaha;

Dharma Saitainu E Sirubha Mula, E \iana Dharma Sada Pratikula(6)

Tattvarupathi E Olakhe, Te Jana Pahonche Shashvat Sukhe;

Shantinath Bhagawan Prasiddha, Rajchandra Karunae Siddha. (7)

I am telling you some of the common anomalies and different states in human life on which if you reflect, your faith in the existence of future births or rebirth will well develop.

One person sleeps on a beautiful cot having a flowerbed on it while the other does not get even a tattered quilt as his bed. One keeps himself always satisfied with various dainty dinners while the other cannot get for his dinner even a piece of bread. One enjoys unlimited wealth, the other begs for a penny from door to door. One by his sweet sayings attracts the minds of many hearers, the other moves like a dumb. One moves about dressed in beautiful clothes with ornaments on his body, the other does not even get a torn cloth to cover himself from extreme cold in winter. One person is a sick man while the other person is very strong bodied and healthy. One is very intelligent while the other is a mere dull. One has beautiful attractive eyes while the other is quite blind. One is lame and the other is short of legs. One is enjoying good fame and the other suffers from defamation. One commands lakhs of people and servants while the other suffers insults from all in his contact. Seeing one person we feel joyous, seeing another person we feel a vomiting sensation. One has all his senses in good order while the other has lost some of them. One has no idea of poverty of poor people while other has no end of his own sufferings.

One died while being conceived, one died soon after birth, one was born dead, one dies at a ripe age of hundred years.

No two persons have exactly identical faces. Differences of language and living conditions are observed in the world. A fool as a king on a royal throne is praised and saluted by all, and powerfully learned men suffer strokes of misfortune.

Thus you see anomalies of various kinds in whole world. Have you ever thought about these anomalies? I have described yet if you have ever thought about them, please tell what should be the reason behind all such anomalies? It is only due to good or bad actions of the soul or self.

It is by one's own actions that one has to wander in the worldly life at large. One not believing in rebirths, cannot explain the reasons of these anomalies. Again how can such a person even think that there is no rebirth? If he thinks this way, he will also have to agree with our view i.e. belief in births and rebirths.

You might have heard that learned persons say that our human body is the best of all other living bodies, but you may not be knowing the reason for their saying so and so I tell it to you.

This worldly life is replete with miseries and so the enlightened persons plan to overcome it. Realizing liberation, they enjoy eternal happiness and such liberation cannot be secured in any other living body. Neither in divine state nor in other animal birth nor in hell can one get soul liberation. It is possible only in human birth and so human body is regarded as best of all living bodies.

Then you would ask why do all human beings not obtain liberation? And here is my reply. Those who understand humanity in real sense get over the miseries of worldly life. Men in whom discriminative intelligence has dawned are really called human by learned persons. It is with the help of this discriminative intelligence men distinguish between truth and untruth, adopt truthful religion, recognize highest truth and observe noble good conduct as a result of which they secure incomparable liberation. Learned persons do not call a man by the appearance of his human form but call him so, only when they find discriminative intelligence in him. We need not say that one who possesses two hands, two legs, two eyes, two ears, one mouth, two lips and one nose is a human being. If that is so, then even a monkey possessing all these parts of its body in common with those of human body, can also be called a human being. Besides a monkey in addition possesses a long tail also. Then should we call a monkey a superman? No, one who understands humanity can only be called a man or a human being.

Learned persons say that birth in human body is very rare to achieve; it is possible only as a result of performance of many meritorious deeds by a soul. So when we get human birth we should swiftly use it for benefiting our soul. Even small children like Ayamantkumar, Gajasukumar obtained liberation by right understanding of humanity. This additional power that man possesses, helps him even to control animals such as intoxicated elephants. If by the same power they can control the elephant in the form of their mind, what an immense benefit they can secure?

In no other living body completely right discriminative power can grow or manifest and so in such other births one cannot enter the royal road of liberation. Therefore it is necessary to make full use of our human birth to secure liberation or self-realization. Some foolish people waste this rarely obtained human birth in bad conduct, ignorance, sense-life and in intoxications and prides of many kinds and lose their life in vain and as a result they lose the invaluable opportunity (precious jewel) to work for the real benefit of their soul. Such persons are in name human but really monkeys.

We are unable to know for certain the exact moment of our death. Therefore one should quickly pay attention to a good religious life by all possible means.

Once upon a time King Shrenika of Magadh country endowed with all sorts of acquisitions went to a forest named Mandikuksha for enjoying a horse-ride. The Luxuriance of this forest was mind absorbing; it was dense with various kinds of trees and they were strewn with various kinds of delicate creepers and they were enjoyed by various kinds of birds; in it, were heard sweet chimings of birds of various kinds, the forest was bedecked with various kinds of flowers and various kinds of streams of water were flowing in it; in short that forest named Mandikuksha looked like Nandanvan or a Garden of Eden.

In it, King Shrenika caught sight of a very youthful and fit for enjoying happiness, ascetic enraptured in deep spiritual bliss sitting under a tree. The king got extremely pleased at the sight of this beautiful bodied monk and began to praise in his mind wondering the monk's unheard of incomparable beauty. What unheard of and beautiful skin colour this monk possesses! What a mind absorbing and attracting bodily form he has! What an unheard of pleasingness he has! How wonderful forgiveness he owns! How bright is the lustre of his renunciation shining in his body! What a want free man he is! What a fearless gentleness this sage commands! How free is he from all sense pleasures!

Thinking in this way, getting more and more pleased and praising excellent qualities of this ascetic, walking slowly towards him, taking a few rounds around him in veneration, bowing down before him, he sat at a reasonable distance not too far nor too near. In all humility with both hands folded he asked the ascetic:-

"O Arya! or a Noble person ! You are an youth worthy of praise; your age is quite fit for enjoying sense pleasures; this world can offer you many sorts of happiness; amorous pleasures fitting every season, pleasures of water-play and pleasures ofhearing sweet words of attractive women ; instead of enjoying all these, you have renounced them and strive hard on the path of an ascetic life. Please be kind and tell me what is the reason for doing so?

Hearing these words from King Shrenika the ascetic replied:- "O King ! I was experiencing orphan-hood; none became my true friend to procure for me unprecedented object and to secure for me my spiritual uplift, to sympathize and be favorable with me, and to give me supreme happiness with pity. This was the reason for my experience of being an orphan."

Shrenika smiling at these words of Anathi Muni said;" You have acquired great spiritual powers! How do you say that you have none to protect you? If you really feel so, I am prepared to protect you. O fearless! You enjoy all sense pleasures. O Saintly friend! Make your rare human birth successful and easily fruitful."

Anathi Muni said , "O King Shrenika ! How can you relieve me from my orphan-hood when you yourself are an orphan? How can a pauper turn other man into a prince or a wealthy man? How can an unintelligent person give learning to others? How can a baren woman deliver a child? How will you give me protection when you yourself are without such protection?"

Hearing these words from he monk, King Shrenika became much disturbed and surprised. He heard the words of the Monk the like of which he had never heard before and so doubting them he said as under:-

"I enjoy riding many kinds of horses; I own many kinds of intoxicated elephants. The whole army with its various regiments is in my command. There is no dearth of cities, villages, harem and four legged animals in my possessions. I enjoy all kinds of pleasures which a man can enjoy; my servants exactly carry out my orders. Wealth of all kinds is in my home; many things which a mind can aspire for, are near to me. Being so great as I, how can I be called an orphan? Possibly O Bhagawan (God like person) ! You may be wrong or mistaken in your calling me an orphan." To this the Monk said :-"O King ! You have not rightly understood my statement. Now you hear with concentration and close attention how I became an orphan and how as a result of this feeling, I left worldly life and became a monk. After hearing what I say, you may decide about the correctness or otherwise of your doubt:-

There is one beautiful city named Kaushambi very old and full of various excellences. Therein dwelled my father named Dhansanchaya very rich and wealthy. O King ! In the first part of my youth, my eyes began to give me unbearable pain; my whole body felt a burning sensation - that disease poured all its anger on me and pierced me more powerfully than sharp weapons like a deadly enemy, by that unbearable pain of the eyes I was attacked with a severe headache. Because of this continuous deadly pain, like the strike of a powerful mace (Vajra) and capable of instilling terrible fear in others too who saw me suffering I was much miserable.

Numberless physicians expert in treating such disease treated me to cure me of all my pain with the best of their medicines but all was in vain. None of them could cure me and relieve me from my pain. This itself O King, was my experience of being an orphan. My father began to offer all his wealth to one who could cure me of my disease, but it was all fruitless. O King! Thus I felt that I was an orphan. My mother was sorrow stricken seeing my incurable pain but she could also not relieve me from my pain, this O king was my orphan hood. My elder and younger brothers born of the same mother, tried all their means to give me relief but they also failed; O King! This was my experience as an orphan. Similarly my elder and younger sisters could not cure my disease; O King! This was why I felt I was an orphan.

My wife who was totally devoted to me, who was affectionate to me and who was loving me very much was wetting my chest with her tears; she tried to apply many kinds of ointments to soothe me in my pain - ointments made from corn, water and other fragrant substances and plasters known and unknown made from flowers and sandalwood but she could not make me free from my deadly disease and unbearable pain of the eyes. Thus my wife who never left me or kept her away even for a moment failed to cure my disease; This was O great King ! My feeling of being an orphan.

Thus by neither someone's affection, nor someone's medicine, nor some one's vailing, nor someone's tiring efforts that disease could be driven out. At that time I repeatedly bore unbearable pain and so I felt much dejected by the machinations of this world.

Then I decided that in case I get freed from my deadly disease and pain of my eyes, I would immediately leave worldly life of sense pleasures and I would take to ascetic life full of great forgiveness of controlling all five senses and free from all worldly activities.

With this decision I went for a sleep and when that night was passed gradually, O King ! All my disease and pain were gone for good and I became free from my that disease. So taking consent from my parents, brothers, sisters and other relatives in the early morning I adopted this ascetic life full of all forgiveness, full of sense restraints and free from all worldly actions.

"O King Shrenika ! Thereafter I became the Lord of my own soul as well as of all other souls. Now I am the Lord or Protector of all kinds of living beings. Your doubt about my calling you an orphan must have been dispelled by now. Thus the whole world up to a Chakravarti or an Emperor of all land he can reach and command, is really an orphan and need proper protection. Where there is Upadhi - external trouble, there is orphan hood. So you reflect on what I say to you:-

Take it for certain that none but our soul or self is the creator of our sorrow and misery; our soul itself is the creator of unhappiness like the piercing brambles of a Shalmali tree i.e. a cactus tree with sharp thorns. Likewise the soul itself is the creator of happiness like that what can be achieved from a Kamdhenu cow fulfilling all his desires without any trouble or delay. Our soul brings us all joy like that of enjoying a garden of Eden - a Nandanvan - a garden or a park which gives divine pleasure and happiness to all who visit it. Our soul itself is the performer of our deeds, our soul itself can avoid them if he decides not to perform them and our soul itself brings us all troubles and misery; so is our soul itself the author of all our happiness. Our soul itself therefore is both our friend and foe. Our soul itself makes our bad character and the same soul itself creates our spotlessly good and noble character and steadfastly maintains it."

Thus the Anathi Muni gave an illuminating sermon about the nature of soul or self to King Shrenika who was much pleased to hear it. With folded hands in a spirit of veneration, he said, "O Lord or Bhagawan! You have addressed me rightly; you described vividly and correctly the orphan state of a living being O Great sage! You are really having your soul as a protector, you have real brothers and you have adopted right religion. You can protect all orphans. O pure and holy Sage! Forgive me for telling you that I can protect you and that you deserve enjoying sense life in the world instead of living as an ascetic. I have derived much benefit from your enlightened teaching to me. I beg your pardon for inviting you to enjoy worldly life of sense pleasures which is always obstructing the good of the soul. It is my fault and so you pardon me for the same." With these words king Shrenika bowed down to Anathi Muni and taking a few rounds about the monk as a mark of high respect, in all humility and modesty returned home.

The teaching of Anathi Muni, practicer of great penance, an ascetic par excellence, possessor of high spiritual intellect and fame, completely relieved from all knots or bondage and a master of spiritual learning, to king Shrenika on the basis of his own personal experience, both as a householder and also as an ascetic, confirms the soul - saving aspiration known as Asharan Bhavana- a strong determination by a human being that every- body on earth is really an orphan and one gets freed from such a stage only by realizing the true nature of his own soul or self. Many people experience sorrow and suffering equal to or more than what Anathi Muni experienced in his life and we see all that before our own eyes and should this not be enough for our deepreflection about the real nature of self or soul and that of the World at large ? This orphan hood or feeling of being one needing shelter or protection but not getting it, is spread over all worldly living beings and it can be abandoned or renounced only by highest philosophy and best moral conduct embodying universal forgiveness and non-violence in thought, word and deed. This is the only way to liberate one's soul from the bondage of one's good and bad deeds. As Anathi Muni was really an orphan while he was leading a householder's life so is every soul always an orphan till it accepts highest philosophy. For being a protected person, it is necessary to know true divinity, true religion and a true preceptor.

Three fundamental reals we should necessarily know. As long as there is ignorance about them, soul's benefit cannot be secured. These three fundamental reals are True divine Person, True divine Religion and True divine Teacher or Preceptor. I tell you about the first real namely the True divine person.

A True divine person (Satdeva) is one who has achieved absolute knowledge and absolute perception, one who has burnt the heap of his all good and bad Karmas by highest penance and steadfast meditation; one who has achieved Shukla Dhyan or pure meditation shining more bright than the white moon and white conch. One though he be a sovereign ruler of the whole world or such a ruler's son or a prince, knowing the world as totally the cause of infinite sorrow, renounces it for a better life; one who destroys three kinds of torments or tortures to the soul namely Aadhi =(Mental calamities) Vyadhi =(Physical diseases) and Upadhi (Worldly troubles) with the help of absolute compassion, peace, forgiveness, non-attachment and spiritual soul power; one who moves in his self - pure nature burning four principle Karmas as obstructing pure knowledge, clear vision or perception or insight and noble character and burns other hindrances to highly spiritual development; one who burns all the roots of Karmas, one who pursues noble life till some of his past Karmas have been either mallowed down or burnt completely and who abandons all Karmas springing from infatuation or false attraction and who avoids sleep and keeps himself constantly engaged in burning the roots of all his Karmas, one who preaches with his purified speech like a natural flow of rain water to other worldly heated persons for securing them highest peace with a total spirit of non - attachment, one in whom one cannot find even in dream the least element about worldly enjoyment of sense life; one who does not start advising others about self realization till he has achieved absolute Knowledge, this means that he keeps mum till his own real aim is fulfilled. He is free from five kinds of obstructions, laughter, affection, hatred or aversion, fear, disliking, sorrow, misunderstanding (Mithyatva), ignorance, non-remonstrance (Apratyakhyan), attachment, avarice, sleep and sex-desire, in short he is free from all these eighteen kinds of vices, and he is poised in his self nature enjoying infinite truth, consciousness and bliss and in him very elevating twelve virtuous qualities shine forth; he is one for whom, birth, death and worldly life have totally vanished. One who possesses all above described qualities, is recognised by Bhagawan Mahavir as a truly divine person. Since such a person has realized his pure self-free from all faults or shortcomings, he is called the most venerable Lord. A person who still has one of the above mentioned eighteen vices does not become a true Divine person. This highest truth can still be further understood by excellent aphorisms preached by Bhagawan Mahavir.

From time without beginning, this soul aimlessly wanders in worldly life goaded by the fetters of the web of his own actions or deeds. Not even for a fraction of a moment, this wandering soul enjoys real happiness. He always hugs to his heart his own downfall. And the element which holds this soul from falling into its degeneration is called religion. All knowing Bhagawan Mahavir has enumerated various parts of this true religion; of these various parts two main ones are: (1) Vyavahara Dharma (2) Nishchaya Dharma.

The principle requirement of Vyavahara Dharma is Daya or compassion. Rest four great vows are also to be observed purely for protecting compassion. This compassion is of eight kinds:

(1) Dravya Daya (2) Bhava Daya (3) Sva Daya (4) Para Daya (5) Swarupa Daya (6) Anubandha Daya (7) Vyavahar Daya (8) Nishchaya Daya.

(1) First Dravya Daya :-- To perform every act of worldly life taking due care not to hurt any living being or taking care to preserve and protect other life is known as Dravya Daya

(2) Second Bhaava Daya:-- To preach another living being purely with a view to save him from his downfall is known as Bhaava Daya.

(3) Third Swa Daya :-- This soul has been enmeshed or caught in a condition of misunderstanding and infatuation since time without any beginning and so it is not realizing truth, it is not yet capable of putting himself under obedience of Jineshwar Bhagwan to know his true self; thinking this way to enter right religious life is known as Swa Daya.

(4) Fourth Para Daya:-- To protect living beings of six kinds (Chha Kaya) as prescribed by Jineshwar Bhagawan is known as Para Daya .

(5) Fifth Swarupa Daya:-- To search for one's true self with the help of minute discrimination is Swarupa Daya.

(6) Sixth Anubandh Daya:-- When one's preceptor or teacher tries to improve his pupil's behaviour sometimes by harsh words ; to all outside appearance it looks improper but in the end it works for the benefit of the pupil and leads to compassion. Hence this is called Anubandh Daya.

(7) Seventh Vyavahara Daya:-- To observe compassion in regular common life with due attention and also accord with religious instructions is called Vyavahara Daya.

(8) Eighth Nishchaya Daya:-- Single mindedness in search of one's pure self and whole attention in the motto without any distinction is called Nishchaya Daya.

Bhagawan Mahavir has described Vyavahara (Practical) Dharma by these eight kinds of compassion. It includes or covers the happiness, contentment and a gift of fearlessness to all living beings when one reflects on these eight kinds of compassion.

Next i.e., Second Dharma is called Nishchaya Dharma - to dispel the illusion about one's own true nature, to know the self as self and nothing else, this worldly life is not mine, I am pure Self like the Realized Great Souls and I am without any attachment, free from all bonds of karmas and relations, I am different from the body and the rest to me. To be and behave with such a determination and understanding is called living in the self's pure form; it is called Nishchaya Dharma.

Wherever there is some pain or unhappiness to a living being or whatever act involves harm to any living being or dissatisfaction to any living being is no part of Daya -sympathy or compassion and without sympathy or compassion there is no true religion; and by this essence of true religion as explained by Arhat Bhagawan Mahavir, all living beings enjoy fearlessness.

Father - Son! Who is your teacher in your school?

Son - Father! My teacher is a very learned Brahmin and a man of right understanding.

Father - How are his speech and character?

Son - He speaks very sweet words; he is never calling anybody without giving him due honour and respect. He is never inconsiderate. He is very deep in his thinking. His words are felt by us as soft and fine as flowers. He never insults anybody and he teaches us good lessons with proper patience and right understanding.

Father - Please let me know why do you go to him?

Son - Father! Why do you ask this question to me? I know you are sending me to learn skill from him so that I may be wise in my worldly life, that I may learn proper method of good behavior to make my life successful and fruitful, that I may learn from him lessons of good moral conduct.

Father - Suppose your teacher was of bad character or wrong behavior?

Son- O! Then it would be quite wrong and harmful to me. I would have learnt his bad character and also would have learnt to use bad language in behavior with others. Who then would teach us good conduct for leading a moral life?

Father - O Son! From this I can teach you a best lesson. As for worldly life good moral conduct should necessarily be learnt, so to know right religion and proper religious discipline is necessary for preparing essential requisite for a better future birth. Just as lessons of good moral life can only be given or taught by a good moral teacher, so lessons of good religious life can be taught by the best preceptor or religious teacher. Naturally there is much difference between a good moral teacher and a good religious teacher. A good moral teacher is only a prismatic piece; a good religious teacher shines like a priceless jewel.

Son - O my protector (Shirachhatra)! What you say is quite correct. There is a perfect need for a teacher of right religion. You have many a time told me about many unending miseries of this world and to get over all these miseries of worldly life, only right religion can be most helpful. Then please let me know by what kind of a teacher we can be initiated into right religious life?

Father - O son! Teachers are of three kinds - (1) Teacher - wood type (2) Teacher - paper type (3) Teacher - stone type. Of these three kinds, the first wood type teachers are the best ones, as they only help us to cross the ocean of worldly life quite successfully. Just as a piece of wood swims in the ocean and also helps one who sits on it to cross the ocean water successfully.

The Second paper type teachers are of ordinary type. They are moderate between the first and the third types mentioned above. Paper type teachers cannot successfully cross the ocean of worldly life nor can they help others depending on them. They can only show the way and thereby they can help the pupil to acquire some good meritorious deeds.

The third type of teachers namely stone type are such that they drown in the ocean along with those taking their help. The first type namely wood type teachers are available only in the administration of the world by Jineshwar Bhagawan. The second and third types of teachers are working for increase in the coverings of Karmas which keep the soul away from knowing its real good. We all need the best of things and such things can be available in properly the best places. If we select a best religious teacher he can put us in his true religious boat and along with him we also can successfully swim the ocean of worldly life. We cannot understand without the help of a best religious teacher, fine philosophical distinctions, fine distinctions of different selves, clear understanding of Loka Lok = this world and many other worlds and the nature of this worldly life with all its intricacies. Hearing this you may be prompted to ask me as to what are the specific characteristics of such a wood type teacher?

Then I tell you the same: - The wood type teacher will well know the precept given by Jineshwar Bhagawan; and he would follow it in his behavior fully well; and he would also advise others to follow it; he would have completely renounced riches and sexual life, he would live on innocent food and water; he would suffer patiently twenty-two types of torments; he would be full of forgiveness or sympathy or compassion; he would control his desires and he would keep away from all actions arising from desires and he would be thoroughly self-controlled and may be a master of all his sense powers; he might always be engrossed in the knowledge of all fundamental reals; he might be maintaining his bodily life purely for religious purposes; he will never be shy or coward in scrupulously following the religious path prescribed by Nirgrantha Bhagawan Mahavir, he would never touch or take even a blade of grass not given to him; he must have abandoned all sorts of dinners during night; he would be equanimous in his behavior and he would preach truth without any feeling of attachment In short such are the merits of a wood-type religious Teacher. O Son! You can find in Jain Religious Scriptures the details of a true teacher's character and his knowledge acquisitions quite properly and with due considerations. As you grow thinking more about this in future, I shall gradually teach you further truths.

Son - O Father! You have told me in brief very useful and about beneficial truths. I shall always think and reflect more and more about them.

Even while dwelling in his worldly householder's life the best Shrawaka (who has contacted best teachers, hears their teaching carefully, is discriminative and modest) is successfully under going spiritual discipline; his order of a householder becomes praiseworthy.

Such best householder performs Samayika = to take a vow Of equanimous behavior; Kshamapana = to beg pardon before Shri Bhagawan Mahavir for any of his fault or faults; Chovihar Pratyakhyan, a vow not to take four types of food at night; Yam = to practice restraints and follow injunctions of good behavior for the whole of his life and Niyam = observes some vows for a specific period of time.

He views other women just like his mother or sister according to the age of the woman seen.

He gives as per his capacity money and food in charity to the right persons who have grasped the truth - they are called Satpatra or rightly deserving persons.

He speaks Peacefully sweet and soft language.

He always thinks of right religious scriptures.

As far as possible he does not resort to falsehood, deceit etc., to earn his livelihood in business or other avocation.

He gives due respect to his parents, his wife, his sons, Muni or Monk and preceptor.

He gives religious discourses to his parents.

He takes due care in keeping his house clean, in cooking purpose, in arranging food materials, in sleeping accommodations etc...

He behaves intellectually and teaches his wife and children lessons of modesty and humility by his own modest and humble behavior He makes them religious minded.

He increases unity in his whole family.

He welcomes a guest with due honor and respect.

He never sends away the beggar at his door without giving him food to satisfy hunger.He always keeps himself in contact with right religious persons or men of noble thoughts and deeds and he always approaches them with a view to learn from them lessons of noble behavior.

He always behaves within the limits of his stature in life and feels contented with what is with him.

He always keeps to his capacity a library of good religious works.

H maintains or runs his family life with minimum needs and with due care, keeps away from hurting any living being.

Such life of a best householder Shrawaka leads him to his best spiritual development and this is what is said by the all-knowing best men.

Inquirer of Truth - Intellectual Truth! Some are devoted to Shankar, some to Brahma, some to Vishnu, some to Sun, some to fire, some to Bhavani, some to Paigambar and some are devoted to Jesus Christ. What would they be expecting to gain by their devotion?

Truth - Dear Inquirer, all these devotees worship various deities with great expectations to gain liberation.

Inquirer - Tell me then do you think that by such devotion they will obtain the highest state i.e., liberation?

Truth - I cannot say that they will do so. Whomsoever they call their Deities or highest Gods have themselves not attained liberation, then how will they help their devotees to obtain it? Shankar etc, have not burnt or destroyed their own Karmas and they have their own shortcomings; therefore they are not worthy of worship by their devotees for liberation.

Inquirer - What are these shortcomings ? Please narrate.

Truth - Ignorance, sex-desire, laughter, affection, hate, sleep, Mithyatva or wrong attribution or misunderstanding, attachment, avarice, absence of non-attachment, fear, sorrow, disliking, obstruction to donation, obstruction to gain, obstruction to valour, obstruction to enjoyments of things enjoyable single time as well as many times. These are eighteen shortcomings or imperfections. If a Deity has any one of the above mentioned imperfections Or shortcomings, he does not deserve to be worshipped or devoted by the aspirants for liberation.

One able Pandit(well - versed in learning) has said that those who call themselves God and are inviting others to call them so, are self-cheats, because by keeping a woman by their side they are not sex free, taking weapons in their hands to kill others they have enmities for their enemies, by keeping a garland of beads for repeatedly chanting the name of a Deity, the fickleness of their minds is proved or affliction of their minds is indicated. Those who say 'Come to my shelter, I shall protect you, I shall relieve you from all your sins' are egotists and atheists. If such is their own state, how can they help others to obtain liberation? Besides some say they have taken human incarnation being God themselves, then this proves that they have some purpose to fulfill and so they are imperfect.

Inquirer - Well brother, then who is worthy of worship and whom should we offer devotion so that virtues of our own self can shine out?

Truth - Our self can shine out most by devoting our-self to the infinitely self -realized souls who are in form of pure truth, consciousness and bliss; besides this can also be done by offering devotion to Jineshwar Bhagawan Mahavir who is free from all above mentioned shortcomings, who is free from the dirt of all Karmas, liberated himself, completely non-attached, completely fearless, all knowing and all seeing.

Inquirer - Shall we then believe that by devoting to the infinitely self-realized souls and to Jineshwar Bhagawan they will give us our liberation.

Truth - O brother Inquirer! That infinitely all knowing Bhagawan is completely non attached and without any imperfections; he does not expect either his praise or blame, nor has he any desire or purpose of giving us the fruit of our devotion to him. In fact it is necessary to make an incomparable self effort to avoid ignorance and infatuation and bondage of all our Karmas good, bad and indifferent in which our soul is fettered; and Jineshwar Bhagawan and other self-realized souls who have become immotal, infinitely powerful, all knowing, and all seeing and so who have completely realised their self in its full nature, are showing us the path to follow and by their purity they inspire us to become like them as in origin state of our soul, they are helping us to make supreme effort for our liberation, they help us in freeing our-self from all imperfections, they give us peace and strength to burn our Karmas as by taking a sword in our hand valeur shines out and by taking an intoxicating drink we get intoxicated, so by meditating on the infinite virtues of Jineshwar Bhagawan and other self-realized souls, our soul also rises on the ladder of infinite virtues leading to self's pure nature, and bliss. As by taking a looking glass in our hand we are able to see our face as it is, so by devoting ourselves to Jineshwar Bhagawan and other self-realized souls, we get a clear vision of our self in its real nature.

 Inquirer - Arya Satya! If all self realized souls are worthy of worship and devotion, then is it necessary to worship a particular self-realized soul by his name?

Truth - Yes, it is necessary to worship a self- realized soul by his name. Whatever thoughts and reflections arise by meditating on the pure form of a self-realized soul is the effect but by what means they became self-realized, when we reflect on these means, we will remember their extreme control on the senses, great non-attachment, infinite compassion or sympathy, great meditation etc. By remembering the names by which these self-realized souls were moving from place to place as Arhat Tirthankaras, their pure noble conduct and pure faultless character will be remembered by us and loved in our hearts and this love for such noble behavior and conduct will do us much good. While remembering Bhagawan Mahavir's name we shall be prompted to know who he was, when was he born and what did he do to become self-realized. All this will be remembered by us and thereby a spirit of such non-attachment and excellent discrimination can grow and develop in us.

Inquirer - But in Logassa-Sutra, there is a mention of names of twenty-four Tirthankaras? Explain to me the purpose of such mentioning.

Truth - The purpose of such a mention is that one can remember the names and noble conduct and character of twenty-four Jineshwaras who lived in this time and in particular areas of our land and thereby one can gain pure truth. The conduct of a non- attached person preaches non-attachment. In the form of a self-realized soul, all twenty-four names of twenty-four Tirthankaras as a group of infinite series of twenty-four Tirthankaras who flourished in various spans of infinite time are included. By remembering now the names of twenty-four Tirthankaras of our present time, we remember fine knowledge of the condition of our times. Just as we in our time remember the names of twenty-four Tirthankaras of our time so did the devotees remember the names of twenty-four Tirthankaras well known in their time in the past and this will be followed in future too when with advance of time new series of twenty-four Thirhankaras will flourish in future. Therefore it is not for certain that twenty-four names of a particular group of twenty-four Thirthankaras must be taken or remembered. But the essential lesson is that it will be easy to remember the life and conduct of the series of Tirthankaras of his time for the memory of their virtues and efforts made for self-realization, One can only know by the name of a Tirthankara his birth, his activities and his preaching. And by such remembrance our soul shines out; as a serpent, awakens hearing the sound of a flute, so a soul hearing its powers gets awakened from its slumber of worldly life.

Inquirer - You have given me the best reason for devotion to Jineshwar Bhagawan Mahavir. My view that devotion to Jineshwar is not at all fruitful, caused by the influence of modern education, is now gone and I firmly believe that one must devote himself to Jineshwar Bhagawan.

Truth - One gains incomparable benefit by devoting to Jineshwar Bhagawan. There are great reasons for it Jineshwar Bhagawan. There are great reasons for it, e.g. "Recognizing his obligation, we should worship him necessarily. As by such devotion we remember their great effort at self-realization and this brings us essential good. I have told these general reasons according to my intelligence only. Let this be the cause of happiness to other devotees also."

Some believe that true greatness consists in wealth, some believe it to consist in having a high family status, some believe it to consist in having good sons, some by positions of power and high authority; but all these beliefs are false or wrong or erroneous when looked at from a discriminative intelligence. Whatever these people regard as greatness is not really great at all, on the contrary these things or achievements are insignificant.

You may be believing that in worldly life you become great getting good food, drink, honor, command over servants, prosperity and all these on the strength of your wealth, but just because of these achievements only you cannot be really great, you should not believe this to be greatness at all. Wealth is collected by incurring many many sins; when achieved, it breeds pride, inattention towards duties, indiscrimination to what is right and what is wrong in you.

For achieving a high family status you have to maintain a large family satisfying all its needs, and in so doing you have to incur sins and suffer pains and miseries; you have to maintain your family by many immoral acts. Having good sons, does not give us forever, good name and fame and for maintaining them also we have to perform sinful deeds of many kinds; and with all these what benefit we gain ?

By authority or power we become dependent on persons senior to us, we get puffed up with pride of power and sometimes we have to become cruel and inflict pain on others, sometimes we have to employ immoral or questionable means, sometimes we have to bribe persons and be unjust to some persons; sometimes we have to use these means willingly or sometimes we are forced to employ them un-willingly. Tell me then what greatness lies in all these? Only greatness of our sinful Karmas. By sinful Karmas we down our soul and where there is our soul's downfall there is no greatness at all, on the other hand it is only lowerness.

Soul's greatness lies in truth speaking, compassion, forgiveness, benevolence and equanimity. Wealth etc. gives greatness to our Karmas and not to our soul. Thinking this way wise persons give their wealth in charity, become relievers of other people's pain and sorrow by establishing best schools of learning; keeping only one wife, look at all other women as their daughters. They by their families become beneficial to a certain community; entrusting the burden of maintenance of worldly life to their sons they devote their life to a religious discipline; they show to others what is good moral life by wisely conducting their authority or power for the benefit of the King whom they advise or serve and also benefit the subjects of the king by wise and judicious administration. In this way a kind of true greatness is achieved. But even such greatness is not fixed and firm. There is always a fear of death. What one hopes to do, he is unable to do and his hopes remain in the precincts of his own mind. The world attraction is such that one forgets his plan or one loses his discriminative power. Therefore we should definitely or undoubtedly realize that there is no real greatness like truth speaking, compassion, forgiveness, celibacy and equanimity. Bhikshuk or one monk observing pure five great vows achieves real powers and real greatness - the like of which had not been achieved by even Brahamadatta-sovereign ruler of a large kingdom by his wealth, family, sons and high authority. This is my view.

By Bahubala one has not to mean the strength of one's own hands or arms. But here is given a short but wonderful life story of a great man named Bahubala.

Bhagawan Rishabhadeva a king leaving all attachments, entrusting his duties as king to his two sons Bharat and Bahubala was moving as an ascetic. After some time Bharat became a sovereign ruler and in his school of weapons was produced a powerful wheel and all the land wherever this wheel moved was brought under his rule a~7d so he became the ruler of six continents. Only Bahubala did not accept his brother's suzerainty and so there was a battle between them; for a long time none was defeated; then Bharat in bitter anger hurled the strong wheel on Bahubala, but the rule was that this wheel would be ineffective on brothers of the same father and so this hurled wheel returned to Bharat without hurting Bahubala. At this Bhahubala became very much angry and raised his powerful fist to beat Bharat, but exactly at that time there was a change in Bahubala's mind, his inclinations changed and he repented for what he had done and what he was about to do. He said, "What I am doing is highly censurable and the result of my that doing will be very harmful and painful to me. Let Bharat enjoy the whole kingdom. Why should we destroy each other and gain nothing? I should not strike Bharat with my closed palm of my hand, but it is also not proper to turn back my palm." So saying Bahubala with that palm pulled out hair from his own head and turned a monk, and left his kingdom and moved out as an ascetic. He desired to go and meet Bhagawan Aadishwar who was staying with his ninetyeight religious initiated sons and other noble devotees male and female but feelings of pride arose in his mind that if he went there he might have to bow down to his ninety-eight younger brothers and so it was not proper for him to go there. Moved by such thought of pride he stayed in the forest with single minded devotion and concentration.

Gradually twelve months elapsed and due to extreme penance, his body was reduced to a mere skeleton of bones and he looked like a dried tree but till the seed of pride was present in his mind, he could not obtain perfect liberation. Then Brahmi and Sundari both sisters in form of nuns came to him and preached him as under:-- "Arya Valourous Brother! You row get down from an intoxicated elephant. By riding it, you have suffered much." Hearing this from his sisters Bahubala started thinking about the preaching of the sisters and as a result he came to realize that the intoxicated elephant was none else but his sense of pride which he still had kept preserved in his mind and soon he abandoned feelings of pride and as he started to bowing down to his father and ninety-eight younger brothers, he obtained absolute incomparable and divine state of self-liberation.

Reader ! See how feelings of pride are undesirable and harmful!!

A living soul wanders in the forest of worldly life by enjoying fruits of his meritorious deeds (Shata Vedaniya) as well as suffering the results of his sinful deeds (Ashata Vedaniya) in following four states which must be known by every aspirant for liberation.

(1) Narakagati:-- State of hellish experience - Persons planning big worldly gains for their selfish ends without any consideration of harm to others involved in carrying out such big plans, drunkards, flesh - eaters and such other people engaged in killing other living beings, go into dire hell where not even for a moment they experience peace, rest or any kind of happiness. In hell, there is deep darkness all around. There one has to suffer cutting of his own bodily parts, one has to suffer burning his body into fire and one has to drink bitter water which would pierce every part of his body touched by that bitter water. One has to suffer terrible miseries of narrowness of space, restlessness and continuous instability in such dire hell. The miseries of such hellish life cannot ever be completely described by all-knowing realized souls. Oh! This soul has suffered such miseries of hell time without number.

(2) Tiryanchagati :-- A person employing deceit, lies and questionable ignoble means in worldly life, becomes in his next birth a lion, a tiger, an elephant, a deer, a cow, a buffalo, and an ox etc. In this state of birth, one suffers from hunger, thirst, heat, slaying and bondage, beating, carrying unbearable burden compulsorily and such other pains and tortures.

(3) Manushyagati (Human Birth) :-- In human birth, one loses control over what to eat and drink and what not to; in these matters one behaves without proper consideration of bodily health; one behaves shamelessly, one enjoys sex life with his mother and daughter and does not consider such action as sinful at all having no idea of moral or immoral life; one daily eats flesh, steals and enjoys sex life with other person's wife - all these are great sins but a man sometimes does not feel them so and does what he must not do. In other countries where proper lessons of good moral life are not taught, human beings may behave in manner described above, but even in Arya Desha or India also the Kshatriyas - Warriors, Brahmins, Vaishyas who are without intelligence, poor, ignorant and suffering from various kinds of diseases, and such persons are suffering miseries arising from pride, dishonor and such other mental states.

(4) Devagati :-- In this state of the life of deities one suffers from mutual enmities, hatred, afflictions, sorrow, avarice, sex obsession, intoxication, hunger etc. Even deities are living such lives full of suffering and torture.

Thus these four states of a soul are described in general. In all these four states of a living being, human state is the best one and also not very easy to obtain. The highest benefit of knowing and realizing one's self can only be gained in one's state of a human being. So a human birth for self-realization is absolutely essential. Still in this human birth, one has to undergo many pains and face with many obstructions in one's path of liberation.

Even in human birth, a soul suffers much pain in its embryonic state in the mother's womb almost eight times the pain suffered by piercing red hot needles all over the skin of a very young person, and it gets delivered after living in mother's refuge, urine, blood and pus almost for a long period of nine months in a fainted state. Even at the time of delivery, the soul suffers infinitely more pain than in that suffered in its embryonic state. Then one becomes a child and this state of childhood is spent in refuge and urine and in a naked state playing in dust, moving and crying in ignorance for some years. Then comes youth and in this state one has to incur many kinds of sinful actions for earning livelihood and he turns his mind to the source of his birth i.e. in sex life. The youth is spent away in infatuation, intoxication, idleness, pride, censure, contacts and separations and many cycles of such type. Soon after it, comes old age in which state, our body is trembling, saliva drops out of our mouth by its losing its teeth; our skin is showing wrinkles on its surface, our senses of smelling; hearing and seeing become dull; our hair grow white and begin to drop out; we lose the power of walking, and so we have to move languidly with a stick in our hand as our support and sometimes we have to spend the rest of our life bed-ridden. Heavy breathing, cough and such other diseases overpower us and marking time for death one day we are dead and gone forever. Our soul leaves our present body and goes away; our dead body is either burnt to ashes or cremated for rotting. How strong agony we suffer at the time of our death? Thus even in this best human birth-best of all four births mentioned above- one's life is full of pain and suffering; and not withstanding all this, one may not pass through all states of life from birth to death as per order described above. Death visits a living being at any time it likes; it does not necessarily visit us in our ripe age; it may take our life even at birth, or in childhood or youth suddenly. Therefore wise men work for their soul's benefit quickly without sloth or idleness.

1. Great philosophers compare worldly life with a sea. The sea of worldly life is unending and unfathomable. O people! Employ your best effort for crossing this sea of worldly life successfully! Make the best effort for it! These are the repeated words of philosophers at various places. This analogy is quite adequate too. Just as in a sea, many waves arise, similarly waves of sex and other sense desires arise in a man's mind in worldly life, Just as the sea surface is plain on top, so also this worldly life looks quite simple and easy apparently; just as a sea is very deep at some places this sea of Samsara or worldly life is full of turning a man round and round, leading him to his downfall in a feat of illusion or hallucination or infatuation or intoxication. By standing near a seashore in its shallow waters, sometimes we deep our legs in mud, so this sea of worldly life deeps us in the mud of strong desires for worldly enjoyments even in very small incidents. Just as a sea when stormy, drowns a boat or a big ship, so this worldly life leads a soul down by storms in the forms of contact of women and strong desire for sex enjoyments. As a sea looking quiet and cool by unfathomable water contains fire in it called Wadavanala = fabulous sub-marine fire, similarly in worldly life Maya or misunderstanding always burns ablaze. As in monsoon a sea becomes very deep by rain water, so the sea of Samsara or worldly life by sinful acts of a person leads him to deep down to his downfall and firms up its foundations for keeping a soul always bound and miserable.

2. Second fitting analogy of worldly life is that of fire. Just as fire produces or emits burning heat, so the soul is given many torments, sorrows, miseries and many sufferings by worldly life. Just as a person cries tearfully when burned by fire, so a person cries tearfully to get out of worldly life when burnt by hellish unendurable unlimited troubles and torments given by worldly life. Just as fire destroys all that is poured in it so worldly life destroys all souls that are led away by it. As fire grows by whatever combustible substance like Ghee or firewood is put in it, so this worldly life grows by Ghee in the form of allurements and firewood in the form of attachment to sense objects.

3. The third fitting analogy to worldly life is that of darkness. Just as a string gives us in darkness an impression of a serpent, so does worldly life show truth as untruth. As in darkness, living beings meet with striking wrong objects and get pained, so many souls wander unconsciously or without a knowledge of their true nature of a soul or self, in the four states or births of a living being. As in darkness, glass and diamond are felt alike and none is correctly known, so in the darkness of worldly life, one does not have the knowledge of what is proper and what is improper from the point of view of soul's real nature. As in darkness, animals and men with eyes working, behave as if they are blind, so in worldly life even people knowing souls get infatuated as if they are blind. As in darkness the trouble of owls and other dangerous animals is on the increase, so in worldly life, greed, misunderstanding (Maya = illusion) etc. are on the increase. Looking thus from many points of view, worldly life is really like darkness.

4. The fourth analogy to worldly life is that of a wheel of a cart. As while moving ahead, it is moving itself round and round, so this worldly life keeps on going moving itself round and round, like the wheel of a moving cart. As the cart wheel cannot move without its axle, so this worldly life cannot move without its axle of unreality or Mithyatva or illusoriness. As the wheel is supported by its spokes, so this worldly life sustains itself on doubt and carelessness for reality and infatuation or Pramad. Thus in many ways worldly life can be rightly compared with the wheel of a moving cart.

Whatever low analogies can fittingly be given to worldly life are less than it deserves. We knew these four analogies. Now we should derive a lesson from them.

1. Just as one can cross an ocean with the help of a Strong boat and an expert boatman knowing the nature of the sea and trend of its water currents, so with the help of true religion and a set realized preceptor or a saintly Guru or Master, this ocean of worldly life can be successfully crossed by the spiritual aspirant for liberation. Just as wise navigators have found out a safe way of crossing a deep ocean, so has Jineshwar Bhagawan shown the way of best philosophy which will safely save one from worldly life.

2. As fire consumes everything it gets but by water it extinguishes, so by the water in the form of total non-attachment the fire of worldly life can be totally extinguished.

3. As one can see his way in darkness with a lighted lamp, so with the lamp of philosophy, the darkness of worldly life can be totally dispelled and the truth of the self can be seen.

4. Just as a cart cannot move without an ox or a pair of oxen, so the wheel of worldly life cannot move without the help of attachment and hatred. Thus like a good physician, proper diagnosis of the disease of worldly life is shown above, with it analogically the right medicine along with necessary instructions to follow for successful cure are also mentioned above, and one who wants liberation of his soul is advised to constantly keep this in mind and he should advise others also to do the same.

Philosophers advise reflecting on and keeping in mind following twelve aspirations for fixity of the attitude of total non-attachment and that of similar subjects beneficial to one's soul.

1. This body, prosperity, wealth, family, other relations are all destructible. Only the soul or self which wrongly owns the above appendages is really indestructible or to feel that everything other than one's self or soul is transient while only the soul or self is permanent and eternal. To keep this in our mind is the first aspiration called Anitya Bhavana.

2. There is none to protect our self at the time of the death of our body, only a resort to true religion can protect us. To think this way is the Second Asharana Bhavana.

3. To realize that this soul of ours has wandered through many cycles of birth and death and now is the time to find out a way of getting liberation from it. When shall I be free from it? It i.e., worldly life is not mine, I am a liberated soul. To think this way is the Third Samsara Bhavana.

4. To think that this my soul is alone, it has taken birth alone and it will leave this living body alone; it will alone suffer or enjoy the fruits of its bad or good deeds. To think constantly this way is the Fourth Ekatva Bhavana.

5. To think that in this world none is related to each other; his body, wife, sons and all are quite different from him is called Fifth Anyatva Bhavana.

6. To think that this body of ours is impure or unholy, it is a mine of refuge and urine, that it is the resting place or abode of diseases and old-age; that I am quite different or separate from such a body - this is the Sixth Ashuchi Bhavana.

7. Attachment, hatred, ignorance, illusion or misunderstanding (Mithyatva) etc. are all adventitious to our soul; that they are incoming troubles to our soul - to think this way is known as the Seventh Asrava Bhavana.

8. To employ one's soul in obtaining right knowledge, appropriate meditation and thus to stop performing new actions or Karmas- to think this way is called the Eighth Samvara Bhavana.

9. To act in religion with right knowledge is the way to burn our past Karmas. To constantly think this way is known as the Ninth Nirjara Bhavana.

10. To think of the origin, maintenance and destruction of a hierarchy of all worlds of living beings and matter is the Tenth Lokamrarupa Bhavana.

11. To keep in mind that while wandering in worldly life to get right knowledge to the soul, is rare, and suppose such knowledge is obtained, then to imbibe true religion leading us to total non-attachment is further a rarity - this way of thinking or reflecting is known as Eleventh Bodha Durlabha Bhavana.

12. To keep in mind that to get a right preacher of true religion and to have a teacher of pure religious scriptures in this worldly life of ours, is very difficult and so a rarity. To think this way is the Twelfth Dharma Durlabha Bhavana.

By constantly doting upon the above mentioned twelve life-saving aspirations, good and noble souls have realized the highest state of their being, whoever thinks now or will think similarly in future will get the same result.

In the time of Bhagawan Mahavir there lived a Shrawaka hearer and follower of true Jain Religion- named Kamadeva who with a pure heart, observed twelve vows or Vratas, and endowed with discriminative intelligence was always devoted to the teach- ings of Nirgrantha Bhagawan Mahavir. Once in the Divine Assembly, Indra the highest Deity praised Kamadevals firm faith in Jain Religion. At that time, a deity of shallow understanding hearing in the Assembly this praise of Kamadeva, spoke out:--

" I have followed it. All can call themselves patient and quiet till they do not suffer from torments and miseries (Parishaha) and they can also boast of being steadfastly devotional to their adopted religion. I can prove this fact by turning Kamadeva's mind away from his devotion to Jain Religion." Kamadeva who as at that time quite stabilized in strongly observing his soul quite different from his body as a practice to leave his body peacefully at the time of death and free his soul (in Jainism it is called Kayotsarga)

This boastful deity assumed the guise of an elephant and pressed Kamadeva unbearably but Kamadeva remained unmoved and steady; then this deity adopted the body like a wooden pestle and in the guise of a black serpent or cobra made a terrible hiss, but Kamadeva remained unmoved and did not swerve even a little; then this Deity laughed cruelly and in a guise of a monster, beat Kamadeva and tormented him very much; even then Kamadeva did not shake or swerve from his Kayotsarga; then this deity assumed the body of a lion and began to frighten Kamadeva but the latter did not budge a little from his Kayotsarga. This way this boastful deity tried his best for the major part of the night to deviate Kamadeva from his Kayotsarga but totally failed in all his overtures. Then the deity by his Yogic insight saw that Kamadeva was unshakable Like immovable Meru Mountain. Then knowing unshakable stability and faith of Kamadeva in his Kayotsarga religious practice, he bowed down to Kamadeva in veneration and praise and asking pardon for what he had done, he returned home.

What lesson we get from the stability of Kamadeva in his Kayotsarga, can be easily understood from the above story without any further comment. The philosophic lesson from this is, that once you enter the preaching of Nirgrantha Mahavir Bhagawan, you should remain steadfast like Kamadeva Shrawaka in your faith in the sayings of Bhagawan Mahavir. Meditations such as Kayotsarga should be done faultlessly, with a single-minded faith and steadfast devotion. With a changing or fickle mind, Kayotsarga meditation becomes faulty. We are pained to think of those who are prepared to down their religion for gaining some monetary value as they cannot be expected to be steadfast in their religious practices.

It is said even in common words that truth is the support of this world creation, or this world maintains itself on the foundation of truth. From this saying the lesson is that religion, morality, kingdom and normal dealings in worldly life are carried on by truth. How dangerous would be the state of this world if there is no existence of these above four? Therefore to hold that the whole world is maintained on truth is neither exaggeration nor unbelievable.

I am describing below, for philosophic consideration, how dangerous a bit of untruth of only one word spoken by King Vasu had resulted for him.

Vasuraja or King Vasu, Narada and Parvata learnt same discipline from one teacher. Parvata was the son of the teacher who after his father's death, came to stay with his mother in the assembly of King Vasu. One night, with his mother by his side, Parvata and Narada were studying the religious books, while during study Parvata said 'Ajahotavyam'. Hearing this, Narada asked Parvata the meaning of Aja to which Parrata replied, 'Naturally, Aja means a goat'. Narada said, " When we three were studying this religious work under your father's guidance your father said that Aja meant Vrihi or rice of three years and now why do you say quite wrong? Thus verbal conflict arose between Narada and Parvata on the truth of what the master said about the meaning of Aja. Then Parvata said, " Let us go to Vasuraja or King Vasu and what he meant by Aja should be accepted by both of us as correct." Narada accepted Parvata's proposal and decided a prize to be given to the winner. Paravata's mother sitting by the side of her son, heard this discourse or dialogue. She also remembered clearly her husband's statement about the meaning of Aja as Vrihi or three years old rice. So fearing the defeat of her son Parvata, she went to King Vasu same night and she asked him about the meaning of the word Aja; to this King Vasu, who had also learnt from Parvata's father as his teacher, that Aja meant Vrihi in the context of Ajahotavyam, said Aja meant Vrihi.

Hearing this Parvata's mother said,' My son has told Narada that Aja meant a goat and knowing this is not correct, you shall have to tell Narada that Parvata was right in meaning Aja as a goat in that particular context, that this is to be done for siding with her son's statement when the contestants Parvata and Narada would approach him for correct meaning of Aja. To this King Vasu said,' How can I tell a lie? I cannot speak untruth.' But Parvata's mother said ' If you do not side with my son, I shall put my life to an end. Hearing this, King Vasu was under a dilemma. He thought that on his throne, he always spoke the truth and so he was sitting on his throne without any support of the throne seat and it was well known to all people under his rule. Now what should be done? If truth is told then he incurs the sin of the death of Parvata's mother and wife of his teacher; if he accepts Parvata's meaning of Aja as a goat he has to tell the untruth by which he would lose all fame of being a truth speaker.

Inspite of his love for truth- speaking, to save the life of his teacher's wife, King Vasu very reluctantly said to Parvata's mother that he would tell a lie and side with Parvata's meaning of the said word. Hearing these words of King Vasu, she came home. Next morning Narada, Parvata and his mother came to King Vasu for decision. King Vasu deliberately pleading ignorance, asked Parvata what was the bone of contention, to this Parvata said, 'O King of Kings Vasu! Tell us the meaning of Aja. King Vasu asked Narada as to what did Aja mean according to him. Narada replied'O King ! Why do you not remember that Aja meant three years old Vrihi?' Hearing this, King Vasu said,'Aja meant a goat and not Vrihi.' The moment these words came out of the mouth of King Vasu, he was hurled out from his throne and he died on the spot.

The main lesson for us from the above story is that we should always speak the truth and particularly a King not only should speak the truth but also should favor justice.

Of the five great vows advised by Bhagawan Mahavir the first is non-violence in thought, word and deed and as fences around this vow, the rest four are given; the first of these fences is the great vow of truth speaking. It is necessary to know many sections of truth from religious scriptures.

Contact of a saint is the root of all happiness. By contact with a Saint, one can achieve his best desires for soul's progress. Contact with a Saint is the best means to purify our-self. What we gain by a few minutes of contact with a Saint, cannot be achieved by many years of bad contacts, on the contrary such bad contact prompts us to incur many sinful deeds, and defiles our soul. The general meaning of Satsanga or Saintly contact is the contact with the best person. Where there is no pure and clean air, there is the breeding ground of diseases; similarly in the absence of contact with the Saints, the soul's diseases are on the increase. As we try to close our nose by cloth from inhaling filthy smell, so it is necessary to keep away from bad contacts. Worldly life is also one kind of contact, and it is infinitely bad contact bringing pain and misery to our soul and therefore abandoning it, is highly desirable. Whatever kind of contact not helping one in self-realization is no good contact. Satsanga or contact with al Saint always puts us on the right path of self-realization. That which shows us the path to liberation is really good friendship. To keep our mind solely engaged in reading and thinking about the best religious books is also a Saintly contact. Meeting Saintly persons and observing their disciplined life is also a kind of Saintly contact. As the dirt and dust of a cloth is washed out by a good detergent or a soap and clean water, so the teachings of religious works and those of Saintly persons in our contact, help us to remove all binding Karmas of our soul so as to purify and liberate it. Take it for certain that a contact advocating attachment, enticement to pleasures like music, dance and encouraging sweet or tasty food, howsoever you live in such contact, is definitely a bad contact and it must be avoided at all cost. Even one saying gained by Saintly contact, gives us invaluable benefit. Therefore philosophers, have principally advised us to avoid all worldly contacts and keeping aside all other thoughts and feelings in our mind should think of our loneliness. In this advice praise of contact with Saints and good religious books is included. Absolute unity of mind means keeping one's mind in deep meditation or in the study of Yoga. But contact of similar thinking persons irrespective of their number is also a kind of loneliness because their behavior has exemplary similarity based on identical feeling and thinking and willing. And in this way, the contact of the Saints, all working for same goal or purpose of self-liberation, is also a kind of loneliness; If it is asked that why should the contact of many sense-indulging persons not be called loneliness as they also think of similar thoughts and behavior, our reply is that such persons are not of the same nature. They are led away by their different self-interests and they quarrel among themselves and work for cross-purposes inviting unending troubles and worries to all around. Where a contact involves selfish interest and illusion or Maya, is not to be regarded as good contact at all. Such contacts are never pure or faultless. When great monks meet they are pleased with one another, they respect each other, they are free from considerations of love and hate, they are all self contented and they all think of purifying their own souls and help others to do so. Also to some extent such Saintly contact is of a person engrossed in religious meditation with minimum movement. Joy derived from contact with the Saints is highly praiseworthy. A Saintly contact gives best knowledge, clarifies several questions from scriptures, describes or tells stories of knowledge and meditations of various kinds, inspires good reflection on the characters of Saints, releases waves of philosophical thoughts, is a place where there is a discussion of essential principles of good religion with an impartial or non-sectarian point of view, where there is much deliberation on statements about liberation - such saintly contact is very difficult to obtain. If it is asked as to the possibility of the presence of a deluded person in saintly contact, here is the answer. Where there is illusion and selfishness, it is not a Saintly contact at all. The crow in the assembly of swans, if not detected by color or appearance, will be easily distinguished or recognized by its different voice; if it keeps mum, it can be identified by its facial features, but it will not go into darkness. Besides what will deluded people engrossed in the life of worldly enjoyments gain by going to the assembly of Saints? There in Saintly contact, there will be no talk of eating; possibly they may go to the Saint for a little peace from worldly worries and if one goes there once, he may like to go there frequently for developing a love of a life of religious discipline and it may be for his good; and suppose he does not like the talk of the Saint, he may stop contacting him further. As you cannot swim on solid earth, you can never degenerate into bad life by saintly contact. This is the wonderful effect of saintly contact. Which worldly person with delusion would go to a saint whose contact is faultless and whose behavior is morally exemplary ? Rarely any unfortunate and that too is impossible. Saintly contact is a supreme beneficial medicine for a troubled soul.

A living being having no limit to its possessions, is not happy. Whatever such a greedy person acquires, he desires to get more than it and in his burning desire to get more and more, he is unable to enjoy fully what he already has acquired, and sometimes he loses what he has already got. By such greed, his mind remains always unsatisfied and it becomes unstable and he indulges in sinful activities to satisfy his greed. In case, by accident he loses his life in the craze for getting more possessions, then it becomes the cause of his downfall. The best of monks can absolutely abandon all acquisitions or possessions, but even householders can fix up a limit of their possessions, according to their real needs. By fixing a limit, one does not try to keep with him more than what he requires within his limits; and this way, he develops a sense of satisfaction in what he has already acquired and he becomes free from a mad desire to get more and moreof what he has with him. Thus he passes his time happily. It is a strange nature of wealth that when one has it, his desire to get more grows and thus his greed increases day by day. Rarely, a man even possessed of some religious knowledge and firmly believing in leading a religiously good life, can free himself from the fetters of greed, and his inclinations get stuck up in this greed. But such greed is never bringing happiness to a man nor is it beneficial to his soul. Those who did not put a limit to greed, have been found to have suffered harm immensely.

One who conquers the land of six continents and compels all the people of the conquered land to follow his commands, is known as a King of Kings _ a Chakravarti King whose word is law to ail lands where his conquering wheel goes. In the series of such Kings of Kings in a long stretch of time in the past, there was a Chakravarti King named Subhum who was not satisfied with his possessions of six continents and so he decided to conquer other six continents as part of series of Dhataki continents. We said, all the Chakravarti conquered six continents but he should do something more than that. By being the Lord of twelve continents his fame would spread far and wide for a long period. With this object in view, he put a Charmaratna or a hide jewel in the sea on which his large army was supported. It is said that one thousand Deities served this Charmaratna, one of whom thought as to when would he be free from that servitude and so he thought before starting serving Charmaratna, he should meet his wife and with this idea uppermost in his mind this deity went away, and other deities similarly followed the first one and in the end as there was no controller of Charmaratna, it was drowned and with its drowning King Subhum with all his army also died by drowning. King Subhum with his ambition to command more lands dipped in sins went to seventh hell, the direst of all pain giving hells named Tamatamapcabha. See! The commander of six continents King Subhum could not enjoy and in a greed of getting more and more possessions he died with all his soldiers. If this is the miserable end of a King of Kings then what to talk of ordinary mortals? Thus greed or extreme possessiveness is the root cause of many sins. It can be called the father of sins. Its nature is to obstruct eleven vows. Therefore one who works for the uplift of his own soul, should at all cost abandon greed and behave putting limit to his acquisitions or possessions. In short one should live with the satisfaction of his minimum needs.

There can be many persons who have committed to heart a number of scriptures but there are very few who have deeply and discriminatively thought over a few sayings of the great teachers and have thereby acquired as much knowledge as is available in the scriptures. To reach the real is not a small matter; it is just like crossing a sea by one jump.

Artha means wealth, Artha means the real and Artha means a sense of meaning or a second name of the.same word. The word Artha has many such other meanings. But here in this lesson I shalt tell you about Artha meaning the real. Those who commit to memory the holy sayings contained in the addresses of Nirgrantha Bhagawan Mahavir, by their strength of love for them, gain good fruit but if they realize their inmost essential meaning, they are able to gain happiness, joy, discrimination and a very great wonderful beneficial result. As an illiterate man cannot distinguish between fine letters and wrongly drawn lines or scribblings, so does the person given to committing something to memory know little the distinction between the thoughts expressed in other books and the sayings of Nirgrantha Bhagawan Mahavir and this is because he has not deeply thought over and grasped the indwelling meaning of these invaluable sayings or teachings; also he has not rightly considered them. Though one requires a powerful sharp intelligence to rightly grasp their hidden meaning but still one can think over it to some extent. A stone may not melt but it can be wet by water. So whichever sayings are committed to memory would yield more benefit if they are also understood correctly in their hidden meanings. Without such understanding, mere committing to memory is parrot like. A parrot can be trained to call out Rama without having any idea of Rama at all. A parrot does not know whether Rama is a person's name or the name of any fruit grape etc. Such is the state of a person who without grasping the meaning of a statement simply commits it to memory.

An illustration of Vaishyas or Shrawakas of Kutch though laughable, is appropriate here to give us a good lesson. In some village of Kutch State there lived three Shrawakas named Rayashi, Devashi and Khetashi and they were regularly observing their Pratikraman = looking over the sins committed in the immediate past and begging pardon and deciding not to repeat them in early morning and at dusk. In early morning Rayashi used to lead this practice and at dusk Devashi. Pratikraman at early morning for the night Rayashi used to lead and therein he had to start saying ' Rayashi Padikkamanu Thayammi' and similarly Devashi had to start saying 'Devashi Padikkamanu Thayammi' at dusk for the day time. It so happened once that by pressing request of many persons at dusk on one day Khetashi was asked to lead Pratikraman.So Khetashi like thosetwo Shrawakas, started Pratikraman by saying 'Khetashi Padikkamanu Thayammi. Here he only substituted his name where Rayashi and Devashi were starting Pratikraman with their names. Hearing these words all burst out into laughter and when Khetashi asked as to why others laughed, he was replied that he should not say'Khetashi Padikkamanu Thayammi.' Khetshi replied' I followed Rayashi and Devashi. When they started Pratikraman with their names you did not object and now when I do the same, you laugh and object to my so doing. Is it because I am poor and they are rich that you object and laugh me out?' Khetashi's simplicity was pointed out and the reason for not saying 'Khetashi Padikkamanu Thayammi' was explained to him and then Khetashi realised his mistake and was taken a little aback for his memorising without knowing the meaning.

This is only an ordinary story, but the wonder of meaning is really worth noting; a philosopher can think more on this matter. Otherwise the sayings of Nirgrantha Vardhaman Mahavir are always gainful to the learner as sugar is sweet to any person who eats it. Oh! What a wonder the meaning of a word creates? And what joy we have, when we appreciate the meaning of words!

Just as discrimination is the root element of religion, Yatna or carefulness to see that no living being is hurt by our action, is the subsidiary origin or root of religion. By discrimination, we can grasp religious teachings and by careful behavior in accord with them, the elements of religion can be kept pure and one's behavior can be properly religious. Yatna means careful and beneficial non-violent behavior. Yatna to be observed by Saints of Jain religion are called five Samities which are super most.

These five Samities or five types of careful behavior which protect the great vow of compassion or non-violence, of Jain Saints cannot be completely observed by a householder, still if he behaves with care, he can to a good extent observe the vow of non-violence. What is therefore important, is very careful and modest behavior and gentle action in all possible ways. Where there is carelessness, there compassion cannot be easily observed - compassion gross and subtle prescribed by Jineshwar Bhagawan. And all this happens because of want of sufficient carefulness or Yatna. Swift and fast walk, imperfect way of cleaning water, use of firewood without removing dust and insects moving on it, using anything without a proper look at it, imperfect inspection of germs in corn, keeping utensils for long without proper cleaning, unclean and dusty rooms, Spilling water in the entrance of one's house, keeping unused cooked food for long, putting a hot dish on floor without keeping it on a good wooden support doing all these things, one gains only uncleanliness, obstructions and loss of health and these cause great sins. Therefore one is advised to do every action carefully to avoid any hurt to a living being or a loss of even a small insect or germ. So use carefulness in walk, sitting, getting up, dining, and such other daily activities. By such careful behavior, you save many things; not only you keep your things and instruments of use clean but your soul also remains free from avoidable sins. Walk slowly and gently, keep your house very clean, keep clean water by passing it twice or thrice through a clean cloth so as to free it from dust and small germs, use firewood after removing dust and insects moving in it. All this care does not take much of our time and it is not difficult to follow in ordinary householder's life. Once you make such rules, it forms into a habit, and by such care many poor germs who have done no harm to us, are easily saved by us from our careless killing them.

It becomes therefore the duty of every discriminative householder or Shrawaka to do every work with due and proper care.

Bhagawan Mahavir has said that not to eat at night is a great vow like five great vows beginning with non-violence. All four types of food at night are forbidden by him such as (1) Eating breads, rice, sweets etc. (2) Drinking water etc. (3) Eating fruits, fresh and dry, and (4) Munching cardamom or cloves etc. These foods are forbidden because small germs called Tamaskaya like the food one takes at night, are formed in food and they have the same color shape as that of the food and so they cannot be distinguished by us at night. By igniting fire at night many innocent germs with firewood and moving by on walls are burnt by heat, if some poisonous germs are getting into our stomach with eaten food they may cause some serious diseases in whole family. Therefore objectively and mentally night eating involves violence, and so it is forbidden.

Even in epics and the religion based on these historical works, night eating is prohibited for maintenance of noble behavior still it is habitually done by the followers of epics. But prohibition of night eating still stands as a principle, good to follow.

There are two kinds of lotuses in our body, which are crouched at sunset and which open their petals at sunrise and therefore at some places Ayurveda (Lore of longevity and health of human body) also enjoins upon prohibition of night eating as it involves eating some disease-bringing germs along with food and causing harmful diseases.

Saints take their food two Ghadi (48 minutes) before sunset and then they do not take food till two Ghadi (48 minutes) have passed after sunrise. More details about prohibition of night eating can be gained from contact with Jain Monks or learning from Jain religious scriptures. One immensely gains by avoiding all four types of night eating and this is advised by Jineshwar Bhagawan.

No religion is comparable to Daya Compassion. Compassion is the very body of a religion. Where there is no compassion, there is no religion at all. There are such harmful religions in the world who say that there is no sin to kill a living being; at the most protect human life. Followers of such religious views are fanatical ( Zhanuni) and blinded by their pride and they do not know even an iota of compassion. If they minutely think, setting aside their religious pride, they can easily realize that even killing a small germ is greatly sinful. As one loves one's soul or self, similarly every living being loves its own soul or self. Such followers should ask themselves as to how much unlimited harm they are creating to their own soul by fearlessly and carelessly killing innumerable animals and germs only for a slight gain or a mere habit? Not having any root of intelligence in them, they are not able to think this way at all, really they have trained themselves as incapable of such a line of thinking as to what is real compassion and they remain steeped in incuring more and more violence or life killing and hurting.

In Vedas and other books written by great preceptors of Vaishnavism, we do not find any thought about subtle compassion, still they, the followers of Vedas and Vaishnavas are much better than those not understanding at all the nature of real compassion. These Vedic followers and Vaishnavas have much thought of saving and protecting animals and birds and even beasts. But as compared with these people, we the followers of Bhagawan Mahavir are much more fortunate to learn real essence of religion that even hurting a small petal of flower is also sinful and as such we are quite free from performing all sacrifices involving killing or hurting any living being. We try our best to save all lives. We do not intentionally harm or like to injure or to take life of any living being. We are free from eating prohibited foods; we are totally vegetarians.

In our time the observance of compassion or non-violence in thought, word and deed has much been followed by us because of the strength of Yogic acquisition of Bhagawan Mahavir, the son of a great King Siddhartha. His noble behavior and spotlessly clean pure and perfect non-violent living has supported the Jain religion and its followers leading to the maximum goodof all living beings. Men may gain excellent acquisitions, beautiful wives, obedient sons following the wishes of their parents, gain large families, gain honor and fame and positions of high authority and to gain any or all of them is not very difficult but to understand what is true religion and to have indomitable faith in it even to a small extent, is very very difficult.

Those getting acquisitions listed above, by indiscrimination, incur many sins and invite great trouble and tortures for themselves and for others around them, while a little faithful feeling of Jain religion elevates the follower to a very high state of his soul or self. Thus compassion followed, leads the follower to a very blissful state. Since we have been born in the family of followers of Jain Religion, we should lead a pure compassionate life and we should constantly remember that we have to protect all living beings with the best of our efforts not only this but we should advise others also by all intelligent ways to follow this universally acceptable and beneficial compassion. In the next lesson, I shall tell you the story of very intelligent Abhayakumar who invented a method by which all living beings can feel protected. How fortunate we should consider ourselves if we get an opportunity to teach logically essentials of our Jain Religion to Anaryas or foreigners who are not following compassion from all points of view.

A high king named Shrenika of Rajagrahi city of Magadha country, once was sitting in royal assembly. Occasionally his advisers and highly placed officers who were fond of flesh-eating remarked that accidently at that time prices of flesh had gone very low. This statement was heard by chief Minister AbhayaKumar and so he decided to teach a lesson to these advisers and officers fond of flesh-eating. That evening after dispersing the assembly, King Shrenika went to his palace. Then Abhayakumar for his purpose went to each of these advisers and officers who had discussed flesh prices and wherever he went, the adviser or officer concerned asked the reason of his visiting his house to which to each and all, he replied that King Shrenika had caught suddenly a very deadly disease (Maha Roga) and all physicians called for treating the king said that flesh equal to the weight of one and a quarter penny, of the liver of a gentleman would cure the king of his deadly disease. You are favorite of the king so I have come to you for getting the required flesh. Every adviser or officer who heard it replied. "How can I give the required quantity of flesh though very small, from my liver unless I died? It can be given only after I die and so I am unable to give it for saving king's life." So saying as an alternative, every officer and adviser offered some money for not telling the king about his refusal to give his liver flesh and taking all that, Abhayakumar returned home.

Then next day when the Royal Assembly met, all those who had refused to give the flesh from their liver, came and sat in their proper seats. The King Shrenika also was sitting on his throne and all those advisers and officers inquired about the King's health, hearing which the king was surprised and when he turned to Abhayakumar from whom they heard about the sudden attack of a deadly disease on the king previous night, Abhayakumar replied, O King ! Yesterday your advisers and officers said that flesh was available at very low price in the market; hearing it I had been to their homes for getting it but they gave me money but did not give me required flesh weighing only a penny and a quarter from their liver. Then tell me whether the required flesh was cheap or dear ? Hearing these words of Abhayakumar, all the advisers and officers of the King held their heads low in shame and none could say a word. Then Abhayakumar said - ' I had not arranged this skill to pain you at all but just to teach you a lesson. When our flesh is to be given while alive, we totally refuse to do so for fear of death because we want to remain alive then what to talk of other birds and animals who also love to remain alive as much as you or I do love to remain alive. Every living being wants to continue his or its life; none wants to die. As we want to save our life by parting with invaluable wealth in exchange, similarly the life of birds and animals also must be saved. We men are speaking, walking, intelligent higher animals and other living beings cannot argue with us in a language we can understand and so when we give them pain by killing them, we should realize what great sins we commit for our food when we can easily feed ourselves without such flesh and keep away from flesh eating at all. We should therefore constantly remember this saying of chief minister Abhayakumar that every living being loves its life and so protection of the lives of all living beings becomes our highest fundamental religion. There is no religion higher than protection to all living beings. King Shrenika was much satisfied and pleased by this saying of Abhayakumar, besides all the advisers and officers of the king also learnt a very important lesson and all of them took a vow not to eat any flesh as their food since that time till the end of their life. Flesh eating is prohibited and also not hygienically good and besides we do not get it without killing a living being and so it is against good moral and religious life. So they all followed Abhayakumar's teaching and began to give protection to all living beings since then and thereby they brought much joy and happiness to themselves.

Pratyakhyana is a Sanskrit word, its equivalent Ardhamagadhi word is Pachchakhana, which you might have heard many a times. It means not to turn one's mind to any particular thing that is harmful to our soul. Pratyakhyana is an exercise of mind for stopping harmful inclinations. The reason behind Pratyakhyana is a very noble and deep one.

Pratyakhyana is making a rule for the mind not to turn to something harmful to our soul. Unless you take a vow of Pratyakhyana, whatever harmful you do not do or think about is not of much importance, because then it is not called Samvara, as you have not controlled a desire to do a harmful act. For example we may not eat at night but if we have not made a rule not to eat at night it may not give us that much religious benefit as it would when we follow pratyakhyana about it because in the absence of a rule i.e. Pratyakhyana for not eating at night, our mind remains free to desire some day night eating, and so absence of a rule does not yield a good result as the rule would yield. As many animals like dogs and rats or even unwanted men may enter our house when its doors are kept open, so also many unwanted bad desires can get into our mind when its doors are kept open. Thus Pratyakhyana is a nice, religious way of keeping the doors of our mind closed for not allowing harmful thoughts and consequent bad actions to enter our soul. As we know that we cannot see the middle of our back and so we do not even desire to see it, so by taking a vow of not eating or drinking something, we do not naturally turn our mind towards it and so no consequent action follows. Thus Pratyakhyana is a protecting wall or a fortress obstructing the entry of undesirable thoughts or inclinations in the mind. Great souls have shown the methods of repentance to follow for undoing the effects of bad thoughts cherished or wrong acts done due to forgetting the vow taken by us not to have these thoughts or perform those acts.

There is also another great benefit of Pratyakhyana, and that is that our mind is employed in doing certain good deeds advised by religion and all the rest are automatically kept out of our mind, and they do not worry or bother us at all. Our mind follows the road of the rule deliberately chosen by us without let or hindrance. Like the bridled horses, our mind trained by certain definite rules, follows a correct road to our soul's progress towards liberation. By following accepted rules of thought and behavior, our mind becomes single-minded, clearly thoughtful and full of discriminative power, and this joy of our mind keeps also our body quite healthy. Besides our body by good rules, keeps free from eating undesirable and unhealthy food, and also free from vices like enjoying sex life with other man's wife. Intoxicating objects when taken, leads our mind astray; it is under these circumstances only Pratyakhyana that saves us from such a malady, and our mind becomes pure and flawless.

You might have understood from the above description how Pratyakhyana is the excellent way of observing a religious vow. I advise you to leam more about it from the sermons of a true teacher and also from going well through the relevant religious scriptures.

When King Shrenika was ruling on the throne of the city named Rajagrahi, there lived in it a Chandala or a man selling flesh of live animals. Once this Chandala's wife conceived and during this period of conception she had a strong desire to eat mangoes and so she asked her husband to get them for her. Chandala said that it was not the season for mangoes and so he was helpless, otherwise if it were a mango season, he would get it for her even if it was very high on a mango tree by his special mystic power. Chandala's wife replied that she had heard of a mango tree in queen's garden in the city which was yielding mangoes in abundance even in out of the season and on that mango tree, mangoes would be bending down and so her husband should try to get for her mangoes from that mango tree. To satisfy this wish of his wife, this Chandala went to that garden and surreptitiously going near that mango tree, by his mystic power, the branches laden with mangoes were bent down and took a few mangoes and by another mystic power that branch returned to its original height. Then this Chandala returned home and satisfied his wife's strong wish of eating mangoes. The Chandala repeated this procedure regularly and once the gardener observed the lessening of mangoes from that mango tree and he thought somebody must be stealing mangoes from that tree and so he reported it to king Shrenika with all humility. Hearing this, king Shrenika asked his very intelligent Chief Minister to find out' the thief of mangoes. Abhayakumar with a clever trick found out Chandala as a thief of mangoes and calling this Chandala to his court he asked him as to how could he get the mangoes from such a high mango tree hoodwinking the sight of so many watchmen of the garden ? Chandala admitted his theft and said,'Pardon me! I tell the truth that I have mastered a mystic power by which I can bend down a high twig and to bring it to its original height, and it is by this mystic power that I stole away the mangoes of queen's garden regularly to satisfy my wife's desire to eat mangoes. Abhayakumar said he could not pardon him but he could persuade the king to pardon him if he taught him in return his mystic power as he would need it. Chandala agreed to do so. Then Abhayakumar brought thisChandala near king Shrenika when he was sitting on his throne and told the whole story of Chandala's regular stealing of the said mangoes. King Shrenika agreed to pardon the thief if he taught him the learning by which one could bend a very high object to get something from it and afterwards to replace the bent object to its normal height. Then with trembling hands and fearstricken mind this Chandala standing on the ground began to teach king Shrenika sitting very high on his throne, his mystic learning, but king Shrenika could not grasp it at all. Seeing this, Chief Minister Abhayakumar swiftly got up and said to king Shrenika as under - 'O great king ! If you really need to learn this lore from this Chandala then you exchange places i.e. you stand where Chandala stands now and let this Chandala sit on your throne, then only you will be able to learn the said mystic power or lore.' King Shrenika acted accordingly and he acquired the mystic power from Chandala.

This story is only for getting a good lesson from it. It only says that without giving due honor to a teacher, a student even if a king, cannot learn anything. Thus respect to a teacher and modesty and humility towards him are the only means by which a student can learn from his teacher. To acquire true knowledge, one should gently with all humility, approach a true teacher.

For getting the knowledge of our self, if we approach a Nirgrantha Teacher or Preceptor with all humility how much beneficial to us would it be ! Therefore Bhagawan Mahavjr has described modesty and humility as the root of religion in his holy scripture namely Uttaradhyayana Sutra. One can achieve great excellence by showing modesty and respectful humility to teachers, monks, learned men, parents and to all elderly persons.

In olden times, even earlier to the time of Shri Mahavir, many persons have been monogamous i.e. satisfied with only one wife. One of them was a famous rich person Sudarshan Sheth a saintly householder. He was very rich, having a beautiful form and face, lustrous and middle aged. Once he had to pass by the Royal Assembly Hall for some work in the city where he was staying. Al that time the Royal Queen named Abhaya was sitting in the balcony of her palace from where, she saw this beautiful Sudarshan Sheth. She was much attracted towards the beautiful lustrous body and face of this Sheth Sudarshan and she called him up through her servant, giving a reason simple in appearance but with deceit behind it. After some meaningless talk, she invited him for sex enjoyment. Sudarshan tiled to preach her that it was very bad and she should not talk to him about it at all, still queen Abhaya could not calm down her desire for sex-enjoyment with Sudarshan. In the end Sudarshan said that he entirely lacked of the power of his male sex and so he could not enjoy sex life with her at all. In spite of this statement, queen Abhaya made all sex overtures in order to attract him but he was unmoved in his firm determination. So she allowed him in her utter helplessness to go away.

One day there was a public meeting and a dinner in the same city and so many people were moving here and there and it was a great celebration. Six sons of Sudarshan with Godlike features and very beautiful form and figure had come to this meeting and queen Abhaya with her attendant named Kapila also had come to this meeting with all her pomp and pride and there she saw those six sons of Sudarshan, and she asked her attendant Kapila as to who were these beautiful six sons ? Kapila said that they were the sons of Sudarshan Sheth. Hearing this, Abhaya felt much angry with Sudarshan. When the whole meeting and its celebration and dinner were over, Abhaya and her attendant jointly told the king - 'You may be under an illusion that in your kingdom justice and morality prevail; that your subjects are free from the attacks of vicious or bad men; but the fact is that bad intentioned people even enter your harem and there is none to protect the chastity of women in your harem. Then what to talk of other outside places where anybody can do anything. A Sheth named Sudarshan of your city invited me to enjoy sex life with him and I had to hear from him sentences not worth describing to you, but I hated everything and I drove him away. What a great lawlessness than this can be said prevailing in you' kingdom? Normally kings are always known for their impassionateness and one sided hearing and making hasty decisions without due or proper considerations, and added to this, came the sweet deceitful statements from his own queen." All these enraged the King very much just as a drop of cold water falling in extremely hot oil pan would enrage fire instead of quelling the heat. The king soon ordered that Sudarshan be hanged to death immediately and all arrangements for it were completed, what was left was only to hang Sudarshan.

Whatever else there may be, there is enough light in the assembly of this great world. Truth ultimately shines out and prevails over all falsehood and injustice. So the very time Sudarshan was made to sit on the chair for hanging, the seat

turned out to be a great royal throne made up of pure shining gold and celestial bands were played and joy prevailed all around. The noble saintly character of Sheth Sudarshan shone out in full splendor and glory in the world galaxy. This proved that truth always ultimately wins. The best steadfastness of Sudarshan for faultlessly noble and morally excellent character raises one's soul to a very pure and high state!

Meaning :- 1) Those who do not have a bit of sexual desire in their mind even while looking at a very young woman but consider her form as a wooden idol are praised in this world as Godlike persons.

2) Woman is the main leading person on the stage of whole worldly life. If she is abandoned everything of worldly life is abandoned as this world full of sorrows and sufferings grows from a woman only.

3) By being victorious over this sexual desire one can be victorious over calamities of this whole world just as by being victorious over a King, one becomes victorious over his whole army, towns and power.

4) Even by a small sprout of sexual desire one's mind is turned away from self knowledge and self-meditation just as even a little quantity of liquor when drunk makes a man intoxicated and indiscriminative.

5) For one who with nine perfect protections observes pure celibacy yielding true happiness there will remain only few births. O Brother! This is the fundamental saying of great persons.

6) Celibacy is just like an excellent Surataru (Kalpavriksha) offering desired happiness. So one who observes celibacy in thought, word