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THUMB-RULE @ Learn to enjoy what you already have. @ We do not see what we have, we see what others have. ❖ Das Lakshan *Celebration of Soul -UTTAM SHOUCH (SUPREME CONTENTMENT -– The Lack of Greed) - DAY 4] ❖
We always expect that others should have a pure conscience and should think well about us. If we expect this from others then we must also ensure that we think for other’s wellness, our conscience does not have malice for others; but at times it does. So we have to think how to cleanse our conscience of this malice & make our mind speech & conduct purer by all means.
The feeling of inner purity is in fact Shouch Dharma (Contentment). Let’s try to understand the Shouch Dharma in light of the four Kashayas namely - Anger (Krodh), Arrogance/ Pride (Maan), Deceit (Maya), and Greed (Lobha). Contentment & purity comes in the absence of greed. If there is a reason behind malice/ impurity then it’s Greed. If we look at our day to day life then we see three kinds of malice or there are three kinds of Greed that we possess.
Types of Greed
1. वित्तेषणा (The Greed of Wealth): The peculiarity of this greed is that the more we gain the greedier we become. Everyone has the greed for money. We have listened in so many ways about Greed for wealth, but could we really get rid of it till date? The solution to this issue is that we keep as much as is necessary for us, and give up the longing for any more. Alternatively we can divert this greed in some other direction. We can spend more time in Spiritual practices so that we are away from this greed for that much time. We can surely do this much.
2. पुत्रेषणा (The Greed of Son & Family)
3. लोकेषणा (The Greed of Family)
Who doesn’t know that Greed leads to misery & downfall of a person? But does this really help? The yearning to achieve anything that we see has been deep rooted in us since ever. Although these things may not be really useful for us and in fact harm us. We know that however we still follow them blindly. We have to think over this. When we had four items in our home, we were able to live our life happily; now we have four hundred but still miss the peace of mind. It means I must limit my possessions and long for the things others have. Others long for what we have. It’s simple math - if we realize what we have then all the Greed would be gone. But we generally don’t realize what we have achieved & the feeling of discontent keeps on growing by the day. So should we just ignore what others have? No, all we need to do is to let the other person be happy in what he has & enjoy what we have.
All our longings give us are consolations but in reality we end up achieving nothing. If we are contented with what we have then we wouldn’t have anything else to be earned. What do we earn for? To achieve contentment/satisfaction. But we end up earning everything in this world but self satisfaction.
There’s a popular story by Tolstoy - “How much Land does a man require?” that all of us must have heard.
Somebody conferred a blessing on a man that “starting from sunrise to sunset all the land that you walk through and come back shall be yours.” So this man started running with first ray of sun & kept running without stopping. He had to return to the starting point before sunset. But he was so exhausted by the time he reached 4-5 feet before the finishing point; he collapsed & never woke up again. He breathed his last breath at that point. It was written on his grave - “How much Land does a man require?”
We should ask ourselves how much do we need. If we know how less do we need & start enjoying what we have, then contentment & inner purity is imminent.
PURITY IN LIFE: Purity has several meanings - a spotless life, a pristine conscience, a life full of meaning (purpose).
A spotless life is not in terms of a clean body, it means a spotless mind and thoughts. Throughout a day we get so many chances where our mind is likely to be clouded by bad feelings for others. If we know that our mind cannot have malice by anyone’s action then we can be sure that our life is spotless & sparkling. This may not sound very easy. But we can surely try that out of a hundred chances that I get in a day, I’ll restrain myself from maligning our mind.
What do we mean by pristine conscience? If we see someone crying today then we consider him a weak person. It might even be considered out of fashion. Our heart is deprived of its softness. Whereas our conscience should be so pristine that even looking at other’s sorrows, other’s misery our eyes should be sodden (become teary). Vinoba Bhave used to say - I always clean my own room & throw the dust myself so that I am reminded everyday that the way I wouldn’t like to sit in a dirty room, how would God like to come in a dirty mind. God comes only in a pristine conscious. The more we give up malice the purer our conscience becomes.
An incident from Shrimad Raychand’s life explains beautifully what a pure life or a life full of meaning means. Shrimad Raychand had made a deal of Jewels with someone. Once the deal was finalized all of sudden, prices of Jewels went so high that if the other person had to pay for the deal, he would be forced into a bankruptcy. He didn’t show up to Raychandji. This was very evident to Raychandji. He knew even if the other person sells off all his property, he cannot pay for the goods. So one day Raychandji himself went to that person’s house. On seeing him, the other person said “Sir, why did you take the pain of coming here! Believe me I’ll pay every single penny I owe you.”
To this Raychandji said “First of all you show me the paper on which we made that deal.
That person handed over the paper to Raychandji. “Just because of this piece of paper you have lost the peace of your mind.” said Raychandji tearing the paper into pieces in front of that person. He said “Raychand is a Jain. He drinks milk, not man’s blood!”
Now what do we understand from this? This is called the purity of mind, the clarity of purpose of life. And a person who is so pure is respected by everyone.
The take away from these incidents is that we have to learn how to give up on our Greed. Make sure that you find at least one chance in a day where you try to attain contentment & purity of mind & conscience. Such chances are rare in our lives but if we can benefit from them then they’ll help us give up on our greed and help us attain this Dharma of inner fulfilment and self satisfaction.
Article Source: These preaching's by Ascetic Kshamasagara G, efforts to translate into English by Maitree Samooh.
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✿ आज पुष्पदन्तनाथ भगवान् का मोक्ष कल्याणक है! जय हो
वे मुस्कान से पुष्प लुटावे....पुष्पदंत मन पुष्प खिलावे!
वे काकंदी नगरी जन्मे...शिखर सम्मेद में तप किया वन में!!
शिखर सम्मेद से मोक्ष पधारे...अहिंसा का मार्ग वे विस्तारे!!
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✿ ✿ आज दस लक्षण पर्व का चोथा दिन उत्तम शौच है तथा आज पुष्पदन्तनाथ भगवान् का मोक्ष कल्याणक है!! Supreme Contentment - The Lack of Greed > उत्तम शौच | जीवन में निर्मलता के मायने हैं - जीवन का चमकीला होना, जीवन का शुद्ध होना, जीवन का सारगर्भित होना | इतने सारे मायने हैं पवित्रता के, निर्मलता के - Muni Shri!
• Learn to enjoy what you already have. • We do not see what we have, we see what others have.
We always expect that others should have a pure conscience and should think well about us. If we expect this from others then we must also ensure that we think for other’s wellness, our conscience does not have malice for others; but at times it does. So we have to think how to cleanse our conscience of this malice & make our mind speech & conduct purer by all means.
हम आनंद लें उस चीज़ में जो हमें प्राप्त है| यह ना देखें की दूसरे के पास क्या है, जो हमारे पास है,उस में खुश रहे अन्यथा मुश्किलें पैदा होती हैं |अपनी ऐसी ही मुश्किलों को आसान करने के लिए हमारे मन में सरलता होना चाहिए, ईमानदारी होना चाहिए,हमारे भीतर उन्मुक्त ह्रादयता होनी चाहिए. और इतना ही नहीं हम स्पष्टवादी होवें, बहुत सीधा-सादा जीवन जीने का प्रयास करें, जितना बन सकें भोलापन लावें| बच्चों में भी होता है भोलापन, पर वह अज्ञानतापूर्वक होता है | लेकिन ज्ञान हासिल करने के बाद का भोलापन ज्यादा काम का होता है | निशंक होकर, बहुत सहज होकर, भोलेपन से जियें तो हमारा जीवन बहुत ऊँचा और बहुत अच्चा बन सकता है | जो
मलिनताएँ हमारे भीतर हैं उन्हें कैसे हटायें और कैसे हम अपने जीवन को, अपनी वाणी को, अपने मन को, अपने कर्म को पवित्र बनाएं |
जो आतंरिक सुचिता या आतंरिक निर्मलता का भाव है वही शौच धर्म है |लोभ के अभाव में शुचिता आती है |हम लोभ के प्रकार देखते हैं -
पहला है वित्तेषणा -> यह है धन- पैसे का लोभ | धन कितना ही बढ़ जाए कम ही मालुम होता है| धन का लोभ कभी रुकता नहीं है, बढ़ता ही चला जाता है |
दूसरा है पुत्रेषणा-लोकेषणा -> यह है अपने पुत्र और परिवार का लोभ |
तीसरा है समाज में अपनी प्रतिष्ठा का लोभ | यह तीन ही प्रकार के लोभ होते हैं, इन तीनों का लोभ हमें मलिन करता है | बस इन तीनों पे नियंत्रण पाना ही हमारे जीवन को बहुत निर्मल बना सकता है | लोभ की तासीर यही है की आशाएं बढ़ती हैं, आश्वासन मिलते हैं और हाथ कुछ भी नहीं आता | जो अपने पास है वह दिखने लगे तो सारा लोभ नियंत्रित हो जायेगा | व्यक्तिगत असंतोष, पारिवारिक असंतोष, सामाजिक असंतोष - कितने तरह के असंतोष हमें घेर लेते हैं | अगर हम समझ लें दूसरे के पास जो है वह उस में खुश है, और जो अपने पास है उस में हम आनंद लें तोह जीवन का अर्थ मिल जायेगा |
जीवन में निर्मलता के मायने हैं - जीवन का चमकीला होना | निर्मलता के मायने हैं - मन का भीगा होना | निर्मलता के मायने हैं- जीवन का शुद्ध होना | निर्मलता के मायने हैं -जीवन का सारगर्भित होना | निर्मलता के मायने हैं - जीवन का निखालिस होना | इतने सारे मायने हैं पवित्रता के, निर्मलता के | जब मुझे मलिनतायें घेरें तो उनपे मियंत्रण रखना ज़रूरी है | हमारा मन जितना भीग जाता है उतना ही निर्मल हो जाता है | अगर किसी की आँख भर जाए तो वह कमज़ोर माना जाता है | आज कोई रोने लगे तो बिलकुल बुद्धू माना जाए |
आज अगर मन भीग जाए तो हम आउट ऑफ़ डेट माने जायें | बहुत कठोर हो गए हैं हम, हमारी निर्मलता हमारे कठोर मन से गायब हो गयी | जबकि हमारा मन इतना निर्मल होना चाहिए था की दूसरो के दुःख को, संसार के दुखों को देखकर द्रवित हो जाएँ उसमें डूब जाएँ |इसी तरह हमें जो प्राप्त है हम उसमें संतुष्ट होंगे और जो हमें प्राप्त नहीं है उसे पाने का शांतिपूर्वक सद्प्रयास करेंगे तोह हम जीवन में सदेव आगे बढ़ते जायेंगे |
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