Moving Towards Awareness

A beautiful saying in Jain Agam goes: ‘savvato pamattasa bhayam’ - A person having remissness is always in fear. Man can do mistakes. To err is human’s nature. A very few people would be there in this world who never does any mistake. It’s not fair to exclude the person who does small mistakes. One saying goes as ‘skhalitah skhalito vadhyah’- Kill the person who has committed mistakes. If any wrong does is killed just because of his mistakes, then only just a few persons would remain in this world because ‘bahudosha hi manava’ - man has many evils. Those great souls are exceptions who were aware to their full extent during their spiritual practice. Lord Mahavir did sadhana for twelve years and thirteen fortnights. The total period of remissness was of a day and forty eight minutes, and it was not continuously.

Remissness may be possible by a human, but he should try to keep himself away from it. He should try not to repeat his mistakes. Making mistake is not a big issue. However, atonement for mistakes made and resolution not to repeat them in future is very important. A walking person may fall down, but to help getting him up or to save him from falling down is a great thing.

Many spiritual persons are very aware and they are almost free from remissness. It is also found that some practitioner get strayed knowingly or unknowingly. For, man has the seeds of attachment and aversion. He has inauspicious emotions. These states motivate a man towards remissness. Therefore, man should decide what is right or wrong after understanding the real elements. Thereafter, his determination to do the right and avoid the wrong becomes possible to protect himself from the remissness.

Once, a man was praying to his God standing in the night. Suddenly the king passed by him. The king asked - ‘O Mahatma! Why are you standing? This is the time to sleep and you are awake. If you are scared of ant enemy then I shall arrange for security. The sage replied - ‘O king! I am not scared of external enemies but of my inner. I myself shall have to become police for that. No other person can help protecting me from them. A small amount of remissness brings danger of their attack. Therefore, I am always aware of remembering the God.

 In the field of sadhana there is always conflict between remissness and awareness. After continuous practice, a spiritual person can develop such a state that all the conflicts get resolved and remissness is defeated and awareness wins. Man wants to move from darkness to light, from non-existence (asat) to existence (sat), and from mortality to immortality. But until he moves from remissness to awareness he cannot get light, reality and immortality. Therefore, man should try to avoid the actions of remissness. One can achieve veetraaga and be successful by his determination and practice of remaining constantly in the state of awareness.