Daughter |
: |
Ma, what is the ultimate purpose of human life ? |
|
Mother |
: |
The ultimate purpose of our lives
is spiritual upliftment or salvation. |
Daughter |
: |
Ma, how does one achieve this
spiritual success ? |
Mother |
: |
Every one can attain
spiritual upliftment by faith and knowledge of Jiva-Ajiva and all seven
Tattvas as preached by Jina. The seven Tattvas are Jiva (soul), Ajiva
(non-living entities), Asrava (inflow of karma in to the soul), Bandha (bomdage
of karma in to the soul), Nirjara (gradual disintegration of karma from
soul) and Moksa (soul becomes free fro all karmas). These seven Tattvas are
instrumental in the journey of the soul from impure state to the pure state. |
Daughter |
: |
What are the obstacles in this path ? |
Mother |
: |
Inflow and bondage of
karmic matter are the obstacles in the path of success. The soul of living
beings receives the karma particles in every day life through the constant
action of mind, speech and body. The inflow and bondage of karmic particles
lead to misery and sufferings. So after knowing them well, we should give
them up. |
Daughter |
: |
Ma, so what is the solution ? |
Mother |
: |
Stoppage of inflow of
karmas and gradual disintegration of accumulated karmic matter lead us to
liberation. We should therefore practise them. The need for this two fold
action of Samvara and Nirjara provide the basis of Jaina religious
practices. these are means to achieve spiritual success, libration or mokse.
My child, we can further explain this by an example. Imagine a person who
wants to cross the river in his boat. He starts rowing and he notices that
through few holes in the boat, water starts entering his boat. It makes
difficult for him to move further. He plugs the makes the holes and manages
to stop the inflow of water in to his boat but this is not enough as the
boat has still lot of water which got collected earlier. With the help of a
little vessel, he gets rid of the accumulated water and by subsequent
rowing, crosses the river.
In the same manner, a soul desireous of freedom from worldly sufferings and
cycles of births and rebirths purifies itself and attains liberation (moksa).
In the above example, human life is like the boat. The holes in the boat
are our ignorance of seven Tattvas because of which the karmic matter
inflows in to the soul (Asrava) and karmas get accumulated (Bandha). The
process of sealing by right conduct is stoppage of new karmas (Samvara) and
gradual removal of the accumulated water in the boat refers to the gradual
disintegration of the accumulated karmic particles (Nirjara); which
ultimately leads to liberation (Moksa), like crossing the river. |