Spiritual sources of life

Acharya Mahaprajna

Repression of desires is called negligence. Once it takes place, it will produce its own consequences. People, who had risen to a high status, fall in no time owing to some negligence or other on their part. If they been waking and self-watchful at the moment, when the seeds of the fall were being sown, they would not have fallen. They fell because they did not do Prayascitta: Prayascitta means destroying the seeds of attachment, aversion etc. before they have begun to sprout. If you do not do Prayascitta, they will sprout.

In course of time they will become your powerful enemies and you will not be able to save yourselves from them. The principle of not killing may be a good principle of life, but, by itself, it does not constitute Ahimsa.

It often happens that those who refrain from killing life entertain wrong notions about Himsa and Ahimsa. They have to be understood and appreciated with reference to attachment and aversion. There can be no Ahimsa unless they have been got rid of. You do not commit murder because you are afraid of its consequences and respect the law. The law will be indifferent to you so far as you abide by it. If you do not, it will take you to task. Law becomes operative only when you transgress it. Ahimsa, on the other hand, refers to Adhyavsaya, i.e. the intentional stage of an act, the moment when it begins in your mind. It consists in not allowing the intention to become active.

All the thoughts and intentions leading to Himsa are to be put an end to. If you are negligent of such thoughts and resolutions, the intention to do Himsa will take root. In Ahimsa the act is immaterial. It is the source of acts, which counts. Adyavsaya is the source of intentions. Once you have understood this fact, we will come to know that you have not only to be wakeful and self-watchful when the act is being done, but also at those moments when the act is being conceived. That is the difference between the legal and spiritual views of life. Adhyatma refers to the source of our actions.

Spiritual judgments are not judgments of acts, but of the mentality, which produces acts.
Bhagawana Mahavira held the soul to be responsible for all our actions. According to him there is no enemy outside us. We ourselves are our own enemies. It is the soul, which is responsible for its own freedom or bondage, happiness and misery. Usually we throw our own responsibilities on others and are restless until we have done so. This is simply a child's excuse. It is true that such an excuse relieves us of mental agony. The spiritual attitude is, however, different. In the last analysis, it is Adhyavsaya which is the source of all illegal and immoral acts.

The Tirthankaras and ancient Acaryas conducted a serious investigation in the spiritual sources of life. What I have said above is a sample of their deep discoveries. My purpose is to inspire a faith, devotion and an urge to explore the sources from where all evils, physical and mental, spring.