Recognizing the Goal of Life

A common mistake is to equate the career goal as the goal of life but if we think about it for some time we can easily identify the fallacy. The career goal keeps changing in life. In school it was to study well and get first rank. In college to get admission in favorite branch, get good marks then get selected in good company. Then later it changed to get a good wife, good job. Then it was reaching the top in the company. Thus we can see that the career goals kept changing continuously. After achieving one goal it shifted to next and so on. Even when one reached the top there was an emptiness and new goals were subsequently created e.g to achieve power or to transfer the business to the sons to manage successfully. If we examine them, we can easily say that they were temporary goals , with a new goal replacing previous one at all times.

Can these be called goal of life ?

Before we answer this perhaps we should first define goal itself.

Should there be a goal in life ?

I am reminded of quote from a book called White Tiger :

“See, I was like that ass now. And all I would do, if I had children, was teach them to be asses like me, and carry rubble around for the rich. “

Is this not what we have been doing all along? Study , get education, job, family, business and teach the next generation to do the same. Is this what we have been born for ? What difference did it make if we were more richer or famous or powerful? Ultimately the end was the same.

In animals’ case the life is continuously a search for food or battle for survival. At present time we cannot comment if they think about life but scriptures do tell us of their search for the soul.

If we  consciously spend a little time thinking about it , it does not need a big rocket science to 

conclude that in simple terms all these lives can be called a waste without any meaningful purpose. In Jainism there is a simple term for it . It is called traversing in the 84 lakhs yonis. Because this is precisely a person does. Taking endless births into 84 lakhs birth places belonging to one to five sensed creatures. A look at Panch Paravartan in this blog will tell us how we spend time in these births.

Do we want it to be different ? Do we want this cycle to end ? If such a desire or thought has come into the mind then congratulate yourselves. At least a beginning has been made. There are a countless people who will ignore it and continue with what they are doing.

What is this goal of life we are talking about?

The goal of life should not be temporary like a career goal wherein after achieving it one has to set a different goal. Here it should be such a goal where the cycle stops. Time moves no further and still one should be able to experience the satisfaction and happiness which is felt when a career goal is accomplished, on a permanent basis. Where one desires no more because all desires are fulfilled. Where one does not want to know any more because all is known. Surely if such a goal exists , it is worth craving for and worth spending a life time for. Incidentally this goal is called Moksha.

Two things have prevented our acceptance of such a solution:

1.       Doubt on the possibility of its existence.

2.       Doubt on the possibility of our ability or the means to achieve it.

To resolve this problem we can proceed in the following manner :

1.       Let us say such a state of Moksha does not exist. Then it would mean there are no karmas either because people are not bound by it. It means there is no checks and balances system in the universe which accounts for our deeds and therefore no accountability. It would imply the Charvak system which preached to borrow from the neighbour and enjoy because there is no tomorrow. In other sense the universe is anarchical. It accepts only present life as the only life and nothing beyond it. Further it  believes only what is visible. If one seriously believes the system to be like this then he has no cause for complaint to anybody. Whom to complain for and what to complain about ? Although there are quite a few followers of such philosophy in the world, it also implies that  a Moksha does not exist for them , nor do they desire it. Hence they do not even need to read any further. ( They will believe when there time comes)

2.       Most of us  accept that such a Moksha may exist since inherently we do feel that there is order in the universe, although it may appear chaotic. After all humans are born with eyes in the same place !! Surely there is a system controlling it .Of course there are quite a few philosophies floating about on the subject of soul, universe, God etc. However the subject of this article was not to preach any specific philosophy but to set a goal of life. We are  unable to set Moksha as the goal of life, even if we believe it be existent, because we are not confident about the means or our ability.

The solution to this problem lies in identifying how desperately we want it. If we

have still not had enough of this world, then we are likely to remain lethargic because somewhere in our heart we still want to indulge in pleasures of senses , enjoying the affairs of the world. However if we feel that this universe is full of miseries and pleasures are illusionary then it is time to break free and re-examine the goals of life. It implies firstly accepting that there is a problem and then search for the answers. In fact the biggest problem has been that the people have been hesitant to ask questions. If we seriously want to make effort then we should not shy from asking probing and uncomfortable questions about religions. Do not believe anyone just by reputation or wealth or success. Believe what convinces you. Further analyse if the preacher has any of his own objectives behind preaching because in today’s environment even the religion has become an object of sale.

                Once such a goal has been set for life then it does not change at any stage. Goal is the Moksha and the means have to be found. The path is not easy but a beginning would have been made. It may take numerous births but then if we read panch paravartan  we will not mind it at all. Career goals may keep changing but the life goal stays lit like a lighthouse guiding the way for the ship of life in this ocean of endless travel. Happy journey.

Mahaveer Jayanti 9th April 2017 - Ignorance is not an excuse

A proverb says “ Ignorance is bliss “ This is so because so long as you do not know of an unfortunate incident pertaining to yourself, you are happy enjoying yourself. But the moment somebody informs you of the misfortune , the happiness dissolves into unhappiness. So from a worldly point of view , the less you know the better are the chances for being unhappy.

The same cannot be said about religion. If we choose to be  ignorant , we cannot say that nobody informed us and we can get away with it. The system is unforgiving and merciless. If we donot realise it then we may continue to reap the fruits of the ignorance till we realise and take remedial action.

Just think of a three year old child who falls into a hole dug for an abandoned bore well. He is stuck totally at a depth of hundred feet with no means of rescue. It is difficult to imagine a calamity worse than this wherein the child cannot even pray for death since he does not know what death is. Only  those who learn of this tragedy may wish for an early death for him. Now can we pause for moment and think why this misfortune took place and why to that particular child. If we shake our head and try to forget it then we are choosing to be ignorant. Because somehow we think that so long as we remain ignorant then misfortune would not befall us.

Fact of the matter is that it is not the responsibility of the system to teach you, train you or prepare you before releasing you in this world to face the hardships. The system is insentient so it does not have any sympathy towards you. So it does not care if you are ignorant of the rules and regulations.

What are the rules ? There are many but few typical ones are given here:

1.       A jiva can take asamkhyat pudgal paravartan kaal ( which is infinite years)before he can come out of one sensed nigod ( vegetable)state to trasa ( two sensed and above)state.

2.       The maximum period of trasa state is 2000 sagar , after which invariably the jiva reverts to nigod state wherein he may take infinite time before he could be trasa again.

3.       There are infinite jivas which have not come out of permanent nigod (Itar nigod)state as yet.

4.       The only route to Moksha is through human birth. Animal, hell or heaven born cannot attain Moksha.

5.       A jiva can take as many as 66336 births within a period of one antarmuhurta( less than 48 minutes) at the fastest, taking birth as labdhi aparyapta jiva in all forms of one to five sensed jivas at the rate of 18 times within one breath cycle.

The purpose of these is to highlight the rarity of human birth which happens to be the only path for Moksha. This birth may be few times and one does not know if current one may be the last before he reverts to nigod state. In fact one can spend 2000 sagar in trasa state without attaining human birth even once ( he can go on taking births within animal, hell and heaven born)

To begin with we have to realise that we have been present as long as the universe in some form or other. Because of our ignorance we have been taking one form after another. This cycle would continue indefinitely. We have always treated our body as the soul and virtually not even realized that there is a soul. From beginning we have given all the importance to care and protection of the body, nurturing it and fulfilling all its whims and fancies. Most of the time we did not even have the mind to analyse our plight.  Even when we had an opportunity to understand by means of a body capable of analyzing, we did not get right guides and were easily misguided by others who also were as ignorant as ourselves. These guides had some ulterior motive or other to mislead and at the same time they were as ignorant.

What should I know ?

Fact is that we are bound with 8 types of karmas from beginingless time which obscure our knowledge, vision, capabilities and at the same time pollute our judgement with Mithyatva (wrong belief) so that we always look at the reality through colored glass filter. This leads to a perennial cycle of births and deaths wherein each life is spent in undergoing fruition for the acts of previous births. At no time we stop and think of the soul.

Fact is that there is a sentient soul within each of us which has immense capabilities of knowledge , vision, bliss and tranquility. Which we have never realized nor experienced nor believed. Really speaking we have just followed the masses and done whatever they have done without bothering about the inner self. If for once we make an effort to separate ourselves from those negative influences, there is no reason, it cannot be done. After all infinite jivas have also attained Moksha who were like us only.

Many a times people are surprised and even shocked to hear this. Then they say that nobody told them like this and they were totally unaware. Question is who will tell them? The system is insentient. The one who has realized himself is immersed within himself enjoying his own bliss. Why should he try and break his head to try to explain and convince an ignorant one? Remember he is veetragi ( totally detached) and has therefore no desire to help either( since even that is a desire). Further we do not trust everybody since we are not in a position to judge people. Among those who know, they too do not try to preach to each and everybody since quite a few are sceptics. Only if they see some capability within a person with an attitude to learn then only they impart the knowledge. So it should come as no surprise that even though some people know the subject they refrained from preaching others.

Some people believe that why should they worry about next birth since it is somebody else’s problem. It is like committing sin now and leaving for the next birth to face the consequences since we think that it would be somebody else’s problem. Truth is that it is my problem and myself only would face the consequences of the accumulation of karmas. Because it is the same Jiva which is born again.

Some people are not so confident about the purpose of Moksha since they think it is more fun to indulge in worldly affairs then denounce and detach ourselves from it. Obviously they still have long way to go before realization may come that world is more of a pain then pleasure.

Hence it is time to stop and think what should be my goal of life.

This article is only to alert and bring awareness , to be treated as wake up call. If you are awake then it does not harm you. If asleep then time to reflect and take some action.

You will be surprised that in this world there are so many people who do not get an opportunity to even read this much about this subject, leave apart think about it.

The path has been laid down by the Tirthankaras very clearly and openly except that we have ignored it and chosen not to even glance at it.

Think about it. 

Five Essentials

                  Jain scriptures have described five essentials (Samvay)  which are present when any event occurs. These are nature, catalyst(nimitta), effort, time (for the event to occur) and destiny. These are equally applicable in real life world for a Jiva for a worldly event, or attaining of right belief (samyak darshan). Many a times people make a statement loosely saying that the event would occur if it is destined to be so , or say it is god’s wish or so on.  But Jainism has laid down five necessary requirements for the event to occur.

1.       Nature: This establishes that the event would occur only if it is in the nature of the thing. For example a statue cannot gain knowledge or a Jiva cannot become insentient pot.

2.       Catalyst( nimitta) : For every event to occur there may be numerous participants which may be present which apparently aid the event but in reality are just present. They do not contribute to the cause of the event but just denote the occurrence. That is why people confuse them as doer of the event.

3.       Effort ( purusharth) : For any event there has to be the necessary effort  on the part of jiva, be it being angry or attaining right belief. Generally people give very low importance to it and give credit to nimitta , but in reality the event is because of effort. For example a student passes exam because of his effort in learning, although nimitta in form of teacher, books, etc. are present.

4.       Time for the event to occur ( kalalabdhi) : For a student to pass exam, a certain time should have elapsed in his life before which the event would not occur. When time is ripe for the event it occurs. This also explains why Mahaveer was 24^th Tirthankara while Adinath was 1^st in the current cycle of time.

5.       Destiny : This defines the event. For example Mahaveer became 24^th Tirthankara was the event which occurred at the appropriate time 2500 years back. It was not his destiny to be first Tirthankara.

               At this juncture it would be appropriate to recall that in Jainism the sruta gyan or the entire scriptural knowledge is based upon praman and naya. Praman is the total knowledge of a thing while Naya is knowledge of the thing from specific aspect. Typical example quoted is the knowledge of an elephant is praman while describing his legs like pillers or tail like rope are naya statements which provided details of the elephant. Similarly the accomplishment of any event is in the presence of all the five essentials in view of sruta praman. On the other hand from the aspect of naya the credit is given  to whichever essential being described.

                  Suppose a student passes an exam. One may credit to his teacher, books , notes etc which are nimitta only, without saying anything about his effort. This is quite alright but it should be kept in mind that his effort was present , although not being described. In the same way it was time for him to pass and it was his destiny. When all were present then only he passed the exam.

 How does it apply to the description of soul ?

The issue arises because people wonder that attainment of Moksha is by effort or destiny ?

          This question has been raised in Moksha Marg Prakashak by Pandit Todarmalji and answered beautifully as follows :

           A question is raised that attainment of Moksha occurs at  the time for it to occur ( kalalabdhi) designated by destiny, by the destruction or suppression of karmas or by efforts( purusharth). If it occurs by means of first two then why do you preach us ? If it is by efforts then why do only few of them make the effort even though all are being preached ? The answer is that in occurrence of an event several essentials are present. For attainment of Moksha , all essentials are present , and for nor attainment all the essentials are absent. 

         In reality the time and destiny are not in our control. Whatever time an event occurs , that is the time for it to occur and that event alone is destined to occur. Further destruction or suppression of karmas is in the domain of matter not jiva hence not within his control. The only effort Jiva can do it to try to traverse on path to Moksha and that is why same is preached to him. When he makes that effort then other essentials also become present. If he does not make effort then the presence of other essentials become irrelevant.

                Similar sentiments are written by Acharya Jayasen in the commentary on Panchastikaya:

When a Jiva traverses the path of practical and real Moksha Marga of the form of trilogy of right belief, knowledge and conduct , at the appropriate destined time ; then he destroys the various karmas in the dravya and bhava form and unveils his siddhahood form, which is unique from the point of view of manifestation. From the point of view of pure reality Jiva was always Siddha form only. Here all the five essentials are described. By  pure real nature the Jiva is Siddha form at all times. The destruction of karmas is nimitta, traversing the moksha marg is effort, then time is ripe for destiny of Siddha form manifestation.

                Now let us consider the argument of some people who say that Jainism is Niyativad i.e. just believes in destiny only. But if we examine the five essentials, we find that it is not just destiny, but also effort as well as nimtta. When a thing has to happen all would be seen to be present and when it does not occur all would be absent.

                On the other hand some people say that let us not worry, when Moksha has to happen to us then it will happen as seen by omniscient. While this is a good excuse for not making the effort, the only question they should ask themselves is whether they have become omniscient already ? If not, how do they know that omniscient has not seen them making effort just now ?

             Why is it , that they don’t  think that omniscient has seen them making effort and attaining Moksha also. Clearly it shows a lack of conviction on the form of omniscient. Some people think that while omniscient knows all that has happened so far, he does not know the future. Does it not mean that they believe that the knowledge of omniscient goes on increasing everyday, which also means that he has perturbation due to lack of knowledge. This is self contradictory. Omniscience and lack of knowledge cannot go together.

               

Law of sequential Manifestation

               An automatic corollary of the five essentials would be law of sequential manifestation. We can see that since every event is as per destiny at its designated appropriate moment then automatically it emerges       that the events are sequentially manifested. For example bhagwan Mahaveer was destined to be 24^th Tirthankara about 2500 years back, then there is no way he could have prevented that and become 1^st Tirthankara in place of bhagwan Adinath. Since both the time and the event are fixed , it means the event would occur in time space as destined and not change. This is applicable to every moment from second to second, hour to hour and year to year. From this the principle of sequential manifestation gets generated which is worded in Kartikeya Anupreksha in following way : 

            “For whichever Jiva , in whichever country, in whichever time, by whichever method, his death or birth is known by Jindeva as destined; for that Jiva the same shall occur in that country, at that time, by that method certainly. That cannot be altered by Indra or Jinendra himself. “

We can notice that in addition to sequential manifestation here, the omniscience of Jinendra has also been told here. It just means that 1) the event is destined to happen at such and such moment of time 2) Jinendra bhagwan knows it being omniscient 3) even he cannot change it.

            This topic has been subject of considerable debate in last few decades but there is no escaping the fact that if we accept the five essentials as principle of Jainism, it automatically implies this. Further omniscient knows it is just a confirmation of the event. In fact if we believe the form of omniscience the way it should be, then it emerges that he has knowledge of each event. Hence it becomes predestined.

            People were not able to accept it  because they considered it as an obstruction to their right to change their destiny. The question arises that then what is the significance of effort if everything is predestined?

            The mistake lies in believing that all the five essentials are not coming into play. If we look at the five essentials then we find that the effort is also part of it and nimitta is also present for the event. So even the effort is predestined. So if you are destined to attain Moksha then you definitely will make the effort as well as attain it also. It is only the sceptics who have foretold their own fate by not making the effort. Knowledge of Jinedra bhagwan is incidental. There are infinite Siddha bhagwan in this universe and all of them would know the same thing. However they cannot change it. Knowing and changing destiny are two different things altogether.

How does it affect us ?

          Really speaking we do not know what Jinendra bhagwan knows , so that should not be subject of concern. In fact we should take it positively by considering that he has seen us making the effort. But the purpose of the five essentials was something else. What it conveyed was that every momentary manifestation of ours is predestined hence we cannot change it , whether it pertains to passing exams or achievements in business or becoming a minister. Nor can we change others’ destiny. The only appropriate thing left for us to do is contemplate upon the self to realise self and remain within the self. Other activities would occur as and when they are due to occur , but I remain within the self. In fact as Jiva the only domain of our activity is just knowing and seeing. Rest is all imagination in which we are indulging needlessly. So why should we spend our energies in useless activities which are anyway inconsequential. Knowing this then it is best to remain within the self.