JINA SUTRA
"There's
no knowledge without right faith,
No
conduct is possible without knowledge,
Without
conduct, there's no liberation,
And
without liberation, no deliverance."
Mahavira (UTTARADHYAYANA SUTRA, CH.
27, VERSE 30)
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'Endowed
with conduct and discipline,
Who
practices control of self,
Who
throws out all his bondage,
He
attains the eternal place."
Mahavira (UTTARADHYAYANA SUTRA, CH.
20, VERSE 52)
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All
unenlightened persons produce sufferings. Having become deluded,
they produce and
reproduce sufferings, in this endless world.
Mahavira (Uttaradhyayana, 6/1)
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Just as a
threaded (sasutra) needle is secure from being lost,
in the same way
a person given to self-study (sasutra) cannot be lost.
Mahavira (Uttaradhyayana, 29/59)
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Only that
science is a great and the best of all sciences,
the study of
which frees man from all kinds of miseries.
Mahavira (Isibhasiya, 7/1)
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That with the
help of which we can know the truth,
control the
restless mind, and purify the soul is called knowledge.
Mahavira (Mulachara, 5/70)
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That which
subdues passions, leads to beatitude
and fosters
friendliness is called knowledge.
Mahavira (Mulachara 5/71)
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The
unenlightened takes millions of lives
to extirpate the
effects of karma whereas a man
possessing
spiritual knowledge and discipline
obliterates them
in a single moment.
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 10)
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The nights
that have departed will never return.
They have
been wasted by those given to adharma
(unrighteousness).
Mahavira (Uttaradhyayana, 14/25)
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The nights that
have departed will never return.
They are
profitable for one who is given to dharma (righteousness).
Mahavira (Uttaradhyayana, 14/25)
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Those who are
ignorant of the supreme purpose of life will
never be able to
attain nirvana (liberation) in spite of their
observance of
the vratas (vows) and niymas (rules) of religious
conduct
and practice of shila
(celibacy) and tapas (penance).
Mahavira (Samayasara, 153)
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My soul
characterised by knowledge and faith is alone eternal.
All other phases
of my existence to which I am attached are
external
occurrences that are transitory.
Mahavira (Niyamasara, 99)
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Righteousness
consists in complete self-absorption and in
giving up all
kinds of passions including attachment.
It is the only
means of transcending the mundane existence.
The Jinas have
said so.
(Bhava-pahuda, 83)
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Don't kill any
living beings. Don't try to rule them.
Mahavira (Acaranga, 4/23)
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The essence of
all knowledge consists in not committing violence.
The doctrine of ahimsa
is nothing but the observance of equality i.e.
the realization
that just as I do not like misery, others also do not like it.
(Knowing this,
one should not kill anybody).
Mahavira (Sutrakrtanga, 1/1/4/10)
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Just as you do
not like misery, in the same way others also do not like it.
Knowing this,
you should do unto them what you want them to do unto you.
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 780)
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To kill any
living being amounts to killing one self.
Compassion to
others is compassion to one's own self.
Therefore one
should avoid violence like poison and thorn (that cause pain).
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 797)
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Don't be proud
if you gain. Nor be sorry if you lose.
Mahavira (Acaranga, 2/4/114, 115)
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One who
cultivates an attitude of equality towards all living beings,
mobile and
stationary, can attain equanimity. Thus do the kevalis
say.
Mahavira (Anuyogadvar, 708, gatha 2)
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Only the one who
has transcended fear can experience equanimity.
Mahavira (Sutrakrtanga 1/2/2/17)
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(One should
reflect thus:) Let me treat all living beings with eqanimity and
none with
enmity. Let me attain samadhi (tranquility) by becoming
free from
expectations.
Mahavira (Mulachara, 2/42)
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Let me renounce
the bondage of attachment and hatred,
pride and
meekness, curiosity, fear, sorrow, indulgence and
abhorrence (in
order to accomplish equanimity).
Mahavira (Mulachara 2/44)
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Let me give up
attachment through unattachment.
My soul will be
my only support (in this practice of unattachment).
(Hence) let me
give up everything else.
Mahavira (Mulachara 2/44)
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Just as I do not
like misery, so do others. Knowing this, one neither kills,
nor gets killed.
A sramana is so called becasue he behaves equanimously.
Mahavira (Anuyogadvara, 708, gatha 3)
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One who
remains equanimous in the midst of pleasures and pains
is a sramana,
being in the state of pure consciousness.
Mahavira (Pravachansara, 1/14)
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A sramana
devoid of the knowledge of Agama
does neither
know himself, nor others.
Mahavira (Pravasanasara, 3/32)
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Other beings
perceive through their senses whereas
the sramana
perceives through the Agama.
Mahavira (Pravachansara, 3/34)
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One devoted
whole-heartedly to knowledge, faith and right conduct
equally
accomplishes in full the task of the sramana.
Mahavira (Pravachansara, /42)
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O Self !
Practice Truth, and nothing but Truth.
Mahavira (Acaranga, 3/3/66)
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Enlightened by
the light of Truth, the wise transcends death.
Mahavira (Acaranga, 3/3/66)
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Truth alone
is the essence in the world.
Mahavira (Prasnavyakarna, 2/2)
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The ascetic who
never thinks of telling a lie out of attachment,
aversion or
delusion is indeed the practiser of the second vrata of
truthfulness.
Mahavira (Niyamasara, 57)
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A truthful man
is treated as reliable as the mother,
as venerable as
the guru (preceptor) and as beloved
as the one who
commands knowledge.
Mahavira (Mulachara, 837)
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Truthfulness
indeed is tapa (penance).
In
truthfulness do reside self-restraint and all other virtues.
Just as the
fish can live only in the sea,
so can all
other virtues reside in Truthfulness alone.
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 842)
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One may have a
tuft or matted hair on the head or a shaven head,
remain naked or
wear a rag.
But if he tells
a lie, all this is futile or fruitless.
Mahavira (Bhagavat Aradhana, 843)
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One can bear all
kinds of unbearable pain
caused by spikes
in expectation of wealth etc.
But he alone who
tolerates, without any motive of worldly gain,
harsh words
spoken to him is venerable.
Mahavira (Dasavaikalika, 9/3/6)
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One should not
speak unless asked to do so.
He should not
disturb others in conversation.
He should not
back-bite and indulge in fraudulent untruth.
Mahavira (Dasavaikalika, 8/46)
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One should
not utter displeasing words
that arouse
ill feelings in others.
One should
not indulge in speech conducive to the evil.
Mahavira (Dasavaikalika , 8/47)
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Discipline of
speech consists in refraining
from telling
lies and in observing silence.
Mahavira (Mulachara, 332)
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The sadhaka
(one who practices spiritual discipline)
speaks words
that are measured and beneficial to all living beings.
Mahavira (Kartikeyanupreksa, 334)
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The bhiksu
(ascetic) should not be angry with one who abuses him.
Otherwise he
would be like the ignoramus.
He should not
therefore lose his temper.
Mahavira (Uttaradhyayana, 2/24)
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If somebody
were to beat a disciplined and restrained ascetic,
the latter
should not think of avenging himself considering
the soul to
be imperishable.
Mahavira (Uttaradhyayana, 2/27)
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As gold does not
cease to be gold even if it is heated in the fire;
an enlightened
man does not cease to be enlightened on
being tortured
by the effects of karma.
Mahavira (Samayasara, 184)
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A thief feels
neither pity nor shame,
nor does he
possess discipline and faith.
There is no
evil that he cannot do for wealth.
Mahavira (Bhagavat Aradhana, 862)
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On the
aggravation of one's greed,
a person
fails to distinguish between what should be done and
what should
not be done. He is dare-devil who can commit
any offence
even at the cost of his own life.
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 857)
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By practicing
celibacy one can fulfil all other vows - chastity,
tapas
(penance), vinaya (humility), sayyama
(self-restraint),
forgiveness,
self-protection and detachment.
Mahavira (Prasnavyakarana, 9/3)
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Knowing that
pleasing sound, beauty, fragrance,
pleasant taste
and soothing touch are transitory transformations of matter,
the celibate
should not be enamoured of them.
Mahavira (Dasavaikalika, 8/58)
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The soul is the Brahman.
Brahmacarya is therefore nothing but
spiritual
conduct of the ascetic concerning the soul,
who has snapped
out of relationship with alien body.
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 877)
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An amorous
person, failing to achieve his desired objects,
becomes frantic
and even ready to commit suicide by any means.
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 889)
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The sun
scorches only during the day,
but cupid
scorches in the day as well as in the night.
One can
protect oneself from the sun, but cannot from cupid.
Mahavira (Bhagavti Aradhana)
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The more you
get, the more you want.
The greed
increases with the gain.
What could be
accomplished by two masas (grams) of gold
could not be
done by ten millions.
Mahavira (Uttaradhyayana, 8/17)
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Knowing that the
earth with its crops of rice and barley,
with its gold
and cattle, and all this put together will not satisfy
one single man,
one should practice penance.
Mahavira (Uttardhyayana, 9/49)
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Just as fire
is not quenched by the fuel and
the ocean by
thousands of rivers,
similarly no
living being is satisfied even with all the
wealth of all
the three worlds.
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 1143)
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Non-possessiveness
controls the senses
in the same way
as a hook controls the elephant.
As a ditch is
useful for the protection of a town,
so is
non-attachment for the control of the senses.
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 1168)
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Greed even
for a piece of straw,
not to speak
of precious things, produces sin.
A greedless
person, even if he wears a crown, cannot commit sin.
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 1371)
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One who, being
swayed by wishful thinking,
becomes a victim
of passions at every step,
and does not
ward off the desires, cannot practice asceticism.
Mahavira (Dasavaikalika, 2/1)
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External
renunciation is meaningless
if the soul
remains fettered by internal shackles.
Mahavira (Bhava-pahuda, 13)
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Living beings
have desires. Desires consist in pleasure and pain.
Mahavira (Kartikeyanupreksa, 18/14)
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One who is
constantly careful in his deportment is like the
lily in the
pond, untarnished by mud.
Mahavira (Pravachansara, 3/18)
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Objects of
the senses pollute knowledge
if it is not
protected by discipline.
Mahavira (Shila-pahuda, 2)
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Discipline is
the means of achieving liberation.
Mahavira (Shila-pahuda, 20)
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Even the
noble becomes mean in the company of the wicked,
as precious
necklace on the neck of a dead body.
Mahavira (Bhagavati Aradhana, 245)
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The ignoramus is
always benighted.
The enlightened
is always wide awake.
Mahavira (Acaranga, 3/1)
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The five
senses of the awakened always remain inactive.
The five
senses of the unawakened always remain active.
By means of
the active five one acquires bondage while by
means of the
inactive five the bondage is severed.
Mahavira (Isibhasiyam, 29/2)
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Just as every
body keeps away from the burning fire,
so do the evils
remain away from an enlightened person.
Mahavira (Isibhasiya, 35/23)
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Keep yourself
always awake.
One who keeps
awake increases his wisdom.
He who falls
asleep in wretched. Blessed is he who keeps awake.
Mahavira (Brhatkalpa-bhasya, 3387)
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The yogin
who is indifferent to worldly affairs remains
spiritually
alert to his own duty, namely, his duty towards his soul.
On the other
hand, one who indulges in worldly affairs is not dutiful to his
soul.
Mahavira (Moksha-pahuda, 31)
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Birth is
attended by death, youth by decay and fortune by misfortune.
Thus everything
in this world is momentary.
Mahavira (Kartikeyanupreksa, 5)
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The courageous
as well as the cowardly must die.
When death is
inevitable for both,
why should not
one welcome death smilingly and with fortitude?
Mahavira (Mulachara, 2/100)
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Both the
righteous and unrighteous must die.
When death is
inevitable for both,
when should not
one embrace death while maintaining good conduct?
Mahavira (Mulachara, 2/101)
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There is nothing
as fearful as death, and there is no suffering as great as birth.
Be free from the
fear of both birth and death,
by doing away
with attachment to the body.
Mahavira (Mulachara, 2/119)
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Do not be in
dread of the dreadful, the illness,
the disease, the
old age, and even the death or any other object of fear.
Mahavira (Prasnavyakarana, 7/20)
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The non-vigilant
has fear from all directions.
The vigilant has
none from any.
Mahavira (Acaranga, 3/75)
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One who
entertains fear finds himself lonely (and helpless).
Mahavira (Prasnavyakarana, 7/20)
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The valiant does
not tolerate indulgence, nor does he tolerate abhorrence.
As he is pleased
with his own self, he is not attached to anything.
Mahavira (Acaranga, 2/6/160)
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As a tortoise
withdraws his limbs within his own body,
even so does the
valiant withdraw his mind within himself from all sins.
He also
withdraws his hands, legs, mind, sense-organs, sinful moods,
evil words,
pride, and deceitfulness. This indeed is the valor of the valiant.
Mahavira (Sutrakrtanga, 1/8/16-18)
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The enlightened
should contemplate that his soul is
endowed with
boundless energy.
Mahavira (Niyamasara, 96)
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Only that man
can take a right decision,
whose soul is
not tormented by the afflictions of attachment and aversion.
Mahavira (Isibhasiyam, 44/1)
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One who knows
the spiritual (self) knows the external (world) too.
He who knows the
external world, knows the self also.
Mahavira (Acaranga, 1/7/147)
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If one's vision
is capable of expelling the darkness,
he would not
need a lamp. Likewise the soul itself being blissful,
there is no need
of external object for bliss.
Mahavira (Pravachansara, 1/67)
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Those who are
interested in worldly objects
have of
necessity misery in them. If there were no misery in them,
they would
not indulge in those objects.
Mahavira (Pravachansara, 1/84)
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I condemn what
is worthy of condemnation.
I censure what
is worthy of censure.
I atone for all
the outer and inner encroachments on the soul.
Mahavira (Mulachara 2/55)
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May the state of
Arhats, the Siddhas and the Vitranagas be my goal.
Mahavira (Mulachara, 2/107)
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As the fire
quickly consumes dry wood,
even so an adept
whose soul is equipoised and unattached
causes the
accumulated karma structure to disintegrate
Mahavira (Acaranga, 4/3/33)
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Those who hanker
after pleasure,
those who are
attached to or seized by passions and are obstinate like miser,
cannot know the
nature of samadhi (self-concentration).
Mahavira (Sutrakrtanga, 1/2/58)
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A monk engrossed
in meditation renounces all evils.
Meditation is
therefore the best way of regression from all transgressions.
Mahavira (Niyamasara, 65)
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One who
meditates on the soul, attains the supreme samadhi.
(Niyamasara, 129)
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The monk who is
absorbed in meditation achieves victory
over attachment
and aversion, and the senses.
His fear
vanishes and his passions are shattered.
Finally, he
extirpates his indulgences, abhorrence and delusion.
Mahavira
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"The
Arhats of the past, those of the present and the future narrate
thus,
discourse
thus, proclaim thus, and affirm thus: One should not injure,
subjugate,
enslave, torture or kill any animal, living being,
organism
or sentient being. This doctrine of Non-Violence (Ahimsa Dharma)
is
immaculate, immutable and eternal."
Mahavira (ACHARANGA
SUTRA, CH. 4)
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"Above,
below and in front, people indulge in violent activities
against
living beings individually and collectively in many ways;
discerning
this, a wise man neither himself inflicts violence on these
bodies,
nor
induces others to do so, nor approved of their doing so. "
Mahavira (ACHARANGA
SUTRA, CH. 1)
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"The
Arhats have propounded the doctrine of Non-Violence, one and all,
equally for those who are desirous to practice it and those who
are not, those who have abandoned violence and those who have
not, those who are deeply engrossed in worldly ties and those who
are not. This doctrine of Ahimsa is Truth. It is rightly
enunciated here in the teachings of the Arhats. Comprehending the
true spirit of the doctrine, one should practice it till one's
last breath."
Mahavira (ACHARANGA
SUTRA, CH. 4)
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Let the whole
world he illumined with the divine light of the soul,
And the thirst
of all be quenched with the nectar of joy.
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Victory to you
oh, omniscient being, you are eternal and all consciousness.
You are
indivisible and a mass of bliss, a strong fire to destroy
delusions.
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Burning all
attachments and unnatural inclinations,
you have become
passionless.
You are without
any conflict, have no foundation,
devoid of
attachments and formless.
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Always enjoying
the everlasting bliss, you are happy in your own existence.
You are the
garland of the heart of lady of liberation, always attuned to
thyself.
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Oh Lord, this
ocean of the world is very deep and
we are flowing
in it without any support.
I have never
known my own being and the fundamentals leading to liberation.
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I always thought
of them as very different from what they are,
Regarding soul
as physical form considering both one and the same.
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I indulged in
merits and demerits, which are a mine of miseries,
And regarded
demerits as undesirables and merits as desirables.
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Blissful
spiritual activities were regarded by me as painful.
I only craved
for sensual pleasures and regarded them as conducive
to happiness.
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I never
liked abstinence; how could the fire of sensual joys be
extinguished ?
Worldly
pleasures are all disturbing and in reality lead to great
unhappiness.
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I craved for
these day and night, how could worldly bondage be removed ?
I thought that
non-self entities of this existence cause grief and joy in life.
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I offered
charity, but with pride, never cared for its consequences.
I worshipped you
for worldly gains,
how could this
mundane existence be annihilated ?
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I have
known your noble attributes today and consider myself to be
fortunate.
Discrimination,
with which I have known your divine being, has risen in me.
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You never do or
undo things, you only know them, as they are.
You don't give
anything to your devotees, only make them like your self.
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I heard
of this glory of yours, that whoever knows you,
Attains complete
omniscience and becomes perfect and supreme.
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All others are
full of' troubles, only our own abode is full of joy.
I only have one
desire, Oh Jinendra, I should realise my own self.
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I do not desire
anything other than my own self.
Let me remain
stationed in my inner being, discarding all else.
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The whole
process of evolution, for the spirit,
is an awakening
to the truths,
and the means of
implementation of those truths,
that are
eternally present in itself. What was implicit has to become
explicit.
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What man really
seeks is not perfection which is in the future,
but fulfillment
which is ever in the present.
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To know the
not-Self in one's nature
is the pathway
to knowledge of the Self.
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One must seek in
the depths of one's consciousness
the vitalizing
centre of one's being,
the fundamental
origin of all one's developments.
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When you
discover for yourself, however dimly,
that you are
rooted in something that is infinitely vast and potential,
you have found
the soil wherein you grow unconsciously
into a most
wonderful tree, the tree of life blended with knowledge.
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Progress from
the standpoint of the Spirit is from peak to peak,
one form of
perfect synthesis to another,
from a
completeness to another yet more beautiful completeness.
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Long not for
anything which will give a greater conceit of self,
but for a truer
realization of that selfless Self
which is the
centre and origin of every being.
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If you dig into yourself, you
will discover
how much of yourself is an
amalgam of egoism and conventionality.
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Man has to
discover for himself that what he thinks as being himself,
what he calls
"myself", is an illusion,
a maya, which is
but a cloak of many colours
like those that
appear on a bubble in the sunlight.
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He who becomes
the master of himself
can become
master over all that is related to himself.
Self-mastery
implies self-knowledge and
that
self-sufficiency which is only in love.
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Our wishes are
often the progeny of our weaknesses;
our fancies the
creation of our wishes;
and those
fancies, when they become adjusted to the frame of our minds,
are all too apt
to be mistaken for facts.
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Remember that
the whole sense of one's importance
is merely an
evaluation of self by self.
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It is only when
man realizes that there is in himself no centre
around which he
can build permanently, that he will begin to seek
and can find
that true centre, which is everywhere and nowhere.
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Beware the worm
of self-conceit that feeds on the faults of others;
destroy the
sense of self-importance
which eats like
a canker the bud of one's pure aspirations.
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Man is more than
his environment.
It is from the
innate quality of the Spirit in him,
his inner
storehouse, that he draws those ideas,
his intuitions,
which unify his perceptions of the external world
instantaneously
with a value which is qualitative
and not
quantitative, and which he embodies in the works of his culture
- those
achievements which belong not only to one particular time
but to all
times, and mark the path of his upward progress.
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Each must
discover the heavenliness,
the expanding
universe of his own being.
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Before we can
transcend limitations,
whether in our
own nature or in the circumstances around us,
we must try to
understand what it is that they are meant to teach.
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Each must
discover his own way in life,
and that way
lies in his heart.
Let him delve
into the depths of his being;
his true centre
is not far from there.
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Know for
yourself the way along which you should go
- do not depend
upon others.
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It is I alone
who frame on those other lips the words that may hurt me.
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Our growth
consists not merely in an increase of ideas,
but also in
capacity to feel in a million and one ways.
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The dark night
must descend before a new dawn.
Should not,
then, one's whole nature return to a primeval virginity
it can put forth
the rarest new flower?
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Progress,
whether for individuals, groups or the whole of humanity,
is by decisive
choices made from time to time,
forced by the
development of a situation which, as it mounts up,
calls for its
own resolution.
Life in matter
is a series of crises and resolutions.
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No one can gain
a true knowledge of himself without facing adversity
and overcoming
difficulties.
But in
developing the dynamism to overcome,
there must be
naught of the spirit of aggression or aggrandisement.
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The moment we
are aware of a hindrance in our nature
to that
fulfillment which all Life unconsciously seeks,
aware of it as a
fetter upon ourselves,
that moment we
are on the way to its abolition.
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The joy and the
pain, the reaching up and falling back
- all are
gathered up finally into the experience of a realization
from which
nothing thereafter can shake us.
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It is the
direction of our progress that matters
- not where we
stand at present.
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Man, in his own
true nature, is eternally free and blissful;
he needs but to
realize this truth and know himself,
by withdrawing
from everything other than his Self.
This alone
constitutes his true liberation.
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I am no more -
and no less - than a law of Life's expression.
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Each of us
contains within himself the formula of his creation,
his uniqueness,
according to which is his expansion in time,
the curve of his
progress.
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I struggle with
myself; I cannot escape from myself;
let me re-shape
myself in terms of that which is Universal.
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When once the
Will is awakened, it can never again be put to sleep.
When once the
connection is formed
between the apex
of a man's true nature and its foundation
in the realm of
matter, that connection cannot,
ordinarily,
cease to exist.
It is by the
power of the Atman, the Godhead within,
that he achieves
what would otherwise be a seeming miracle.
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It is difficult
for us to know the nature of free Will,
because in its
absoluteness it resides only in
that
transcendent abstraction,
which is the
centre and origin of everything.
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In the Spiritual
Will there is no coercion of an unwilling self,
for the Will is
one and moves as a whole.
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What is Truth?
It is an object
of knowledge; an object of love
and of the
knowledge which is at the fountainhead of love?
Or does it
consist, even more than these, in a universal
self-identification,
giving rise to
the incorporation of the essence of every other being
in oneself, and
the living of a life that is at each point
a perfect
consummation of oneself?
In this last
view, Truth is a becoming
but with a
quality of finality, a progressive attainment yet a realization.
Truth is Life in
its highest, most evolved state,
the fullest
revelation of its essence.
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Before we can
receive in our hearts the Truth
which springs
from the deepest part of ourselves,
we have to be
prepared by a cleansing,
a baptism, not
merely with water but also with fire.
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Every fleeting
thought, every passing fancy
can make or mar
the picture
which should be
the perfect representation of the Truth of oneself.
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Will is that
link which connects no dimension with all dimensions;
it is determined
by no end from without, but follows an end from within.
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What we can call
luck is still a large element in our lives.
A day must come
when the determination of our will shall wholly prevail.
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True
self-determination takes its rise from a dimensionless point.
It is not to be
confused with any personal re-action.
To arise and
take place, it needs a heart and mind
emptied of all
predilections and prejudices.
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What keeps us
playing our parts and going round and round
the three lower
worlds is not a Divine dictate, but ourselves,
our own
will-to-live, which comes from within ourselves.
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What is termed
the will of the Spirit is a force
which carries
the Truth which is within,
through an
appropriate movement, into its proper form.
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Will is
self-motion from a state of self-transcendence
to a state of
self-eminence.
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Desire is but
Will inverted.
It is a pull of
matter, instead of the free movement of the Spirit.
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Action and
understanding are unified in the Will.
An act of
Will that does not carry within itself understanding
is no true
Will at all.
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