Prerak Parsangs:-
2-Courage
This
was his very first Chaturmas in Bundelkhand. Once in the dark of a
night, a scorpion came from somewhere and bit a sister. Pandit
Jagmohanlal Ji was there itself. Seeing the pain of the sister, he
thought to arrange the bed for her, but as soon as he opened the bed, a
snake came out of that. It was dragged out somehow.
Next day Pandit Ji narrated the story to Acharya Maharaj and
appealed, "Maharaj!You will face a lot of problem during Chaturmas
here”. After hearing him,Acharya Maharaj smiled. His smile is always
very immune. He answered smiling, "Pandit Ji, yesterday itself two-three
snakes were playing here. After all, this is a forest. Such creatures
live in the forests only. How could Chaturmas be obstructed by this? And
genuinely, we must live in forests only. Pareeshah Jaya (conquering the
adversities) is the only way for Karma-Nirjara (destruction of Karmas).
Such courage and earnestness towards difficulties are the true
sign of Righteousness.
3-Nature-Love
I have heard that during Kundalpur Chaturmas, whenever the sky
was clear, Acharya Maharaj used to sit on the rock surface outside the
temple. One day, when He was going to sit on the rock surface, one
devotee came and spread the carpet.
Acharya Maharaj saw him and said smiling, "This carpet is for
them who fear spoiling their clothes. We do not keep clothes, so we do
not fear that". Everyone started laughing on this humor of Maharaj. But
the very next moment, they were delighted thinking of His "Losing
Himself to Nature/Self". An innocent life like Nature is doubtlessly a
big achievement.
4-FIRSt DARSHANA
I saw
Him for the first time that day. He was sitting in a small room. Such a
big personality was filled up in so little space…this really surprised
me. A big window behind him and the sky peeping through it seemed
extremely beautiful for the first time in my life. Light coming through
the window and the light continuously flowing from His uncovered body
made such splendid scenery which was as influencing as the smile on His
face.
For a moment I was lost in the attraction of His
Attachment-free body and was wavered outside the room. After sometime I
realized I shall enter. His Darshan was possible from inside only. It
wasn’t that easy to see Him from outside but getting inside too was not
that easy? There was a huge crowd on the gate and I was surrounded by
that. Thinking that if possible, will come sometimes alone, I came back.
Still I say that I came back that day, but I am not back till now. Now I
only wish to be in His holy feet the whole life and never get away from
there. I, for the first time, felt the lively beauty of Vitragta
(attachment less ness) after His Darshan. After that even the god
sitting inside the temple seemed to be alive. This is the achievement of
my First Darshan.
5.PERFECT
CONDUCT
He has come out for Ahar-Charya. It looks like as if just in a moment He
has seen all the boundaries and is proceeding in slow, careful steps. I
am surprised by His natural cautiousness. The same voice comes from all
sides, “O Swami come here, stay here, Ahar and water are pure”. I think
that these alms given with love and faith are a rare one. Donor is ready
to give everything he has, but the acceptor is so confident that what is
to be taken is already with him. He does not want anything else from
anywhere other than Himself. We will get what is needed for the
functioning of this body and strength in the Tapa (penance). That need
not be taken forcibly. There is just a search for pure food. No
curiosity in that.
As I looked on, like some guest, His standing near the
people ready to welcome Him near the door of the house and taking Him
inside filled with joy and faith, making Him sit on a bit elevated
place, washing His feet with water and apply this holy water on their
forehead and eyelids, performing Puja and then convincing Him by
promising the purity of mind, words, body and the Ahar and water to be
served, bending and offering Namostu and praying Him to accept the Ahar-water,
this all went on happening in such an easy and systematic way that I
went on seeing all this, standing surprised ,in a corner.
I heard that He takes very less tastes (take tasteless
items) in His Ahar. So, I am looking for that taste flowing inside Him
which replaces the importance of the outside taste. A deep
Self-satisfaction showering on His face gives the news of that inner
taste and now I have come to know that all taste is inside. That the
taste is outside is ignorance. And this is the reason why even after
leaving the salt, His charm is amazing. He left sweet taste; still there
is an infinite sweetness within Him. His Self-love is non-fading though
no oil (love) reaches the lamp of His body .Though He left all fruit;
still He is really fruit giving for others.
5(ii) PERFECT CONDUCT
Watching His balanced Ahar-conduct, I felt that He has no special
affection towards His body. He just wants to touch the height of Self (Atma)
making the use of this body as a stair. Body is a medium of Dharma. His
objective is to keep it capable enough of doing Self-accomplishment with
a quiet mind. I think that how rare and how fruitful this Complete
Experiment is considering Body to be different from the Self.
I see that He follows very easily all the rules and
regulations of accepting Ahar like a true mendicant .As there is no
requirement of any special material to fill a hole, in a very similar
manner, there is no demand of any special/tasty food material to satisfy
the requirements of the body. Like grease is applied to the axis so that
when the vehicle moves, sound shall not come, in a similar way, so that
journey of life shall proceed without obstruction and body functions
well, He accepts the suitable Ahar.
Like saline or sweet water-any of these is sufficient
for a fire-extinguisher, in a similar manner, to extinguish the heat of
Hunger-Thirst, tasty-tasteless, whatever food is available, He accepts
it quietly. Like a Cow that enters a garden and silently eats the grass
and comes out without even noticing the beauty of different kinds of
flowers and the charm and beauty of the people offering her the food, I
have seen that He, unaffected by the external glory of the Shravaks
(people offering Ahar), silently accepts the pure food offered to Him in
His hands after complete check standing on His feet just once in a day.
This is called as Gochari conduct (The way the cow eats-a little from
here and a little from there, so that no one is burdened).
After completing the Ahar, the joy of the people and His
smiling return in the midst of the acclamations sung by the crowd,
unaffected by all these, reminds me of Bhramari conduct of Saints
(conduct like Black Bee). Like a black bee comes humming and takes the
pollen from the flower and leaves it delighted, similarly He, engrossed
in Self-music, accepts the Ahar with an unconnected feeling and leaves
the Shravaks delighted.
After His return, how long I stood there with my head bent.
When I came back from my thoughts, I saw that He had reached very far.
So far, that to reach Him, I will have to walk behind Him for the whole
of my life.
6-Ocean-The heap of Jewels
I am seeing that he is exposing the unsolved/closed mysteries of
an open Grantha sitting in the open compound of the temple. His Himself
being Nirgrantha(one who has got rid of all attachments) and solving the
mysteries hidden in the Grantha one by one by His knowledge and behavior
really seems wonderful. Actually, His sometimes being extremely serious,
sometimes smiling mildly, speaking something in the mind in His kind
research to solve the hidden mysteries of the Grantha, and then in a
moment losing Himself in the depth of the Grantha is extremely unique to
me. I think that the ever-new and up-to-date form of Jain-Darshan is
possible only through these rare self-disciplined saints.
In these moments of self-experience, He looks infinite and
deep like an ocean. Like the extensive, boundary-less and deep water of
an ocean unknowingly attracts us towards itself and appears to invite us
too to become an ocean, similarly His invitation inspires us to enter
the great ocean of self-perception.
Like ocean is silent even after filling everything into
itself, it remains in its limits no matter how many rivers flow into it,
similarly no matter how many Atmas surrender themselves onto His feet
,He remains quiet and unconnected in between all these. He is limitless
within the limits.
Like the waves of an ocean drag/take and throw the waste
on its surface to the beach, He is purified by removing all the incoming
defects each and every moment by His cautiousness.
He is also a heap of Jewels like an ocean. He has hidden
precious gems like Right-faith, Right-Knowledge and Right-Conduct in the
infinite depth of the Self. For a moment He looks engaged in all the
activities like Ahar-Vihar-Nihar (food and recreation) on the surface
like an ocean but somewhere deep in the inside He is extremely silent
and is firm in His Self-form.
I see that like no one’s thirst is filled up reaching near
an ocean, but increases more, similarly achieving His company, the
thirst for the attaining the Self/Self-happiness increases. Truly, He is
an ocean in this manner. He is an extremely deep ocean of
Self-knowledge.
7-Amnesty
The
time for the start of Chaturmas was close. Everyone wished that this
year Acharya Maharaj
does
His Chaturmas in Nainagiri itself. Though there was always a fear of
dacoits near Nainagiri, people were confident that all the programs will
be happily conducted in presence of Acharya Maharaj. And their wish
turned true. Chaturmas was established.
One day, as always, when Acharya Maharaj was walking towards the
hill after the Ahar-Charya, on the way four dacoits came from the
near-by Jungle and walked behind Him towards the hill. Each one’s mouth
was hidden with cloth and they had guns in their hands. Some people
feared, but Acharya Maharaj proceeded comfortably. After the Darshan in
the temple, everyone sat down. That group of dacoits was surprised by
the smile on Acharya Maharaj’s face and fearlessness and affinity
everywhere. All of them kept their guns aside and bent in front of the
quiet posture of Acharya Maharaj.
Acharya Maharaj blessed them saying, “Be fearless and make others
free form fear. We will be here for four months, if you want, you may
follow the true path.” They heard everything, saluted by bending humbly
and went slowly.
After that, people boldly visited Nainagiri. No incident was
recorded during that period. Everyone gained amnesty in the shadow of
Acharya Maharaj.
8-RIGHT
PATH
During His Chaturmas, some people from Jaipur were coming to Nainagiri
for Acharya Maharaj’s Darshan. They lost their way and turned to another
path near Nainagiri. After moving some distance, they realized that they
have lost their way and are on the wrong path. In the mean time, they
were surrounded by four people with guns. All the people inside the car
were perplexed. One of them summing up all his confidence, said,
“Bhaiya, we are from Jaipur. We are going for the Darshan of Acharya
Shri Vidyasagarji Maharaj, but we have lost the way, so please help us”.
All those four (gun carrying) people saw each other and one of then sat
inside the car to show the path.
On reaching near the Jal-Mandir in Nainagiri, that man stepped out
of the car and before anyone says something, he had gone from there.
When the passengers told the story to others, they were shocked. All of
them remembered that incident when four dacoits were given message and
blessing from Acharya Maharaj. Learning right path themselves that day
and showing the right path to the astray passengers, it seemed as if
those dacoits marked the influence of that Amrit-Vani(Voice equivalent
to nectar).
9-ESSENCE
OF RENUNCIATION
It was the time of winters. Aacharya Maharaj reached there before the
sunset along with His sangha. The whole sangha stayed in a room above
the temple. The thatched roof was almost destroyed. There were a lot of
windows and in the absence of glass, there was no difference between the
open and closed windows. The cold increased with the night. All the
saints had one carpet each. No one took the grass. All night passed just
sitting. In the morning, after the Aacharya Vandana, Aacharya Maharaj
asked smiling, “It was too cold at night, tell me what thought came to
your mind?” We all started thinking that what should be said, but
summing up the confidence, answered immediately, “Maharaj Ji it was too
cold at night, we thought that it would have been better if we had one
more carpet”. His face filled up with gratification hearing this. He
said, “See, this is the essence of renunciation. To resist the cold, you
all did not even think of accepting the given up things (His indication
was towards quilts). I expected the same thing from you all. We shall
always be careful towards the renunciation. There shall not be any
thought of given up thing, be careful about that.”
His awakening words will always support us.
10-NIMITTA
In his last times, Jinendra Varni Ji surrendered himself for Samadhi in
the Holy feet of Aacharya Shri after accepting Him as his Guru.
Sallekhna was yet to start, suddenly before this Aacharya Maharaj along
with His sangha without informing anyone left from Isri via Nimia-ghat
towards Parshvanath Taunk for Vandana. Whole day passed in Vandana; the
day finished on coming back to Isri Ashram.
As this all happened without any prior information,
it kept Varni Ji worried the whole day about the return of Aacharya
Maharaj. As Aacharya Maharaj came back to the Isri Ashram, Varni Ji kept
his head in His feet. His eyes filled up with tears; said with his
obstructed throat, “Maharaj, you left me alone and went without
informing me. I was very much worried. You are my only support. You have
to handle everything in my last days now.”
Aacharya Maharaj became serious for a moment,
and then smilingly said, “Varni Ji! Sallekhna is Self-supported. You
only have to support your own thoughts and emotions. Keep awakened your
Upadan (acquisition); I am just a Nimitta (catalytic agent).”
Supporting, handling, keeping awakened towards
abstinence and continuously giving knowledge about Self-welfare to every
student dedicated towards Him; but keeping Himself Asamprikt from all
this, is His specialty.
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