PURPOSE OF OBSERVING BENEDICTION (MANGALAACHARAN)

Here someone asks "What is the purpose of benediction right in the beginning of the book?"

Answer: Completing the book happily without any disturbance due to rise of evil (Papa) karmas is the object of performing benediction Mangalaacharan in the beginning.

Question: The people of other faiths who do not make obeisance like this, in their case also, the completion of book and non-occurrance of disturbance is seen, how is it so?

Answer: The people of other faiths who write books, they, due to rise of intense delusion, keep self-contradictory words and meanings in them which nourish the erroneous faith and passional-instincts; hence its disturbanceless completion is possible even without such obeisance. If by such obeisance delusion becomes feeble, how would then such contradictory work be accomplished? And I am also writing this book; by virtue of feeble-passion, I will keep (write) in it the words nourishing the passionless science of Tattvas (essential-principles); its disturbanceless completion is possible only by performing such an obeisance. If such an obeisance is not done then the intensity of delusion will persist; how would then such noble act be possible?

Further, he says "Well this is acceptable but he who does not perform such obeisance, is also seen to be happy, the rise of sinful karmas is not seen and someone who performs such obeisance in him also happiness is not seen, rather the rise of sinful karmas is found; therefore, how is the aforesaid auspiciousness possible?

The cruel (intense) and ingenuous (mild) instincts of jivas are of many types. The karmas bounded by them in the past in different times rise at one time. Therefore, for example, one who had accumulated lot of wealth in the past is found possessing wealth without earning and is not seen in debt and the one who had taken lot of debt in the past is found indebted even while earning wealth and wealth is not seen, but on thinking one finds that earning is always the cause of wealth only and not of debt. Similarly, the one who had bounded lot of auspicious karmas in the past, he is seen possessed of happiness even without performing such obeisance and the rise of sinful karmas is not seen and the one who had bounded lot of sinful karmas in the past he is not seen possessed of happiness even after performing such obeisance and the rise of sinful karmas is seen but on thinking one finds that performing of such obeisance is assuredly the cause of happiness and not of the rise of sinful karmas. Thus the auspiciousness of aforesaid obeisance is established.

Again he says, "This too is accepted; but why the Devas (celestial beings) who are the devotees of Jina-Shasana (omniscients-rule) did not help the one who observed the obeisance and did not punish the one who did not observe the obeisance?

Answer: The predominating factor of Jivas getting pleasure and pain is the rise of their own karmas; according to that only the external instrumental causes are met with, so the one whose sinful karmas are in rise (operative state) does not get help-rendering cause and the one whose pious (auspicious) karmas are in rise (operative state) does not get the punishment rendering cause.

How such instrumental cause is not met with, is being explained:

The Devas (celestial beings) can not know everything simultaneously due to Kshayopashama Jnan (destruction cum subsidence type of knowledge) hence knowing of the person observing obeisance and the one not observing obeisance takes place rarely to some celestial being etc; so if they do not know them, how could they help or punish? And if they know them then if their (Devas) passion be extremely feeble, then the instinct of helping or punishing does not arise and if the passion be intense then religious feeling can not arise and if the passion for involvement in such act be of average degrees and one may not have power then what can he do? In this way, the instrumental cause of rendering help or giving punishment does not materialise.

If one has capacity and due to rise of passion of average order has compassionate feeling also and in such states he should also be knowing pious-impious form of duty towards other Jiva then some celestial being etc. helps some pious fellow - or punishes some impious fellow. Thus there is no set rule for such action.

It is to be understood here that the desire of being happy, not being miserable, seeking help, creating trouble - all that is full of passion, is painful instantly as well as in future; therefore, discarding such desire and being aspirant of passionless-science only, I have observed obeisance to Arhantas etc. in the form of invocation etc..