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..