The Rare Gift of Human Birth — Jain Sutras Decoded

It is indeed very difficult for anyone in this world to achieve four things. Almost all the great Masters are saying you have achieved the difficult thing of manushyatva. In the same way Shankara is also telling manushyatva - achieving human body, mumukshatva - seeking for enlightenment and satsanga or the nearness of an enlightened being are very difficult.

Here Mahāvīra is saying, human body is very difficult for anyone in this world to achieve because only from human body one can experience enlightenment. Understand, human body is like a runway where you want to take-off or land. You have to only take the human body for enlightenment.

You can't get enlightened from devata sharira or the body of angel. Or you can't get enlightened from the body of an animal. No, they don't have the possibility. Only from here, from the body of human one can go to hell or heaven. You have the choice only in the human body. Other bodies don't have the choice. They may have little freedom but all the senses and the mind have freedom only in the human body.

Understand, in other animals they may have freedom in one sense or two senses, but they will not have complete freedom. Only in the human body all your five senses and your mind have the freedom.

You have the choice, you can choose, you can select 'What next? What next?' You have complete freedom to choose only in the human body. The possibility for enlightenment exists only in the human body. That is why I always tell people it is so difficult to achieve this body.

Do not waste your life behind the currencies which have no value. Any currency is a promise by the person who is ruling that country. Currency to fulfill your basic needs is wonderful, there is nothing wrong with that but even after having that, running behind the same thing is wasting your life. See, if you are running behind the same thing without working towards enlightenment or the higher consciousness, you will be wasting such a wonderful opportunity of having a human body.

It is like you have got a new diamond, a big diamond and you use it as a table weight! You are laughing but you don't understand that you are doing exactly the same thing. See the possibility for enlightenment.

The human body means possibility for enlightenment. It is the mechanism with which you can experience liberation once for all. This availability is the most beautiful. Currency is ok to buy a home, to protect the body and to give medical care. But after that, work towards the ultimate conscious achievement.

Do not waste your life by running behind the foolish promises given to you by society. Understand, they are empty promises. Currency is a promissory note till you fulfill your basic needs. After that it is an empty promissory note. There is no utility directly out of it. After that, it is time for you to work towards vanaprastha.

In Sanskrit that's why we have four words: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, sannyas. Brahmacharya is an age where you learn vidya and avidya both. Vidya means education for enlightenment and for creating an infrastructure for your comfort and wealth. The next 25 years is the grihastha stage where you live and create the infrastructure for your safe, comfortable and secure life.

The immediate next stage is you starting as vanaprastha. Vanaprastha means working towards your conscious development, your enlightenment - because the great possibility is there open and available for you.

Sannyas is achieving and radiating enlightenment. Understand, the secured feeling which you experience by having wealth is too poor a substitute for enlightenment. It is too small a substitute for enlightenment. The possibility for enlightenment exists only in the human body. No other animal, no other devatas, no other gandharvas, no other creatures, can even think of enlightenment.

One more thing, the possibility for hell also exists only in the human body. Only from the human body you can take any route. Whether to hell or heaven or enlightenment, only from here you can choose to go. Listening to dharma, no buffalo can go for spiritual discourses. It can't go and it can't understand. It doesn't have that suffering which drives it towards enlightenment.

Understand, human beings are blessed that they can experience suffering consciously. Animals may have suffering but they do not have consciousness. They are not conscious about it because they do not have a choice, they do not know that they have a choice. They have only instincts but they do not have a conscious choice. Human beings know they can escape from the suffering.

In Sanskrit that's why we have four words: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, sannyas. Brahmacharya is an age where you learn vidya and avidya both. Vidya means education for enlightenment and for creating an infrastructure for your comfort and wealth. The next 25 years is the grihastha stage where you live and create the infrastructure for your safe, comfortable and secure life.

The immediate next stage is you starting as vanaprastha. Vanaprastha means working towards your conscious development, your enlightenment - because the great possibility is there open and available for you.

Sannyas is achieving and radiating enlightenment. Understand, the secured feeling which you experience by having wealth is too poor a substitute for enlightenment. It is too small a substitute for enlightenment. The possibility for enlightenment exists only in the human body. No other animal, no other devatas, no other gandharvas, no other creatures, can even think of enlightenment.

One more thing, the possibility for hell also exists only in the human body. Only from the human body you can take any route. Whether to hell or heaven or enlightenment, only from here you can choose to go. Listening to dharma, no buffalo can go for spiritual discourses. It can't go and it can't understand. It doesn't have that suffering which drives it towards enlightenment.

Understand, human beings are blessed that they can experience suffering consciously. Animals may have suffering but they do not have consciousness. They are not conscious about it because they do not have a choice, they do not know that they have a choice. They have only instincts but they do not have a conscious choice. Human beings know they can escape from the suffering.

The greatest thing in the human body is you can transform all the emotions. The possibility for transformation exists only in the human body. Understand, take a moment and look into your body and thank that you have the possibility.

You have the possibility. In this whole cosmos millions of types of creatures are there but only you have the possibility of freedom from the birth and death cycle. Manushya only has the possibility. Celebrate your possibility. Celebrate that only you have the possibility towards the higher experiences and the higher goal of enlightenment.

Not only Mahāvīra, but also Buddha, Shankara and all the Masters are emphasizing again and again, repeating again and again, that only human beings can achieve enlightenment. They come just to tell you that you have a possibility. Do not waste it. Do not miss it. Think of going to the higher space, higher conscious level.

Other beings can't think in the same way. They cannot work for enlightenment. They cannot achieve it, only you can. The Vedic system again and again emphasizes, if you want enlightenment, you have to take the human body. Even devatas have to come down and take the human body to achieve enlightenment.

You now need to understand a few secrets about birth and death, the laws of life, the laws with which life or the universe functions.