Acharya Shree, what are the 3 easy steps to enlightenment?
That is the best question you have ever asked. Easy step to enlightenment. You know enlightenment. Enlightenment once you achieve it, you can see through everything.
Enlightenment is incredible. To go towards enlightenment, it is not easy. But there are easy 3 steps.
On the surface it looks like easy. Maybe it is difficult to follow it. But I am going to give to you anyway 3 easy steps.
First, let me repeat in sanskrit "samyak darshan jnaana charitraani moksha margah".
3 jewels or 3 steps. First is samyak darshan. Samyak darshan. Darshan means vision, to see. If you can see the things as they are and you don't put yourself in betweeen those things.
If the things are white, just see them white. If the things are black, see them black. If your vision is clear, if your vision is right, it means you are not deluded at all.
Illusion goes away. As soon as you gain the samyak darshan, right vision, unfortunately in Jain religion it is mistranslated. They say samyak darshan means right faith.
And faith means religion. It doesn't make any sense. But if you have right vision you will see things as they are.
If you don't, if you are not in the middle, you will see things as they are.
And that will make your path very easy towards enlightenment. Or towards moksha. It is same thing. Moksha is liberation.
Once you enter, achieve enlightenment that is your last life. And then you enter into liberation, moksha.
So right vision is very important. So you have to take away all the curtains of illusions, curtain of hate, curtain of jealousy, curtain of negativities, curtain of angers...
Then your vision becomes clear. And your vision becomes samyak. Samyak means right. As it is.
If you follow this step, it is very easy step, clear your vision. Don't take it literally. Get the figurative meaning.
See it as it is. The things. Black as black. White as white. You are not in the middle at all.
Samyak darshan. 2nd is samyak jnaana. Samyak jnaana is knowing, knowledge actually.
Usually people translate jnaana as knowledge...and samyak... When you right word in front of jnaana - samyak - it becomes totally different meaning.
Samyak jnaana means right knowing. Right way of knowing. If you know things, maybe you know wrong way, maybe you know lot of things, but you don't know things right way.
If you have the second step, right knowing, if you know and right way knowing then you don't need to collect lot of information.
Otherwise you keep collecting trillions of information and between you or between robot or between you and computer there is no big difference. And remember computer never gets liberation.
Computer never get enlightenment because it doesn't have the knowing power, but it has information. So I will suggest to you when you collect a lot of information that is also knowledge, so don't get trapped.
The people who had mistranslated this samyak jnaana - right knowledge - they don't know anything about it. And right knowledge for them is information.
And information doesn't lead you toward enlightenment. Right knowing leads you towards enlightenment.
Right knowledge for them is like a computer information. Right knowledge for them is like you collect all the information and you become scholar.
And remember scholars have difficulty to get enlightenment. Why? Because they get stuck into knowledge. They don't get stuck into knowing.
And as soon as you get stuck into knowledge it creates big ego and that is a hindrance.
So as soon as you get the right knowing, your illusion, your ego, it fades away. It goes away. It dissolves by itself.
That is the way, you need right knowing. And right knowing is the very nature of the soul.
The right knowing, right knowing comes from inside. Once your soul is awakened, knowing is infinite. It is infinite knowing. It is very deep into your soul.
Your soul is full of knowing, not full of knowledge. As soon as you get the right knowing, that is the 2nd easy step.
So once knowing, all the information comes from you by itself. Flows from the depth of your soul. That is knowing. And it is neverending.
Infinite knowing. Soul has infinite knowing. So the 2nd step is right knowing.
3rd step is very complicated, but it is easy. They call it samyak charitra. Let me explain it to you. Charitra they consider character.
Character or conduct only. And they got stuck, most of people, they got stuck right character, right conduct means just that you follow celibacy or you follow like if you are married man, married lady, so you have loyalty towards your partner.
That is the samyak charitra. They translated only that much. But it is very deep meaning of the charitra. Charitra includes lot of other things.
Charitra includes your habits, if you have bad habits, you have to watch about your bad habits. If you have wrong behavior, you have to correct your behavior.
So charitra includes your behavior, your habits, or your habits of eating, your habits of speaking, your habits of talking, your habits of how you behave with other people in the society.
Your behavior includes lot of other things. So charitra includes your habits, your ways of living in the society. If you can get this straightened out, it becomes your right conduct.
So three easy steps. If you will follow I guarantee you you will reach to enlightenment. I cannot guarantee you will reach in this life, but you will reach that is sure.
But it is not important you reach in this life or next life as long as you reach. That counts.
So, follow the 3 steps. They are easy steps. But try to understand in detail.
And then you are not far away from enlightenment. Jai Siddhatma.