Aspirants Guide

The book "Aspirant's Guide" by H.H. Shri Atmanandji Maharaj, published by Shrimad Rajchandra Sadhna Kendra Koba, is an English translation of the Gujarati book "Sadhak-Sathi." It serves as a concise and scientific guide for spiritual seekers, aiming to help them develop sublime virtues and ultimately achieve self-realization and salvation (moksha).

The book emphasizes that the true goal of human life is spiritual perfection. In an era where individuals are often confused by conflicting spiritual paths and beliefs, this guide offers clear, actionable advice. It covers a wide range of virtues and principles essential for spiritual growth, presented in a manner that is practical and effective, often illustrated with historical incidents from the lives of great people.

The Publisher's Note highlights the institute's commitment to producing life-elevating literature and explains the rationale behind publishing the English version due to growing international interest. Special thanks are extended to Dr. Paul Marett for his contributions in making the book accessible to a Western audience.

The Introduction sets the tone, presenting the pursuit of spiritual perfection as the ultimate aim of human life. It acknowledges the confusion arising from diverse spiritual paths and the scarcity of direct guidance from enlightened masters. The book is divided into two parts, with this being the first, focusing on the day-to-day practice of virtues. It states that the development of these virtues, combined with proper discrimination between the self and non-self, leads to spiritual wisdom and eventually self-realization through devotion, patience, perseverance, and meditation.

The Index provides a comprehensive list of the virtues and principles discussed, including:

• Forgiveness (Kshama): Presented as a heroic virtue that prevents anger and is the very nature of the soul. It details the subtle nature of anger, ways to conquer it, obstacles to its practice, and living examples.
• Charity (Dana): Discusses four types of charity useful for spiritual progress: charity with devotion/humility, compassionate charity, charity of gentleness, and charity of knowledge. It outlines the glory of charity and provides examples.
• True Mercy (Daya): Defines mercy as not inflicting pain on any living creature. It covers the general and higher orders of observing mercy, including mercy towards oneself, and its glory with living examples.
• Celibacy (Brahmacharya): Explains its meaning as conduct leading to the realization of the soul. It outlines three stages of practice (for ordinary householders, seekers of knowledge, and complete celibacy) and the glory of this vow, supported by examples.
• Tolerance (Sahana-shilata): Defined as voluntary endurance with equanimity. It discusses training in real tolerance, external forces that test it, high-grade noble tolerance, and its glory with examples.
• Good Use of Time (Samayano Sad-upayoga): Emphasizes the preciousness of time and the need for its proper utilization for spiritual advancement. It highlights the importance of constant alertness and provides insights from great individuals.
• Silence (Mauna): Presented as a crucial part of spiritual progress, focusing on the abandonment of pointless talkativeness and the good use of speech. It explores the success of silence, its glory, and living examples.
• Control of Taste (Rasa-swada-jaya): Stresses the importance of controlling the tongue and its impact on the entire sense-control. It discusses the voluptuousness of taste, ways to conquer it, and its glory with examples.
• Equanimity (Samata-ni Sadhana): Defines equanimity as living with a balanced mind amidst dualities. It outlines the means to achieve it (company of nobles, cultivation of virtues, self-contemplation) and its glory with examples of equanimous personalities.
• Study of Self (Svadhyaya-shilata): Highlights it as a basic necessity for spiritual progress, yielding immediate rewards. It details three stages of self-study and its glory with examples.
• Restraint of Wantonness (Swachhand-nirodha): Defines wantonness as uncontrolled behavior and emphasizes the need for right knowledge and preaching to control it. It discusses obstacles and the glory of control with examples.
• Detachment (Nirmohipanun): Explains detachment as true knowledge of the world through right vision, leading to discriminative power. It outlines three stages of detachment and its glory with examples.
• Humility (Vinaya): Defines humility as internal and devotional respect towards the noble. It details the eight types of pride that annihilate humility and the rewards of developing humility, supported by examples.
• Adverse Feelings (Vibhava-bhavo): Discusses impure emotional states arising from ignorance and the importance of washing them out. It outlines types of impure states, the order of their annihilation, and living examples of overcoming them.
• Contentment (Santosh): Describes contentment as a state of satisfaction amidst temptations and its role in achieving mental peace and meditation. It details ways to conquer covetousness and its glory with examples.
• Company of Nobles (Sat-samagama): Emphasizes the importance of associating with noble persons, scriptures, and saints for spiritual advancement. It outlines the process and glory of such company with examples.
• Awakening of Soul (Atma-Jagruti): Defines it as complete absence of idleness and absolute alertness. It explains its general and supreme spiritual nature, its glory, and provides living examples.
• Compassion (Karuna): Defines compassion as a feeling of self-affliction on seeing the suffering of others. It discusses the common and supreme spiritual nature of compassion, its glory, and an example.
• Path of Devotion (Bhakti Marg-ni Aradhana): Presents devotion as one of the three main paths to self-realization, alongside knowledge and yoga. It details the general and specialized nature of devotion, nine types of Bhakti, its reward, glory, and examples.
• Renunciation (Tyaga-Dharma): Defines renunciation as non-association with anything except the Soul, for spiritual progress. It discusses its usefulness, success, glory, and living examples.
• Universal Friendliness (Maitri): Explains universal friendliness as developing a sense of kinship with every living being, stemming from the realization that the soul within all creatures is the same. It highlights its importance in meditation and its glory with examples.
• Truthfulness (Satya-nishtha): Distinguishes between conventional and absolute truth, emphasizing that absolute truth is attained through self-knowledge and self-control. It discusses the principle of relativity and multi-dimensional vision in achieving truth, its glory, and examples.
• Straight-forwardness (Saralata): Defines it as consistency in mind, speech, and body, and its importance in spiritual progress. It discusses obstacles and the glory of straightforwardness with examples.
• Principles of Karma (Karma-na Niyamo): Explains the law of Karma as fundamental to spiritual science and the backbone of spiritual life. It details the law of bondage, characteristics of Karma, the transmigration cycle, and the rewards of understanding this doctrine with examples.
• Meditation (Dhyana): Discusses various types of bad concentration and the meditation that leads to right religion. It outlines prerequisites, qualifications of a meditator, the Sadhana of meditation, its fruits, glory, and examples.
• Principle of Relativity (Sapeksha-tano Siddhant / Syadvada): Explains the importance of understanding objects from multiple viewpoints to gain authentic knowledge and its application in spiritual Sadhana. It discusses its glory and provides living examples.
• True Success in Life (Jivanani Sachi Safalta): Differentiates between ordinary and highest success, defining the highest as the bliss of self-realization. It outlines the practice for achieving this success, its glory, and living examples.
• Cycle of Worldly Existence (Sansara Paribhramana): Describes the cycle of birth, old age, death, and suffering across various states of existence, highlighting the pains and sufferings involved. It emphasizes the need for detachment and liberation from this cycle.
• Moderation in Food (Mitahara): Stresses the importance of moderation in food for physical and mental well-being and spiritual life, its glory, and living examples.
• Spirit of Community Welfare (Samuha Kalyana-ni Bhavna): Highlights the significance of social responsibility and contributing to the well-being of society, alongside individual spiritual development, with examples.
• Self-Control (Samyama): Defines self-control as discriminative restraint of adverse inclinations for self-purification. It discusses its importance in practical life, three stages of Sadhana, and provides living examples.
• Delight in the Virtues (Guna-pramoda): Explains delighting in the virtues of others as a means to cultivate those virtues in oneself. It discusses its importance in recognizing and imbibing virtues, and an example.

The book concludes with Glossaries of Words, Places, and People, providing essential context for understanding the Jain terminology and historical references. It also includes a list of the author's other publications and a list of donors for this particular publication.

Overall, "Aspirant's Guide" is a comprehensive manual for spiritual seekers, offering profound insights into the Jain path of liberation through the cultivation of virtues and understanding of fundamental spiritual principles.