The Current Living Tirthankara Shree Simandhar Swami The Current Living Tirthankara Shree Simandhar Swa | Page 18

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is the cash bank of Divine Solution!” You need to have cash on
hand, not in form of credit. People still continue to pay obeisance
to the twenty-four Tirthankaras of the past, do they not?
The Enlightened Ones have said that the twenty-four
Tirthankaras are Tirthankaras of the past. They had become
Tirthankaras in the past and are no longer here. Therefore one
should look for a living Tirthankara. One makes progress in the
worldly life by worshipping the Tirthankaras of the past, but one
does not gain any benefit towards liberation. Liberation is only
attained through the ones who are living and present.
Who Do we Bow to in ‘Namo Arihantanam’?
With what understanding do people of today recite the
Navkar Mantra? When I ask them who are the arihants, they tell
me that all the past twenty-four tirthankaras are arihant. So then I
ask them, ‘ if the twenty-four tirthankaras are the arihants, then
who are the siddhas?’ These tirthankaras were arihants at one
time, but have now become siddhas. So who is the arihant now?
When people say, “Namo Arihantanam”, who do they believe is
the arihant?
The twenty-four tirthankaras were indeed arihants when
they were living but they have now attained nirvana (the ultimate
liberation of an enlightened being), they have attained the final
moksha and have now become siddha and consequently they fall
in the category of siddhanum. People still continue to think of
them as arihants. They do not know that these tirthankaras have
become siddhas. This is how everything has been moving along in
the wrong direction, and that is why the Navkar Mantra does not
give any rewards. I tell them that Simandhar Swami is the arihant
today. Only those who are currently present and living can be
called arihants.