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The Story of Gau Sangrahi Kuchikarna, Tilak Seth, and Nand Raja
**Chapter 2 of Yoga Shastra, Verse 112: The Consequences of Tilak Seth's Attachment to Grain**
In ancient times, there lived a merchant named Tilak Shreshthi in the city of Achalpur. He collected grain from cities and villages. He would sell his customers pulses like urad, moong, sesame seeds, rice, wheat, chickpeas, etc. at a rate of one and a half times the price. After the harvest, he would collect one and a half times the price from them. How could grain increase from grain, grain from animals, and grain from wealth? By what means could grain increase? He would contemplate this day and night, like a deep thinker, and buy grain and sell it at the aforementioned profit. When a person becomes obsessed with something, it becomes an addiction, and their attachment to it does not fade. This was the case with Tilak Seth. He did not care that millions of insects died due to his grain collection. He did not feel any compassion for the pain that the five-sense beings and humans suffered from the burden of grain. Once, a wise man told him, "There will be a famine next year." Upon hearing this, he used all his wealth to buy grain. Even after buying so much grain, he was not satisfied. Therefore, he borrowed money from the wealthy at interest and bought and collected various types of grains. When he ran out of warehouses to store the grain, he filled his own house with it. What does a greedy man not do? After doing all this, he became indifferent, considering the enemy of the world, famine, as a friend, and waited for its arrival. But what happened was contrary to his anxious thoughts. At the beginning of the rainy season, clouds rose in the sky, as if tearing through his heart, and began to thunder. Soon, heavy rain began to fall all around. As a result, the various grains he had collected, including wheat, moong, rice, and chickpeas, began to rot. Seeing this, the dissatisfied Tilak Seth began to lament, "Alas! My grain will be destroyed. Now my grain will be lost." Thus, lamenting, "Alas! Alas!" his heart burst from being unsatisfied, and he died immediately and went to hell. This is the result of Tilak Shreshthi's excessive greed!
**The Wealth-Hungry Nand Raja**
In ancient times, there was a magnificent city called Pataliputra, which followed the example of Indranagar. There ruled a king named Nand, who was like Indra in subduing his enemies and was the ruler of three parts of the world. He imposed taxes on those who were not already taxed. He increased the taxes on those who were already taxed, and he imposed other taxes on those who paid more. In this way, he would accuse people of any crime and take money from them as punishment. He would always say, "The king can deceive, but he cannot be deceived. Just as the ocean is the container of all waters, so the king is the container of all wealth, there is no other!" And in this way, he tried to collect wealth from the people by any means possible. Therefore, in a few years, the people became impoverished. There was not even grass left on the land for sheep and goats to graze. He erased the name and form of gold coins for exchange and introduced leather coins in their place. He would heavily punish hypocrites and prostitutes and take money from them in return. Since fire consumes everything and leaves no one, people began to say, seeing his behavior, "After 1900 years of the Nirvana of Lord Mahavira, the Kalki Raja is going to be born; according to that prophecy, is this not the Kalki Raja?" Seeing the fierce anger of Nand Raja, people began to eat in earthenware pots instead of bronze or brass pots. Many people, out of fearlessness, gave their pots to others, thinking that if they had pots, they would be afraid of being taken away by the king. In this way, the extremely greedy Nand Raja built mountains of gold, filled wells with gold, and filled all his treasuries with gold, yet his desire was not fulfilled.
When a benevolent king of Ayodhya heard about his behavior, he was very saddened. He sent a clever messenger to him to try to reason with him. The messenger arrived there and, to seize all the wealth and fortune,