Way of Life Part 1

SR No.: 006513
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhadraguptasuri
Publisher: Vishvakalyan Prakashan Trust Mehsana
Publication Year: 1986
Total Pages: 432
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Religion
File Size: 22 MB

Page 171

DISCOURSE 10
Dharma. First, you think well and see if you have developed contempt for impurities and derogations. Have you begun to despise the pleasures that arise from impurities and derogations? Are you agitated by the impurities in you? What happens when your clothes become unclean and dirty? How do you feel when your body is unclean and dirty? Would you not think of washing your clothes and cleaning your body? Would you not search for a method by which you can wash your clothes and clean your body? You do not like unclean clothes; and you do not like your body being unclean. In the same manner, if you do not like your soul being unclean, you will surely think of cleansing it and chastening it.
THE IGNORANCE OF THE SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES
But there are some people in this world who do not feel unhappy in their unclean dress; and who do not care even a little for the uncleanness of the body. Such people do not even think of the soul. How can they think of spiritual purity or impurity when they do not even think of the soul? How can they think of Dharma when they do not think of the soul? But we see even such people performing spiritual activities. Such activities are performed by them as a matter of blind convention or for the attainment of some mundane objectives. They do not aspire for spiritual felicity; they desire worldly pleasures. They perform those activities to attain sensual pleasures. The activities that are performed with a view to attaining sensual pleasures are not free from fear, hatred and sorrow because sorrow and fear are born out of the attachment for the worldly happiness. People naturally hate those activities that cause sorrow and when people do not get happiness, they only experience sorrow as a result of their spiritual activities. The desire for sensual pleasures is a kind of impurity. Have you examined this point relating to your mind?
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As long as the heart is full of the desire for sensual pleasures, fear, hatred and sorrow will also exist there and as long as the heart is not free from these three feelings, a man cannot perform the right kind of spiritual austerity. All of you observe your external and internal life; and you will find