Way of Life Part 2

SR No.: 006514
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhadraguptasuri
Publisher: Vishvakalyan Prakashan Trust Mehsana
Publication Year: 1986
Total Pages: 362
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Religion
File Size: 18 MB

Page 83

DISCOURSE 29
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body, the impure blood in my body resulting from the impure food I had eaten, flowed out; so my mind is free from all perversities and aberrations. My mind is pure and serene now." AS IS THE FOOD; SO IS THE MOOD
Have you understood the meaning of Bhishma's words? By enjoying the wealth and pleasures resulting from immorality, dishonesty and unlawfulness man's mind becomes polluted. The sublime Dharma cannot enter the mind that is corrupt and polluted. When on that day, in the court of Duryodhana, Dushshasana was inhumanly pulling off Draupadi's saree, Bhishma sat there silently without opposing and condemning that enormity. He was not only keeping quiet but also watching the drama. How could he oppose it? He was Duryodhana's dependant. He had to be true to his salt. He had eaten Duryodhana's food. That food and those pleasures and splendours which he was enjoying were secured from an ignoble source. Duryodhana was the very embodiment of immorality, inhumanity and unlawfulness.
"As is the food, so is the mood”. Have you heard this proverb ? The kind of food that you eat determines your character, your mood and temperament; that is why all the great Indian religions give importance to the kind of food that should be eaten. In the Jain Dharma, a great importance is given to the purity of food. The Jain Dharma prescribes definite aims and principles regarding the kind of food that should be eaten. But it is a pity that now-a-days even Jains are indifferent towards the principle of pure food. ILL-GOTTEN MONEY POLLUTES EVEN THE TEMPLE
From the Audience: If people enjoy the wealth that is acquired by means of immoral and illegal methods, it corrupts their minds. Does such wealth corrupt or exercise any evil influence on the temples, which are built with it ?
Maharajashri : The temple of the Jin must be built with the money that is earned by fair, legal and moral methods. Even in the Shastras, this stipulation is made. The devotion for the Paramatma will not be so jubilant and splendid in a tem