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96
THE WAY OF LIFE
NEVER BE ONE-SIDED
The great author has given an excellent guidance to people to carry on the pilgrimage of their lives, by expounding this ordinary principle. He has bestowed upon people a great benefaction by explaining the proper way to pursue the objectives of Dharma, Artha and Kama. He exhorts people to refrain from pursuing any one of these three objectives of Dharma, Artha and Kama. He exhorts people to refrain from pursuing any one of these three objectives ignoring the others. A man experiences sorrow when he pursues a single objective to the detriment of the others, in the sphere of thought. The same thing happens in the sphere of action and endeavour. He has advised people to discard "One-sideness". Just as one-sidedness in thought causes sorrow, one-sidedness causes sorrow even in the sphere of action. Running madly after money ignoring the other objectives is one-sidedness. Being completely immersed in sensual pleasure is one-sidedness. Similarly, being always absorbed in spiritual activities also is one-sidedness.
You must live in such a way that of these three purusharthas the excessive pursuit of anyone does not cause detriment to the others. We have discussed how people who in their pursuit of one purushartha cause detriment to the others. We shall discuss the remaining part of this subject later..
This is enough for to-day.
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