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18
THE WAY OF LIFE
actions that are opposed to dharma are conducive to dharma and that those actions that are conducive to dharma are opposed to dharma.
Just as it is the command of the Jin that your actions should not be opposed to Dharma, it is also a command of the Jin that your actions should not be opposed to the interests of the people. You should not treat the thoughts and opinions of others with contempt. If you do so, others will develop an attitude of contempt for you. They will disregard you and even your noble actions and activities.
Some who are ill-informed or intellectually inert visit religious centres and sing songs of glory extolling dharma but keep doing things that are opposed to the interests of people. Such men create in the minds of people a distorted image of Dharma. On account of them and their actions, some sacred practices of Dharma are censured by people. Those people make themselves censurable and they also cause some noble conventions and practices to be censured.
NEVER TREAT YOUR FAMILY WITH CONTEMPT
First, let us talk about the members of your family. In your family, there are your parents, your brothers, your sisters your wife and your sons and daughters. You must have a thorough knowledge of the thoughts and opinions of all these people. All the members of your family may not accept your opinions. If you insist that all the members of your family must accept your opinions and act by them, what will happen ? If you want to have cordial relations with the members of your family, stop deprecating their opinions again and again; and stop treating them with contempt.
In man's life, there is also this possibility. He may realise the truth of something but he may not be able to act according to it. Accepting something as a truth is different from living according to it. The man who acts according to what he considers as the truth will surely become an omniscient Vitrag. This is not possible in your case. At least, you
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