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THE WAY OF LIFE
6. Attachment is the enemy of meditation. If there is any kind of attachment or selfishness or infatuation in the mind of a man, he cannot meditate upon the Paramatma with concentration. The mind of a man who is attached to his wealth cannot concentrate on anything except his wealth. The attachment may be for five rupees or for five hundred rupees or for five lakh rupees, its effect is the same. Attachment and selfishness do not allow the mind of a man to remain firm. If you want to become immersed in the meditation on the Paramatma and if you want to attain concentration, you must discard your attachments and selfishness.
7. Attachments cause anguish. The world thinks that the greater the attachment, the greater the happiness. But the enlightened people say that the greater the attachment, the greater the anguish. If a man is wealthy, he has in his possession countless means of attaining worldly pleasures and enjoyments. But such a man cannot experience happiness himself. He has some anguish or the other. When we think of attachments from the point of view of the other-worldly existence, we find that they bring only anguish.
8. Attachments destroy happiness. They destroy our inner felicity. They destroy our intellectual serenity and felicity. The mind that is attached to sensual pleasures and is infatuated with avarice can never experience true happiness. What is the use of having any number of the means of attaining sensual pleasures when the mind is agitated, excited and worried ? Another point is this. If a man has attachments, he will find that too many people want to cause agitation to him. 9. People commit all kinds of sins only on account of attachment and attachment is the abode of all sins. Is there any sin that the worshipper of pelf would not commit ? The worshipper of wealth commits countless sins, such as, violence, speaking falsehood, stealing, committing enormities, having attachments, getting angry, being proud etc. Deep attachments do not allow a man to consider sins as sins.
Shri Ratnamandan Gani has described these evil effects of
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