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CONCEPTS COMMON TO THE UPANIŞADS,
THE BHAGAVAD-GĪTĀ AND JAINISM
INCENTIVES TO SPIRITUAL LIFE:
In the Upanişads and the Bhagavad-Gītā we may discern certain incentives which prompt man to strive for immortality, First, the incentive of being struck by the impermanence of worldly opulences may be seen when Naciketas rejects the offer of mundane things and pleasurescattle and elephants, gold and horses, sons and grandsons with long life, wealth, kingdom and all sorts of pleasureson being asked by the god of death. He declares that these transitory things wear away the glory of the senses and even a long life is insufficient to make something out of them with the consequence that dissatisfaction prevails.' Again he disapproves the desire for a lengthy duration of life of sensual pleasures when he has come into the presence of ageless immortals.? In the Brhadāraṇyakopanişad Maitreyi prefers immortality to the possession of the whole earth full of wealth, since riches are incapable of bestowing eternal life upon her.” The Maitrī Upanișad portrays the mutable nature of the world. According to it, the gnats and mosquitoes, the grass and the trees grow and decay. There is the drying up of great oceans, the falling away of mountain peaks, the deviation of the fixed pole-star, the submergence of the earth, the departure of the gods from their station. In such a world as this, what is the good of enjoyment of desires?
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