________________
Speaker: "But poison administered by a physician can also give someone life.”
Audience: "Yes, but that is only one person out of thousands. The rest all die. The one person who lives, does so because of the effects of his past lives. Therefore, poison only results in death and not life."
Speaker: "In the same manner, it is these very few, rare, extraordinary human beings who attain punya on account of their wealth. The majority of people commit bad deeds, even those performing good deeds with their wealth do more evil deeds than righteous ones. It is important to go inwards and think, whether one has carried out more good deeds or evil deeds after obtaining more wealth and how many of one's sins could have been avoided if one's income, which is more than is necessary, would be reduced. If one reflects on this honestly, the fact that manifests itself is that acquisition of more wealth gives impetus to increased impiety."
Like it is erroneous to think that poison makes you live, it is also incorrect to think that one can perform good deeds due to wealth.
Let us go back to the story of Lord Mahavir. The Emperor lost his sleep as the music continued to play. The Emperor asked the guard, "Were you aware that I was asleep?"
"Yes, my Lord! I knew that you were asleep but
"But what?"
"I could not resist the temptation to listen to the music
Punya = merit
15
""