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34
VICHAR MALA.
Pupil.
Bhagavan, my intellect is dull, I cannot understand what you say. Speak unto me of them separately, So that I may know the seven grounds.
Guru.
Material prosperity leads to misery;
Regard with reverence your preceptor as a sacred
shrine.
That is called good desire :
And keep your mind engaged in hearing the Purans
etc.
Բ
To know material well-being, riches, family and the rest as a productive source of untold miseries, whose very contact is painful, to attribute defects to them and observe them in that light, engenders an inclination to abandon them; and to repair to the sacred presence of a professor, just as a pilgrim repairs to a holy shrine or sacred city, with reverence and affection; and to produce an inclination for hearing the Puranas or other sacred writings read out, [all these help to make the mind faultless, and pave the way to knowledge. Therefore one of its grounds or means is good desire.]
That creates affection and love for God, And removes everything else from the mind. The heart elated with joy sings his praise, And day by day increases love for him.
From the hearing of the Puranas, is engendered affection for God, and a person comes to know everything else is fruitless in procuring emancipation save knowledge of Him, so he removes them altogether from his mind. When the mind has thus been firmly and affectionately restored to God, and the individual feels within him His kindness and affection for his
