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PREFACE : XLIII
wise spiritual aspirant, when the body becomes diseased or decayed, he, too, like the wise merchant, tries his best to save it initially. However, when he realizes that it is impossible to save both - the body and the virtues – shedding the attachment towards his body, he sacrifices it and saves the more precious virtues. By saying this, here, we only mean that the spiritual aspirant desirous of embracing the equanimous death does not have any attachment with any worldly objects. At the end, he sheds any attachment towards his body as well. He considers all worldly wealth and riches, pleasures and pains, objects of sensual enjoyments, gold and silver, servants and attendants, family and relatives etc. as inconsequential as compared to the equanimity of the soul.
This treatise has been concluded by saying that the spiritual aspirant, hearing about the fundamentals of humility, qualifications of the masters and the disciples, their ethical codes and righteousness of knowledge and conduct as well as the equanimous death, should adopt them in accordance with their enunciation in the scriptures. The living beings, subject to being borne in the wombs and worldly wanderings, should, thus, end the cycles of birth and death and attain liberation, which is the ultimate goal of human life. (174–175)
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