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Aptavani-4
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or the discharge of those karmas in the present life) would go haywire. “What sort of town is this, where there are no restaurants?!' he would yell.
This presents the right occasion for him to exercise caution. For goodness sakes! Just do the fast the vitarags have told you to do, so that your mind does not go bouncing around and bothering you. And when it comes to a wedding feast, where there are all kinds of good food to eat, a person will say, “I am fasting today”. He just says that and stands around! That is what has become of them all!! People have no clue about when they should fast. When you do not have anything to eat, or you do not get what you like to eat, then do penance (tapa). Food will present itself to you naturally, when the time is right. And when you do not get any food, you should simply accept the fact that it might not be possible on that day, and that would mean that it is a day to fast. A hungry businessman, on the other hand, would go into a 'Laxmi Lodge' (wayside cafe), climb upstairs and comment, 'This place is filthy and they all look dirty.' He comes back down and does kashay.
Everything is all there and waiting for you. All the different foods and spices, such an abundance and array that people could easily tire of. And yet why is it that you do not have access to it and it does not appear in front of you? It is because you have brought so many obstacles (antaray) with you. It is possible for one to get a meal that consists of thirty-two different dishes, but people have brought so many obstacles with them that they cannot even get khichadee (staple rice and lentil mixture) with pure ghee.
The Lord tells us that we should not to do any kashay. It would be better not to do any penance at all rather than doing it with kashay. Kashays carry a greater value. The losses incurred from kashay far outweigh the benefits of doing penance (tapa). The religion (dharma) of the Vitarag places emphasis on benefit over loss (labha-alabha). This means that if out of
