Autobiograpy of Gyani Purush A M Patel

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Dada Bhagwan Foundation

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Autobiography of Gnani Purursh
[4] Business Life
Took only the salary as any other employee from my business
At a very young age I had decided that, if possible, I would not let any dishonest money enter into my worldly transactions and if for some reason it ever did, I would leave it in the business and not let it come into my home. Today I am sixty-six years old and I have not allowed any dishonest money to enter my home and no conflicts or tension has arisen at home. We had made a decision that we will manage our home within a certain budget. The business made hundreds of thousands of rupees. What would Ambalal Patel make if he had job elsewhere with his qualifications? How much would he earn? He would not make more than six or seven hundred rupees. Therefore I took a salary of six hundred rupees a month from our company to run our home. The rest of the money I would keep in the business.
In the next paragraph they have omitted the following sentence of ours:
Our business of construction contracts was a partnership. My partner was Kantibhai Patel of Bhadaran, living in Baroda. All businesses are a play of karma. If they do well it is the result of merit karma. If they fail it is a result of demerit karma. If ever our business were to get a letter from the income tax office, I would instruct them to use that money to pay off any tax liabilities. There is no telling when the business would get an 'attack', and if all the money were spent and the business were to get an 'income tax attack', then we were also likely to get a heart attack. Such attacks are everywhere. How can you call this living? Do you not see anything wrong with it? It is this
Autobiography of Gnani Purursh
wrong that we have to destroy.
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Never a Famine, Nor a Feast of Money
I have never experienced shortage of money neither has there been any surplus. The thousands we earned in the business were spent away when problems in business arose. There has never been shortage of money, nor has there been a surplus. I have never stashed away any money deceitfully, because I never touched any dishonest money. We were fine with no shortage or surplus.
Problem of Giving And Collecting
I had fun with my friends and I also helped a lot of them financially. In the year 1942, I was 34 years old and my friends had borrowed money from me but they never returned it. I was not bothered about a few hundred rupees people would not pay back. But I had helped a lot of my friends because I had the money, however none of them came to return the money. Hence a voice within me said, 'It is good this has happened because if you were to ask for it back, they will come to borrow again.' If I were to ask them for the money, they may pay back the five thousand a little at a time but they will come back to borrow ten. So I wanted to put a stop to this hassle, and this was a great opportunity to do so. I could put an end to it from here on. If I made an attempt to collect it, they will be back again. This way they will think they have it made because I was not asking them to pay back. They then stopped coming over altogether. And that was exactly what I wanted. 'Blessed is the event that breaks worldly ties; now we can merrily worship the Lord'. So at that time I discovered this ploy.
We had an acquaintance that once borrowed some