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The path to spiritual enhancement
For avarice is boundless like the sky. 4
Just as the sky has no end and is infinite, so also are desires limitless. A person who has thousands desires lakhs, and he who has lakhs desires crores. The king wants to become a monarch, the monarch wants to become an emperor. And an emperor wants other emperors to accept his sovereignty. Where is the peace? Contentment lies not in satiating desires, but in nipping them in the bud. One cannot find contentment outside. It lies within the core of a person. It lies not in the treasury, it is a treasure by itself.
But like other mortals, Kūņika too had not grasped this noble truth. Having imprisoned his old father, having conquered the throne, he was still restless. Now his eyes were fixed upon his brothers. What did they have? A jewel and an elephant. A vast empire on one hand and just a piece of jewellery and an elephant on the other. Can the two really be compared?
One can say that the greed for the elephant and the jewel did not emerge in Kūņika's mind. It was instigated by his queen. Whether a person jumps into fire of his own free will or at the instigation of another, is there a difference? The effect is the same. The cause is of no consequence. Either way, he has to suffer in the flames. The point is that when greed crept into Kūņika's heart, he ordered his brothers to hand over their possessions to him.
The brothers disagreed, “We have got no share of the empire. If you want even the jewel and the elephant from us, then give us a share of the throne."
Kūņika retorted, “I have not received the empire in charity. I have achieved it by myself. Therefore, you have no share in it."
When such tendencies arise, when one wants to give nothing but take everything, then sharp daggers of avarice twist the mind. The brothers sought refuge with their maternal grandfather and this further angered Kūņika. Now he made his grandfather an enemy too. Flames of war and violence always 4 iccha hu āgāsasamā aṇantiyâ. - Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 9.48
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