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The flame of avarice
a person. Such a person who is roused by pride loses all sense of humility, modesty and respect for elders. A stone might melt, but not such a person. Treachery and duplicity crushes the best of friendships. As long as simplicity exists in a family, each member of that family understands and nurtures the other. Their lives are like an open book. Bonds of friendship are strong and there is joy in abundance. But when treachery and deceit take over, friendships are splintered.
When avarice is roused, neither love remains, nor humility, nor modesty. A greedy person will misuse another for every single rupee. Thus it is man's desire which shreds humanity into pieces, crushing all the goodness of life. In the presence of avarice, the larger vision of life never evolves. During one of his discourses on the topic of avarice, Lord Mahāvīra said:
Greed destroys everything. While other negative qualities eliminate positive qualities one by one, greed destroys all qualities.
The more lowly a man's thoughts are, the sooner he moves towards self-destruction. The loftier his thoughts, the nearer he is to peace and harmony. It is in large-heartedness that happiness and contentment reside.
Can joy and peace be found in the realm of greed and possessiveness? The answer is again a bigʻNo'. A greedy person can never experience peace. Yet, man has done nothing to sedate this avarice within himself. On the contrary, he has indulged his mind in further avarice. It is akin to cleaning a blood stained cloth with blood. But can that ever succeed?
When a pot of milk is kept over a flame, it has to boil over. That is its property. You may postpone the spilling of the milk by periodically sprinkling water over it, but ultimately it will boil over. The only way to avoid it is by putting off the flame.
In this context, I remember a story from Punjab. Once upon a time there was a group of nomads. Like any other day, they loaded their camelbacks with bundles of wares and set off. As evening fell, they pitched their tents in an open field and
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