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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
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grabbing ideals should be replaced with the true conceptions of Life. For, as it is said in the Bible,
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......... what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"-Matt. xvi. 26.
'Live and let live' is the true motto for a truly religious life, with the emphasis placed on the second part. For if you are killed in the endeavour to make another live, your reward is life more full and abundant in the next incarnation, but should you be so unfortunate as to sacrifice another's life so that you might prolong your days on earth, there are only suffering and pain in store for you in the hereafter. Have you not read in the Bible.
"Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" (Matt. x. 13)?
This is again repeated in Matt. xii, 7:
"But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice."
Does it not strike you that if the taking of life be cruel and calls for the exercise of mercy when done in the name of a god or goddess, does it cease to be cruel when done in the name of one's own palate or tongue?
As Tolstoy says, "if a man's aspirations towards a righteous life are serious his first act of abstinence will be abstinence from animal food, because not to mention excitement of the passion produced by such food, its use is plainly immoral, as it requires an act contrary to moral feeling-i, e., killing—and is called forth only by greed."
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