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THE FAMILY AND THE NATION
and outright insults from strangers but pounce on their own family members for the mildest indiscretions.
Spouses should have only that much expectation from each other which does not obstruct their individual health, interest and thinking. The perennial problem that stems out of infatuation with something or someone is that one weaves a huge web of hopes and desires, but when harsher times come and these hopes and desires are not fulfilled, intolerance becomes very intense. Hence, we feel that a tolerant individual leads to a tolerant family. A tolerant family leads to a tolerant society, and a tolerant society gives birth to a tolerant nation. And tolerant nations form a tolerant world.
Right faith (samyag darshana)4 is a value of utmost importance for the establishment of peaceful coexistence. It can be developed by imparting training in Anekanta. We must give up insistence on one-sided views. The tendency to persist in one's viewpoint, thinking and decision breeds a feeling of discord in the heart of the other person.
Flexibility of nature is an important virtue of a man's personality. There is an element of pleasantness in this world but its application is not so pleasant. It appears that man has bolted the doors of his ego; he has no windows through which the fresh air of other people's views can enter. The fact that the frenzy of anger destroys a family is only secondary. The primary truth is the ego that generates the frenzy of anger.
CONTEMPLATION AND RECONCILIATION The mysteries of faith are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation. There is always a cycle of rise and fall. The peak of prosperity ultimately leads to decline. The culmination of poverty leads to prosperity.
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