Glimpses Of World Religions

Author(s): Gunvant Barvalia
Publisher: Navbharat Sahitya Mandir

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Glimpses of World Religions
(4) Alms or Donation: The devotee, getting rid of miserliness should be generous and spend money liberally on religious deeds; and he should be always ready to give alms to the mendicants.
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(5) Wisdom or Pragna: The devotee must understand, rationally, the rise and fall (birth and decay) of the physical objects, he must, as well, make efforts to know the remedies for the freedom from miseries. He should renunciate greed, jealousy, idleness, etc.
(6) Listening: The devotee should listen carefully and attentively to the religious sermons and having listened to them, should meditate or contemplate on them.
The devotee who intends to go deep in his meditations or Sadhana, should observe 3 additional codes of character (sheels) to 5 already mentioned. These three additional ones are - (1) not to dine at night (2) to avoid the use of garlands, scented things etc. and should lie down (for sleeping) on the ground, having spread an ordinary, simple bed.
Apart from this, a devotee is not supposed to do the business (or trade in) of weapons, animals' meat and poison. He should not make use of false balances or weights. Moreover, he should not earn a living by improper means like bribery or cheating.
Gautam Buddha's message is a revolutionery one. He has given to us a philosophy of life, but he had not tried to furnish a systematic philosophy. Buddha never bothered to enter into discussion as to 'whether this world is infinite or has an end? Whether the world is beginningless or with a beginning?' He niether entered into discussion, nor did he give any answer to such questions.