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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
107
davas, unable to bear the foul smell closed their nostrils with their handkerchiefs and went ahead. But, Srikrishna stood near the dead dog; for sometime and then walked on cheerfully. When the Pandavas asked him why he smiled happily seeing the dead dog, he said, "I was looking at the teeth of the dog. How white and bright they are! How full of lustre! They are so full of lustre that they seem to be pearls. When I kept gazing at the teeth of the dog, I never thought of the foul smell. My mind was concentrated on its teeth." The moral of this story is that wisdom lies in looking at the brighter side of life and to take delight in it, and that it is foolish and unwise to see only the darker side of life and to keep lamenting over it.
Nirmal and Vimal were brothers. One day, they were walking about in a garden. Some time later, Nirmal went home weeping. Kamaladevi, his mother, asked him, "What happened? Did you walk on a thorn?"
Nirmal said, "No, mother!"
Kamala said, "Why are you weeping?"
Nirmal said, "Mother, the garden is very bad. I saw a rose plant. How beautiful the roses were! But beneath the flowers there were sharp thorns. That made me sorrowful."
While the mother was trying to console him in his distress, Vimal came laughing. When she asked him why he was laughing he said, "Mother! the garden is excellent. There I saw beautiful roses blooming and smiling in spite of the sharp thorns that surrounded them. We too should be cheerful like that. Should not we, mother?" The mother embraced both the boys and realised that our view should be optimistic like that of Vimal, not pessimistic like that of Nirmal.
Seeing the sa me object one weeps and another laughs. We should adopt: the latter point of view. We should not see the thorns beneath the flowers but we should see the flowers above the thorns. This kind of attitude brings us happiness and spiritual welfare and we should use
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