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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
137
A disciple asked a teacher, "I make sacrifices, yet I have not attained peace of mind. Why?" The teacher replied, "Think well and see if there is hidden in some corner of your mind, a desire for the fruit of your action or sacrifice. A man who makes a sacrifice desiring some result from it; or who makes a sacrifice fearing hell or who makes a sacrifice on account of anger is not a true bencfactor. His sacrifice is not true and genuine. In the same manner, sacrificing things we do not possess is not a sacrifice at all. If a poor man says, "I will not eat delicious food using a gold plate." It is not a sacrifice because he does not possess a gold plate nor does he have the means to eat delicious food. Everyone can make such sacrifices.
अप्राप्तेऽर्थं भवति सर्वोऽपि त्यागी ॥
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
- नीतिवाक्यामृतम्
Aprapterthe bhavati sarvopi tyāgi
-Neetivakyamrutam
(All can sacrifice a thing which they do not possess.) Therefore, Lord Mahāvira has said, "A man who does not enjoy garments, scent, decorations, woman and bedstead because he does not possess them cannot be said to have renounced them. He who turns away from or renounces the pleasures which he can afford makes a real sacrifice."
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A man wanted to catch his own shadow. Therefore, he went chasing his shadow but he could not hold it. Tired of running he began panting for breath. just then, certain traveller, who wanted to free him from his obsesion suggested that if he turned his back towards his shadow and ran away from it, it would come running behind him. He did so. He began to run facing the sun, and his shadow began to follow him. The same can be said about material possessions.
If it is a raw fruit, we have to tree; but if it is a ripe fruit, the tree and such a fruit is sweet to taste. The renunciation of
pluck it from the itself sacrifices it
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