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I am the Soul
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will censure.' Ah! If the person performing the upavasa - fast, does not offer a memento to the society, his fasting is called dieting! How judicious! Whoever developed this definition? If somebody performs penance, what right does the society have to demand something from him? And of what good is that, which has been so extracted, for the society?
Brothers! This custom need a thorough rethinking. People have mistaken this for the fruit of penance. Is that all the value of the observances of the Dharma that is for beyond this world. Why these customs? Why is it that something has to be offered? Of course, if the family of the person performing penance feel like it they may well offer help to the needy - it could be within the society, some organisation or another family! But what difference does a container worth ten or fifteen rupees make, whether it enters your household or not?
Pardon me, Brothers! But people who proclaim themselves as religious also encourage such customs. They list out in advance as to what should be given to one who performs an ashtam of pakhi. Well, is that all the value to an ashtam? Why do you sell observances? How can true religion be understood through these? Just as you are bound to give dowry in the marriage of your daughter to save her from misery, the person who performs penance must also spend so much wealth, or else his penance will not be treated as penance! In fact, for having performed penance, he is bound to get something in exchange - moneygold-silver etc.!
The persons who do this and those who are instrumental are all to be categorised as matarthis. They cannot be classified anywhere else! These activities are not dispelling but feeding the passions which increase the worldly attachment. The goal of the soul never appeals and matartha never goes.
How a matarthi is troubled by many more such perverted thoughts has been told in the next.
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