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XXVII
MANIFOLD DIMENSIONS OF THE VOW OF
NON-STEALING
Before you appreciate the vow of non-stealing, it is necessary to understand the implications of stealing. To lift a thing without being given, to misappropriate a thing (without the owner's permission, of course) to use and enjoy it, to pilfer a thing, to snatch others' rights, to forget the benefactor and the like are various facets of stealing. Craving for things which you do not possess is the principal cause of stealing. In violence there is cruelty and in stealing there is avarice. You see something tempting and desire to own it. You leave no stone unturned to obtain it by legitimate means; if possible otherwise more by crook than by hook. Speaking ill of somebody, fault-finding, back-biting, creating a rumpus when some other person is doing good things like giving donation, taking the very life of others, snatching others' rights, giving an emotional shock to somebody, doing injustice to others and the like are stealth.
Our ideal was that others' wealth should be treated as a clod. If you find something lying on the way, you must not take and use it without its owner's permission. To misappropriate others' property by throwing dust in their eyes, or in their absence to take their things as your own, be they small or big, precious or not are stealth. If you take even a straw to rake your teeth without the master's permission, it is stealth.
Prasnavyakaran Sūtra "gives two kinds of sealth; taking away others' articles and depriving them of their rights. Food, cloth and house are man's basic necessities but monks should take what is strictly acceptable and never beyond their strict necessities. They have little to do with luxurious items.
Grabbing and scrambling is an open invitation to anarchy. To make yourself merry at others' expense is sheer exploitation. People clamour for rights but without performing their duties. This cannot but lead to strife. All disparity in society creates schisms. Socialism imposed from above can never be lasting. Without the change of heart, rules and regulations do not long way to ameliorate things. Even the strictest enforcement of law cannot effect the desired social changes. Unless men reform themselves, no imposed discipline can work, since when the cat is away, mice play.
Our society is acquisitive. People have a hoarding mentality. This leads to stealth and dacoity. The king Asvapati had said, -"In my kingdom there is no thief or robber. None is corrupt and none is miserly. None is addicted to drinking." Megasthenes, the Greek Ambassador to India toured
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