Light Of Life

Author(s): Padmasagarsuri
Publisher: Arunoday Foundation

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him to his place, bit on the way they had to cross a river. She sait, "Dear husband! How can I wade through water? The myrtle painted on my feet will be washed away. If the myrtle-paint is washed away, all the pains took to paint my feet will be wasted".
Her husband said to her, "Be cautious! Your paint shall remain intact". He was a strong man. He lifted his wife and held her head downwards so that her feet might not touch water, and thus he crossed the river carrying her: The girl had died. Though she was dead, he carried hes to his village and said to the people there, "Look here, I have brought my wife".
"Dear man ! What a tragic thing has happened! Your wife is dead", said a friend of his.
"She might have lost her life, but she has not lose her paint". We too act in the same manner. We may carry out spiritual austerities. We may perform Japa, but if we carry out those activities without the virtue of brahmacharya, those activities will be like a dead body. They are devoid of the soul of Dharma. We should not carry out spiritual activities without the basis of brahmacharya and noble conduct. Our Dharma does not approve of such soulless spiritual austerities.
WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE OF BATHING IN THE GANGA ?
In the Hindu and the Vaidic traditions bathing in the Ganga is said to be supremely efficacious in washing away our sins. The Ganga is glorified as the giver of life. It satisfies our thirst and bestows great benefactions upon us; the Ganga is intimately interwoven with our culture. Of course, the Ganga bestows many great benefits upon us from the social or the worldly point of view, but even if you bathe in the Ganga a hundred times, it cannot wash your sins away if your mind is not clean. When that is So what is the greatness of taking a bath in the Ganga ?
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