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Mahavira & Code of Conduct / 161
9. Non-Attachment
A spiritual aspirant should neither cherish a desire to live nor long for death. He should remain neutral and have no attachment for life or death. A person who is detached, though living in the world, is not affected by it. Nothing is impossible in this world for a person who is free from all desires. He who is passionately fond of beauty will come to untimely ruin. As long as there is no renunciation free from expectation, the monk cannot have purification of the mind.
How can one annihilate the karma, when he is impure in mind?
A person who has attachment, cannot renounce the world.
O serene one! Give up all expectations, desires and prodigality. Just as gold which has fallen in the sludge remains untainted, so also a self-realised person while doing his worldly duties is not tainted by the karmas. Just as iron gets rusty when it falls in the sludge so also an ignorant person who is full of attachments while performing his duties, is bound by karma.
