Manava Dharma

Author(s): Bhurmal Shastri, Nihalchandra Jain
Publisher: Aacharya Gyansagar Vagartha Vimarsha Kendra

Page 68

46/MANAV DHARMA
The donor of charity thinks what can he donate? Some other power has donated him and that power is donating to all. He feels ashamed because he is considered to be a donator. It is the luck only which favours every man in giving and taking. Meaning herely is to say that an intelligent man regards him as the cashier or storesIncharge of the property and not the owner of the property and wealth hence he, with all sublimity and humbleness assists and supports the side of richness. Not only this, but a day comes when he totally renounces the wealth and goes for austerity making his birth a success. On the other hand there is a sage, who, taking him an ascetic, cares for his own respect and greatness, and thinks none equal to him in austerity and respectfulness. This type of saint may be observing fasts and vows, merely exploiting his body by doing various types of penances but he fails to attain the purity of soul and innerself.
This worldly human being considers the actions of the physical body as the action of his soul, that is why although ugly but he tries to make the body becautiful; he washes, and adorns the body with various kinds of scents and ornaments and tries to make it appear the most beautiful body. He hates those who are ugly. He disrespects them and thus all his efforts are wasted only in physical adoration.
स्मयेन योऽन्यानत्येति धर्मस्थान् गर्विताशयः । सोऽत्येति धर्ममात्मीयं न धर्मो धार्मिकै विना ॥२६॥
Explanation :
That conceited person, who is led ley his pride to show disrespect to virtuous men, in reality, destroys his own faith, because in the absence of those who put it into practice "Dharma" can not have an existence.
Religion only lives in the soul of those who practise it and can have no concrete existence by itself. Hence those, who insult the virtuous in whose hearts "Dharma" has its abode, can never be religious themselves.
Description :
The conceited person out of his pride generally disrespects those persons, who are dutiful and civilised. But this man should think that instead of disrespecting others he is disrespecting his own religion, in the shape of a kind of pretension; he is abstaining himself from his own duty, because the religion can not have its existence without virtuous or religious minded people. Meaning there by is to say that the virtuous man does not lose his own characteristics even if he is not property respected by others. Those, who knew or are aware