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The life slogan of the people in olden days was : "reduce your needs, but save money". The life slogan of today's people is : "incur debt if you have to, but enjoy and make merry". The scriptures have laid down that once a Jain temple is constructed, a certain amount has to be set aside as corpus fund, so that it can be useful later. In the same manner, the traditional economic experts have suggested that one fourth of the income should be set aside towards savings. At the heart of these suggestions was the welfare of the people. They were worried about everyone's equanimity, whereas today's people are not worried about their own equanimity also.
A person takes medicines when he falls sick. He considers medicine to be the cure for good health; yet he feels happy as he gradually reduces the doses of medicine. After some days, if the doctor increases the quantum of pills or dose of medicine, he gets a shock. This means that medicine is the cure for good health is a weak truth. The real truth is that taking medicine is the sign of bad health. What applies to medicine applies to all things.
The continuous accumulation of material things is not the cause of happiness, but a sign of unsatiated hunger. What can you imagine about a person's health who is surrounded by medicine bottles, capsules and tablet strips? We can imagine the same for a person's spiritual health who is imprisoned in the vast circumference of material things.
We can get oxygen from a cylinder, but that is a sign of bad health. A person who is healthy will breathe oxygen from the environment itself. In the same manner, happiness is created by the inner self and a subject of internal experience. The
MIND YOUR mind : 73
