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Rays of Dharma
no intention to give the coin. He must have forgotten that there was this coin in the pocket and has mistakenly given it to me.' Thus a sort of tussle arose in his mind and he could not decide what to do. The tussle continued even after he went to his hut; that did not allow him to sleep until he decided to hand over the coin back to the owner.
In the morning he went to the same place with the coin. After a while the man appeared and asked whether he was in need of food again.
The beggar: No, I have come to return this coin to you.' Man: Did you not feel tempted to keep it?
Beggar: The idea had occurred to me, but that created a storm within me.
Man: Storm within? What do you mean to say?
Beggar: My mind was telling me to keep it, but my soul was revolting against it.
Man: I am pleased with your honesty; I was actually looking for a man like you. From now on, you are my best friend, come and stay with me.
The beggar's consciousness was awake and that helped him in resisting the temptation. We also have the soul; does it warn us against indulging in dishonesty? Our soul does not do it because we have muted the consciousness. If we want to hear its voice, we can look at The Sermon on the Mount by Jesus. It indicates how one should behave towards those, who are put in unfortunate condition. It refers to a woman who was involved in adultery. According to the custom prevailing that time she was to be stoned to death. As the people came to stone her, the woman fled and reached a hill. A saint was living there. The woman rushed into his hut and entreated the saint to rescue her from the people pursuing her.
The saint knew that the woman had indulged in adultery, but she was repenting for the same and wanted to adopt good conduct. He
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