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Open and Unprejudiced Mind
sound sleep, if he goes to bed after putting in hard work. As such, he used to remain busy the whole day and retired to bed when he got exhausted. Thereby he could get sound sleep.
The other pupil, however, did not understand the true meaning of the Guru's instructions and took the same literally. For getting popularity, he gained accomplishment in mantras, astrology, medication, etc. and started pleasing the people with those means. Following the second instruction, he gave up simple food and started having sweets and other tasty foods, which had an adverse effect on his body. As for the third instruction, he arranged to sleep on a soft, velvety bed. Since there was no place for exertion in his lifestyle, he failed to get sound sleep. That also had an adverse impact on his health.
He had merely heard the words of his Guru, without making out the meaning thereof. As such, he started behaving in a wrong way. This usually happens now-a-days. People get struck with the words of Gurus or of the books that they read and put the same into practice, as per their understanding. That leads to disputes, discords, wars, terrorism, etc. Amazingly enough, they do it in the names of great men, who wanted to set up peace and amity in the world. It is therefore said, “don't stick to the words; grasp the underlying meaning thereof'.
In the absence of true insight, not only can words be wrongly understood, they can also be misinterpreted. For instance, one comes across the sutra, “Aparigrah (absence of accumulation) is the essence of religion'. If, however, ‘A’ is separated from Aparigrah, it could be read as `A parigrah is the essence of religion'. That is exactly the opposite of what the sutra intends to convey. One should therefore be very careful in reading. This should particularly be borne in mind, while reading religious strictures,
The second pupil failed to understand what the Guru had said, because he did not have the objective approach. The popularity that he gained by resorting to mantras, astrology, etc. did not last long. On the other hand, he became indolent and consequently compromised
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