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The Unknown Pilgrims
great deal in common as regards the subjects of interest to them and the works they undertake. It is essentially their manner of life that keeps them apart, although, in our own day and to a small extent everywhere, a rapprochement, even sometimes a true collaboration, is observable.
730
B - Review of articles
Certain gacchas and samghas who publish a monthly magazine ask sādhvis from time to time to write an article. These articles are short, are written for the śrävakas and śrāvikās and, for the most part, deal either with doctrinal subjects or questions of behaviour.
Here is a recapitulation of the subjects treated in 16 articles. To make for easy reading and to capture and hold the interest of their readers, it frequently so happens that the sadhvis recount a story from which a lesson is taken, in order, for instance, to demonstrate the futility of attempting to amass riches for a distant future14 or to show up the hypocrisy of a social or family group in which people treat with contempt an honest but poor family and then proceed to load it with honours in an obsequious fashion, when it becomes rich.15
Certain articles aim at helping the śravakas and śrāvikās to find and retain peace in a family or professional setting beset by worries, one in which attachment in all its forms often proves irresistible. This peace comes into being through aparigraha16 through strength of character; hence the necessity, especially in our day and age of one's conduct being rooted in a genuine spiritual life.17 One of these articles consists in an exhortation on the subject of giving; to whom should one give? Instead of making so many donations to temples, let us first of all be
14
Sadhvi Aśoka; Oct. 1973, pp. 44-45.
15 Sadhvi Maniprabha; Nov.-Dec. 1973, pp. 14-16.
16 Ibid., Aug. 1973, pp. 10-12.,
17 Sadhvi Sajjana; Nov.-Dec. 1973, pp. 9-10.
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