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लाइफ एण्ड टीचिंग ऑफ लार्ड महावीर
It is difficult for a living being to obtain these four things of great value: (1) Human birth. (2) Instructions in the law, (3) Belief in it, and (4) power of self-control. Through the destruction of their Karma, living beings will be born as men. Though born as huuan beings, it would be difficult for them to hear the law It will be difficult for them to believe in the law though indeed they will hear it. Knowing full well that the four requisites are difficult to obtain, they will apply themselves to self-control in order to become eternal Siddhis (perfect ones). Impurity and Death against (apd with) one's will:
Those, who acqiure wealth by evil deeds and by adhering to wrong principles, will lose it. Wealth will never protect a careless man in this world. External things weaken the intellect and allure many; therefore keep them out of mind. Remove pride, delusion, greed and deceit. Heretics, who are impure and proud, are always subject to love and hatred, and they are wholly under the iufluence of their passions.
There can be two ways of dying : (1) Death with one's will, and (2) death against one's will. Death against one's will is the death of an ignorant man, and it happens to him several times. Death with one's will is the death of a wise man, and it happens only once as, for instance, in the case of a Kevalin. When death really comes, the fool trembles in fear. He dies against his will. The virtous and the learned do not tremble in the hour of death. A wise man will become calm through patience and will have an undisturbed mind at the time of death. Actions of ignorant and wise men :--
All men, who are ignorant of truth, are subject to pain. A wise man who considers well the way that lead to bondage and birth should search for the truth. It is an ignorant man who kills, tells lies, robs on the highway, steals goods, and deceives others. He will be born in hell. Those men who; through the exercise of various virtues, become pious householders, will surely reap the fruit of their actions. A virtuous man will be boru in leaven. It is difficult to satisfy anybody. The more one gets the more one wants. Man's desire increases with his means. One should not desire women who continually change their minds, who entice men, and then make a sport of them as of slaves.
Vanity of worldy Plersures :
All pleasures produce but pain. All singing is but prattle, all dancing is but mocking and all ornaments are but a burden. Pleasures which men enjoy are not permanent. They leave them as soon as they come just as a bird leaves a tree devoid of fruits. Man's life is transitory and precarious. Pleasures bring him only a moment's happiness But suffering for a long time brings intense suffering and on happiness, Pleasures are an obstacle to the liberation from existence, and are a mine of evils. The soul cannot be apprehanded by the senses because it possesses no corporeal form; and, since it has no corporeal form, it is eternal.
The causes of carelessness :
Love and hatred are caused by Karma which has its origin in d-lusion. Karma is the root of birth and death. Misery causes with the absence of delusion, delusion with the absence of desire, desire with the
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