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THE WAY OF LIFE
While listening to discourses you should not look this side and that side; upwards and downwards. How do you listen to discourses? While listening to discourses, you must keep your eyes fixed on the speaker. But if you feel sleepy how can you see him? If you sit in the proper posture you will not feel sleepy. In a half-asleep and half-awake condition what can you hear and understand – what can be reserved for you? While listening to a discourse there is a need for changing your attitude or posture and style of sitting. In a certain village, an old woman used to go to the Upashraya (religious centre) to listen to discourses. Since it was the time of Varshavas (Chaturmas) the Gurudev was delivering a prescribed discourse on the Bhagavathi Sutra. In it, we get all the ideas of Bhagwan Mahavir through his dialogue with Shri Gautam Swamy which is in the form of questions and answers. In the Bhagvathi Sutra, every now and then, Bhagwan Mahavir Swamy calls his first and chief disciple, Indrabhuthi Gautam by the pet name GOYAMA. The style and method of the Guru Maharaj also were excellent. He too uttered the word, Goyama aloud. That old woman heard the discourse in a half-asleep and half-awake condition and she used to hear the discourses in pieces. One day, after having heard a discourse in the Upashray, she went home and her daughter-in-law asked her, “Mother, what did the Guru Maharaj say in his discourses today ?" The old woman replied, “The Guru Maharaj was delivering the discourse very well but his health does not appear to be all right. Every now and then, he kept saying, "OYAMA, OYAMA” (an interjection expressing pain, meaning: O mother! it pains me)".
How did the old woman hear the discourse ? She changed Goyama to Oyama! If you do not listen to a discourse with concentration, you will misunderstand it totally. Therefore, I say that you should keep your mind awake and active while you listen to a discourse.
Please listen to the third point which I would like to mention and this is especially meant for the ladies. In the congregations, they are always in a majority. Ladies are larger in number and men are small in number. I should tell them that
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