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DISCOURSE 12
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will this false accusation against me be disproved?” He did not worry thinking thus. He was not angry with the king. Happy situations and prosperous conditions appear when the Punyakarma (merit) is on the ascendant. The effect of a Punyakarma is not permanent. Its effect is momentary or short-lived. Man cannot know when his Punyakarma will be exhausted. If Punyakarma ends, happiness also ends. There are different kinds of Punyakarma. At one time, one kind of Punyakarma appears. At another time, another kind appears. Merit and sin produce their effects successively. In this world, there is not even a single jiva in whose life no sinful Karma arises and only Punyakarmas arise. Man lives his life experiencing the effects of both merits and sin. If you understand this great truth thoroughly, you will surely free your soul from the agitations of sorrows and joys. You can free your soul from the conflicts between exhilaration and agitation. You can keep the tenor of your soul unaffected by the conflicts of anger and pleasure. Mahamantri Pethad Shah had fully understood, this great truth. He had assimilated it and it had become a part and parcel of his personality.
BOOKISH KNOWLEDGE REACHES THE MIND NOT THE HEART
There was a scholar. He was a teacher in a Jain school. He was teaching students such works as the Karmagrantha and the Karmaprakrithi (relating to the Karma philosophy). One day, he came to me. He was in a mood of great agitation. I asked him, "What is the matter? Why are you so greatly worried today?" He replied, “I am angry with the Trustees of the Pathashala. I have been teaching here for three years. But they have not given me any increment. The work has been increasing." I asked him, "Which kind of Karma produces this effect? You know some Karma or another goes on producing its effect". He knew the Karma philosophy but he had not assimilated it. He was merely getting on with a lifeless and mechanical repetition of those theories. A really enlightened man solves his problems with his philosophical knowledge and attains mental equanimity. The knowledge of the bondage of Karma and its emergence can
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