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THE WAY OF LIFE
the story. Why did Manirath plan to kill his younger brother? The attachment and love for the inert body made up of pudgals can make a man forget himself. It makes a man hate and kill his own relatives who are dear and near to him. It impels a man to kill his own innocent, faultless and virtuous brother. Please understand how disastrous the attachment for objects made of pudgals and the objects that fascinate the senses, can be. This kind of attachment destroys all the four kinds of amity. That is why I exhort you not to be blinded by passions. Dharma can never exist in those who are blinded by passions. The minds of people who are blinded by passions are completely clouded by impurities. Dharma can never exist in a mind that is sullied by attachment, hatred and infatuation. The flower of Dharma can bloom only in a heart that overflows with the four lofty emotions of amity etc. This flower of Dharma had blossomed in the sacred heart of Madanrekha. Her heart was an abode of those four sublime emotions.
The heart of Manirath was stinking with the foul thoughts of attachment, hatred and infatuation. He thought, "How can I kill Yugabahu? I will plan it in such away that my offence will not be seen by anyone."
MADANREKHA-PREGNANT
One day, Madanrekha said to her husband, "My Lord, last night I saw the moon in my dream." Yugabahu smiled sweetly and replied, "My angel, you are going to give birth to a son whose face will be cool and felicitous like the moon and who would lord over the hearts of all." Madanrekha became greatly elated and delighted by what her husband said. She became pregnant. When three months passed, some sweet fancies shaped themselves in the mind of Madanrekha. When a lofty soul appears in a woman's womb, in her heart arise sublime and sacred thoughts and feelings. The effect of the jiva in the womb falls upon the mother's mind. If the jiva in the womb is noble with earned merit (punya) and if it is sacred suffused with dharma, then noble and lofty thoughts appear in the mother's mind and if the jiva in the womb is sinful, cruel and unkind, the
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