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DISCOURSE 16
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into spiritual ruin. Dharma is that which saves people from spiritual ruin.
NOTHING IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE PURITY OF THE MIND
If a man's mind is full of hatred for living beings and attachment for inert substances, can he attain any spiritual elevation by performing external austerities which are shallow? Can he save himself from spiritual ruin ? Have you heard of any such instance ? I have not come across in the Shastras the case of any man who attained spiritual progress, and salvation by performing external austerities, despite his hatred for living beings and his attachment for inert things. I have not even heard of such a person. Yes. This is what I have read in the Shastras. “Even the spiritual austerities performed with an impure and polluted mind plunge man into the ocean of Samsar. The mind that is devoid of those lofty emotions of amity, love, compassion and neutrality and which is not detached from inert things, impels man only to keep wandering in Samsar, the cycle of birth and death. His external and shallow austerities cannot save him from sorrows.
DO NOT SEE FAULTS IN OTHERS
Please remember that this has been said only to impel you to scrutinize your own souls. You should not try to measure others from this point of view. "So and so performs many austerities.... but how angry and irritable he is! How unkind ! How jealous he is of others! What is the use of his performing those austerities? If you begin thinking thus, you will see in all people, attachments or hatred, to a lesser or a greater extent because in this worldly life no one is a Vitarag; no one is completely devoid of hatred. Then, you will not be able to see Dharma in anyone. Faults abound in the Jivas bound by Karmas; and virtues are small in number.
If you really try to examine others thus, the matter of seeing virtues may not at all arise. The estimate of a man's virtues, on the basis of external austerities is likely to be
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