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THE WAY OF LIFE
TEMPTATION IS REALLY AN EVIL
Now-a-days, even a two-rupee cinema ticket can tempt people. Some women and girls of the middle and the poorer classes are prepared to sell their chastity for a two-rupee cinematicket. If they could get a shawl worth one lakh, they would sell their whole lives. The temptation of money is very great in life. Even very good people are tempted by money. Kosha was not tempted by a shawl worth one lakh rupees. She was a dancer; wasn't she? You call her a prostitute, do you not? Though she was a prostitute, was she tempted by the shawl or not? She was not. Not only that, she also bestowed a great benefaction on the muni. She enabled the muni to discard his mental weakness and to regain mental and spiritual strength. She kindled the light of knowledge and dispelled the darkness of infatuation in him. Therefore, she was a true Shravika.
Some munis who did not meet such sensible and discrete Shravikas were caught in the meshes of lust and fell into spiritual ruin. Why did the great muni Ashadabuthi fall into spiritual ruin? Two girls, the daughters of a Natyacharya (a teacher of dancing and acting) who were not Shravikas joined together and brought about Ashadabuthi's fall. Nandishena, a great muni met a prostitute who was not a Shravika and fell into ruin. Another muni by name Aranik also fell into spiritual ruin because of a woman who was not a Shravika.
"WHO IS A TRUE SHRAVIKA ?"
Merely, by birth in a Jain family, a woman does not become a Shravika. A woman does not become a Shravika merely by going to the temple or to the Upashray or by performing such austerities as Samayik and Prathikraman. In order to remain a true Shravika and in order to become a true Shravika in her life, a woman requires mental strength, will-power, true knowledge, discretion, sense and the otherworldly aspirations. Where can we find such qualities now-a-days? Mental strength has become a rarity. No one has philosophical knowledge. Sense and discretion are disappearing, and the otherworldly attitude is not to be found among people. Man is entangled in thinking
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