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do not become slaves to them. Do not think that wealth and beauty are inseparable from life. Believe that even without money and beauty, life can be happy and peaceful. If you do not love wealth and beauty you will be able to adore and admire men of virtue and your regard for them keeps increasing.
LOVE BASED ON VIRTUES ALONE IS LASTING
Please understand another point. Love arises by means of an appreciation of virtues, and that love is permanent. The love that is based on money and beauty is short-lived because wealth and beauty are transient. If love depends on beauty, it disappears when that beautiful person becomes ugly for some reason. Similarly, the love that depends on money disappears when wealth disappears but virtues do not change thus. Therefore, the love based on virtues does not end. Your attitude of admiring virtues in others should not end. In the Grantha called Shodashak, four kinds of Pramod or love are mentioned.
1. Love for only happiness. 2. Love relating to the happiness in this world. 3. Love relating to worldly and other worldly happiness. 4. Love relating to supreme and imperishable bliss.
First of all, we shall consider the fourth one; then we shall consider the third one; next we shall consider the second one and we shall consider the first. last.
AMITY FOR THE THIRTANKAR PARAMATMAS
You must have boundless affection and amity in your heart for those Thirtankar Paramatmas who have shown us the path of the Supreme and imperishable bliss; who have described it to us and who have offered their guidance to help us to pursue that path. By means of a contemplation on the Thirthankar Paramatma's virtues, his life and his benefactions, love appears in our hearts and it will increase. Even if we contemplate on his four great virtues namely his enlightenment, his vision, his victory over the inner enemies and his endless and boundless vitality, love appears in our hearts for him and it will fill our hearts.
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