________________
360
THE WAY OF LIFE
previous life, one cannot be happy in the present life. By per. forming spiritual austerities you gather merit and you attair happiness by the effect of that merit. This is one immutable doctrine of Jain dharma. According to this doctrine those who are happy today were men of dharma in their previous life If you view them as men of dharma, you will love and admire them.
From the Audience: The people who are prosperous and happy commit many sins. That is what we see. When that is so, we can only hate them.
HATE, NOT THE SINNER; BUT THE SIN
Maharajashri : You hate sins; do you not? I hope you do not envy their pleasures. Scrutinize your mind a little. Look into yourself. Carry on a little introspection. There is no harm if you hate only sins. It will be a serious blunder on your part if your hatred is born out of jealousy. You can surely hate sins but you should not hate sinners. You can very well hate sins but you should not hate sinners. You must adopt towards sin. ners either the attitude of compassion or neutrality.
I want to drive home to you the truth that those who are in the possession of physical and sensual pleasures today were men of dharma in their previous life. One who has in one's previous lives carried out such activities as helping others, safeguarding one's own purity and chastity and other such spiritual austerities as performing Tap etc; attains in the present life countless pleasures and means of happiness; and lords over them. You should not feel jealous of such people. "He has attained so many pleasures. I have attained nothing. Why did he attain more pleasures than I. I want to possess more pleasures than he or I do not like him to have any pleasures; and I want him to be unhappy". These are the ways in which jealousy manifests itself.
A JEALOUS BOY
Once I met a boy in a village, who greatly perplexed me. Probably, he was a boy of five or seven years. He belonged to
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
