Book Title: Way of Life Part 1
Author(s): Bhadraguptasuri
Publisher: Vishvakalyan Prakashan Trust Mehsana

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Page 416
________________ 406 THE WAY OF LIFE awareness or intellectual and spiritual wakefulness. You must be careful to prevent any faulty and harmful seeds from falling into the land of your soul. It won't take much time for the seeds of thought to fall into your soul. IMPURE THOUGHT MAKES FOR WORLDLINESS BUT PURE THOUGHT MAKES FOR RENUNCIATION Please say what kind of harvest you desire; what kind of tree you want. Do you want an acacia tree or a neem tree ? If your thoughts are prompted by enmity, cruelty, jealousy, contempt and abhorrence then be sure that you are on the brink of peril and that one step more, you will fall headlong into the bottomless abysm of spiritual devastation. You can be sure that hell is near you and the realm of brute-creation is near you whether you are a man of the world or a Sadhu. Thought makes man worldly. Thoughtfulness makes a man otherworldly. How did the saintly king Prasannachandra earn the Karma of going to the seventh hell ? He was a Sadhu in appearance but a worldly man in thinking. How did the emperor Bharatha attain supreme enlightenment in his palace of mirrors ? He was a man of the world in appearance but a Sadhu by nature. Thoughfulness made him a vitarag (a victor over the inner enemies) and an omniscient person. Deep thoughfulness has astounding powers and potentialities. You can keep your thoughts clean only if you are full of awareness. If awareness is lost, sense is lost, and if sense is lost, everything is lost. The absence of awareness is absolutely dangerous. In the absence of awareness man thinks of doing things which ought not be done. Just as opium, liquors etc. bring about a state of intoxication, attachments, hatred and infatuation bring about intellectual and spiritual intoxication. There can be no sense in a state of intoxication. A certain man was standing at a bus-stand; he sat on a bench and began yawning. He was in a state of intoxication. Intoxication did something. A policeman saw him. He approached him and asked him; “What are you doing here ?" "I am yawning". Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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