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DISCOURSE 32
home. You have shown me great benevolence". The police officer laughed and went away.
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The man thought, "I am living here happily without any worry. I am getting enough food but at home my wife, and my children must be dying of hunger. I wish I could bring them also here. Here, they will get a comfortable shelter and adequate food as well as clothes to wear. This is the only way to bring them here. I should ask them all to go with me and to dig up roots in that field. The owner of the field will come. He will beat us and will hand us over to the police. They will bring us here".
Do you understand the meaning of the story? In our country there are crores of people living in such indigent circumstances. They do not get adequate food or clothes and they do not have a shelter over their heads. They are sinking into the morass of despondency and dejection.
The tribal man liked the life in prison; and he also liked the way to go to jail. If you like to be born as animals and birds the way of immorality is right for you. You have attained this noble state of human existence; do you prefer the lower state of animals and birds? Do you think that the sorrows of human life are greater than those of birds and animals?
Do you have faith in the Dharma of ethical excellence? Do you have faith in the doctrine that ethical uprightness destroys the Labhantaray Karma? If you do not have faith in that great doctrine, you will not discard your unethical ways. The way of unlawfulness and immorality leads you to the state of animals and birds. This point has been emphasized. If you like to be born in that state; if you are not afraid of going there, then I have nothing to say to you.
Jain Education International
The great author, the acharyashri says, "Ethical uprightness destroys the Labhantaray Karma; and if you are upright in this life, in your next janma, you will acquire affluence without much effort". In the present life, you can attain wealth only if your Labhantaray Karma is destroyed. If that Karma is not destroyed, you cannot acquire wealth, even if you move
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