Book Title: Way of Life Part 2
Author(s): Bhadraguptasuri
Publisher: Vishvakalyan Prakashan Trust Mehsana

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Page 152
________________ 140 THE WAY OF LIFE belongs to an affluent and aristocratic family and if the hus. band belongs to a middle-class or a poor family, the relationship between them will be upset. Man's mind is mysterious, strange and mystifying. The thoughts and the tendencies of the human mind are subject to incontinent change or alteration. Have you seen any woman who looks down upon her husband though he loves and adores her ? Of course, I have not come across such a woman but I have heard of such women. A proud and haughty woman keeps glorifying her father's family by frequently eulogizing the titles and the attainments of the members of her father's lineage. "Such and such great men were my father's ancestors. We belong to an illustrious lineage”. Can there be any stupidity worse than blowing one's own trumpet ? But the human mind likes even such stupidity. The mind can make a man intelligent and wise and it can also make him stupid and idiotic. The enlightened people who have realised the proclivities and the declivities of human life and who have explored the high-ways and by-ways of human experience and nature, have prescribed the necessity of parity between the husband and the wife in respect of their family and lineage. If you follow the guidance given by those enlightened people, you can save yourselves from many agitations and calamities. THE PARITY OF PURITY The second parity between the husband and the wife is the quality of chastity or purity. In this context, shila or chastity does not mean either the loyalty of the wife to her husband or the loyalty of the husband to his wife. We have given a wide currency to this meaning of the word. Shila can also mean celibacy. But here even that meaning is not given to that word. Here the word shila means total abstinence from meat-eating, drinking liquors and eating food in the night. This parity between the husband and the wife is an absolute necessity. Both must have renounced meat-eating, winedrinking and the habit of eating food in the night. Even according to the culture and the ideals of nobility of our country, these three sins should not be committed. If in some family they have the tradition of eating meat and if in your family, Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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