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THE WAY OF LIFE
misunderstandings arise, worries and agitations appear in life. Under such circumstances, the mind cannot concentrate on spiritual austerities; people cannot contemplate on the doctrines of Dharma. They cannot study the scriptures and seek the company of noble people. Therefore, in the choice of a partner, you must give importance to the parity of purity and lineage between yourself and your partner.
THE PARITY OF WEALTH AND MAGNIFICENCE
An affluent young man should not choose a poor girl for his wife. In the same manner, if the boy is poor, he must not choose a girl from an affluent family. The disparity between the bride and the bride-groom in respect of their financial status can be the cause for serious worries and agitations. Probably, pride and contempt go with affluence. All of you know that a girl from a poor family is looked down upon and treated with contempt in her husband's house if he is affluent. Probably there cannot be many affluent families in which the daughters-in-law coming from poor families are treated with affection and respect.
Let us suppose that a girl from a poor family gets love and respectable treatment from her wealthy husband, mother-inlaw; father-in-law, brothers-in-law; and sisters-in-law; yet the human mind is strange! The daughter-in-law coming from a poor family may have an inferiority complex. "I belong to a poor family; all these are rich people. They treat me thus out of kindness and pity". The thought of one's poverty makes a man or a woman gloomy and depressed. Poor people may have an inferiority complex. Even if somebody treats them with contempt or abhorrence, they feel deeply offended. Their feelings are deeply wounded.
In the same manner, if a girl belonging to an affluent family marries a boy belonging to a poor or middle-class family serious and unhappy situations will arise; uneveness and roughness would appear. If the girl is proud of her affluent family she would look down upon everyone and she would also insult her husband. On account of this kind of improper conduct, she
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