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DISCOURSE 43
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carry out spiritual activities; you go to the temple and you worship the Paramatma. When you do these things, people say this about you, "What a great man he is ?" They will develop a high regard for you but if your dealings with your customers in your shops are illegal and immoral and if you act illegally and immorally in your offices and if you act heartlessly in those situations, then people will say this about you, "How dishonest and heartless he is ?" They will have a low estimate of your character. They see discord and dichotemy in your words and actions. In the temple and the religious places, you appear to be pious and devout but people will find that you are Satanic in your offices and shops. There cannot be any concord between piety and Satanic propensity. There will only be a discord between piety and Satanic propensity. Piety and dishonesty do not go together. Honesty and kindness, divine compassion, justice and morality go with piety and religious behaviour. If those who perform special austerities possess the ordinary principles and virtues, there will be concordance in their lives. If those who perform special austerities are dishonest, illegal and immoral, there will be discord or dichotemy between the two aspects. Such people can attain neither peace nor popularity.
WHY SO MUCH CRUELTY FOR THE SAKE OF MONEY?
In a certain city, a certain judge said to me, "Maharajashri ! that Seth, who attends your discourses regularly, who sits in the front line always, has filed a suit in the court against a poor man who is also a Jain. The Seth is demanding the repayment of one thousand rupees from him and that man is absolutely poor and he cannot repay the amount. The Seth has planned to take possession of that man's house. If that happens, that poor man will become a beggar on the streets. Cannot even those people who come to religious centres, be kind and compassionate? Such heartlessness for money?"
CONCORDANCE IS THE MOTHER OF CORDIALITY AND ESTEEM
The Judge found a dichotemy in the Seth's life. He saw in the life of the Seth, heartlessness and unkindness, side by side
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