Way of Life Part 2

Author(s): Bhadraguptasuri
Publisher: Vishvakalyan Prakashan Trust Mehsana

Page 76

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THE WAY OF LIFE
Let us suppose that you acquire wealth by illegal, immoral and dishonest methods. That wealth will not allow you to live peacefully. Even if you have lakhs or crores of rupees earned in that manner, you will not have happiness in life.
ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH IS LIKE THE BONES BENEATH THE FLOOR OF YOUR HOUSE
The author, Acharyashri Haribhadrasoorishwarji was not only an erudite scriptural scholar but also a profound scholar in the literature relating to human life. By giving an excellent example, he illustrates the point that ill-gotten wealth is transitory. He says that ill-gotten wealth brings many evils just as the bones under the floor of a house bring evils to the people in the house. Those who live in a house built on a ground in which there are bones have to face many evils on account of the inauspicious effect of the bones according to the Indian science of architecture. Similarly, ill-gotten wealth brings many inauspicious consequences.
I too came across such a thing in a city. There was a house in that city which was very inauspicious. Whenever a family came to live in the house, someone died in the house invariably. This happened to three families. Later, when someone bought the house and demolished it since it was old; and when the ground was dug for laying the foundation for a new house, the workers noticed in the ground, a number of bones. Then, people realised the cause for the occurrence of the tragedies in the families that had lived in the house.
EVEN THE GROUND HAS ITS EFFECT
While building a house, it is absolutely essential that a clean and auspicious ground should be chosen as the site for the house. The people who live in the houses built on an unholy ground, experience many sorrows and agonies. In our country, in order to chasten and sanctify the site, we perform Bhoomipuja or the worship of the ground. The ground on which the house has to be built must be worshipped and sanctified. But now-a-days, many untoward things have been taking place. People make