Way of Life Part 2

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

Page 87

DISCOURSE 29
fish, which is a bigger one. The same thing happens here also. Let us suppose that you are a cloth merchant. A merchant who sells ghee comes to your shop to buy cloth and you cheat him. Later, you go to his shop for ghee and he cheats you. Subsequently, the ghee merchant goes to buy food grains from a grocer and that grocer is dishonest and he cheats the gheemerchant. When that grocer goes to a medical shop, there he is cheated by the owner of the medical shop. When the owner of the medical shop, goes to buy jewels, he is cheated by the merchant who deals in jewels. Does not this vicious circle go on endlessly in your Samsar? On account of this the activities and dealings of many are fraught with trickery and deception. Humanity is as good as dead. The present day people are engaged in a competition to cheat and exploit one another.
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What do you attain by this kind of activity? You lose your inner peace; people lose confidence in you. You give up the path of Dharma. Your sacred intelligence deteriorates. Have you thought of the extent of loss you incur by this kind of activity? But you want only to acquire a lot of wealth. You will not be sad even if you lose your wife, if you can get money. Did not the Pandavas lose their wife Draupadi in the game of chess? But I hope that you do not gamble !
From the Audience: We do not gamble or play at cards, on the road-side or in our houses. We go to clubs.
Maharajashri: Do you go to clubs for gambling? Are you Jains? You call yourselves Jains and you gamble? Do you? Why do you bring disgrace to Jainism or to the name of a Jain. If you want to engage yourselves in such immoral and illegal activities, stop calling yourselves, Jains. Do you want to become millionaires by gambling? Has any gambler become a millionaire? Remember that if you become a millionaire thus, you will land yourself in anguish. Gambling is a very wicked thing. Gambling ruins many. You will ruin yourselves and your families if you are gamblers.
GAMBLING AND SMUGGLING ARE WICKED
Just as gambling is wicked, smuggling also is wicked and illegal. Now-a-days, this occupation namely, smuggling seems to