________________
DISCOURŠĖ 6.)
157
to lead a fruitful and meaningful life must practise these principles. These principles are not merely principles but they are invaluable ornaments of life.
You have to live according to the thirty five ordinary principles if you desire sound physical health, peaceful domestic life, social prestige and political protection as well as freedom from fear and worry. If you think a little deeply you will realise that physical ailments, tensions in family life, disgrace in society and fear of the rulers have greatly increased. What is the cause for this state of affairs? The cause is your shocking indifference towards the ordinary principles and your dereliction of those principles.
That is why I have been discussing the ordinary principles in such great detail. All of you should realise the greatness and importance of these principles and you must live according to those principles. Today, I am going to discuss a very important principle relating to the life of a householder. The principle is, “The necessity of discarding the habit of calumniating others". This is the fourteenth ordinary principle.
CALUMNY IS BORN OUT OF CONTEMPT OR HATRED
The author of the great book totally prohibits the tendency to calumniate others. You should not calumniate others. Avarnavada or the tendency to calumniate others means exposing the defects of others.
अप्रसिद्धि -प्रख्यापनरूप : अवर्णवाद:
The habit of calumniating others should be discarded. It is a very wicked habit; and it causes great harm and loss. It is harmful from every point of view. It is not proper from any point of view to calumniate others.
Calumny originates from hatred. People calumniate others in order to assassinate someone's character or with the ignoble motive of pulling someone down to the dust; or to conceal one's own defects and faults.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
