Way of Life Part 3

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

Page 68

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THE WAY OF LIFE grihasta. If people do this duty properly, a man can give refuge to others without any fear or anxiety and those who have no refuge can get a proper refuge.
NEVER BETRAY THE TRUST REPOSED IN YOU BY THE ONE WHO GIVES YOU REFUGE
Now-a-days, many people have lost their fitness to secure a proper refuge. The tendency to cut the roots of the refuge has increased. The sin of faithlessness is widespread. Therefore, even those who can give refuge to others do not like to do so.
If, thinking that a certain person is a gentleman, you let your house to him for a few months, he will at once behave as if he is the owner of the house; and starts quarrelling with you. He will not vacate the house when the owner needs it. He will become hostile to the owner.
Suppose you lend some ten or twenty thousand rupees to a person for a year. He does not return the amount after the expiry of the time; on the contrary, when you go to ask him to return the amount, he will quarrel with you. There is no question at all of his returning the amount.
Thinking that a person is a man of good character, if you engage him as a worker in your house, he will begin to develop illicit intimacy with the girls in the family.
Tell me if after hearing such things, anyone would give a shelter or refuge to others. A man who is unworthy and unfit cannot secure a proper refuge. Even if he happens to secure a refuge he cannot enjoy it for long. One must secure the right refuge; and do one's duty properly. This is the seventh ordinary principle of the grihastadharma. My auspicious aspiration for you is that you must observe this principle and brighten your
lives.
This is enough for to-day.