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desire to hear them and if they try to understand the doctrines, they will acquire scriptural knowledge. What is the use of hearing a discourse without understanding it ? Are there not listeners who hear discourses without understanding them ? If you ask them, “What did you understand from the discourse that you heard ?” They will give this reply, "The discourse was very good” or they may say, "We could not enjoy the discourse. There was not even a single story in it”. This is what they may say. Such people hear discourses but understand nothing. The desire to hear discourses and hearing discourses are two qualities of the intelligence. Some may have these two qualities but all listeners are not capable of understanding the discourses. They may not have the quality of understanding the discourse. Some may even misunderstand them.
A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE IS A DANGEROUS THING
This incident occurred once. We went to a certain town. The celebration of the Gita Day (Gitajayanthi) came. Some non-Jain scholars came to me. They made this request to me, "Maharaj, we have arranged some discourses in connection with the Gita Day. We request you to deliver the main discourse. If you give your consent, we will announce the programme in the papers". I gave my consent and went to deliver the discourse. Quite a good number of Jains also came with me. I recited a sloka from The Gita and began to discuss it from the point of view of multiple-vision or Anekant drishti. Those listeners who were intellectually awakened were pleased with what I said because they obtained a new point of view of understanding The Gita. But those who were ignorant of The Gita or those who believed that The Gita was a non-Jain work met me the next day and said, “Maharaj sahib, why did you deliver a discourse on The Gita ? The Gita is a "non-Jain work". I explained to them that if a man has the right view, even The Gita becomes a work communicating true knowledge. I told them that I could deliver a discourse on the Gita from the Jain point of view. Then, those devotees said, “Yes. Yes, you delivered an excellent discourse but we could not understand anything of what you
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