Book Title: Way of Life Part 4
Author(s): Bhadraguptasuri
Publisher: Vishvakalyan Prakashan Trust Mehsana

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Page 318
________________ 308 THE WAY OF LIFE In his heart, there was no hatred against anyone. The awareness that death brought about in him made him sensible and thoughtful. Eis heart which was closed opened itself and the Paramatma entered it and became enshrined in it. Of course, cancer took away his life but his soul attained peace, felicity and amity and traversed to the other world. The great author exhorts people to think that all kinds of wealth are really worthless and futile. People should develop this attitude towards wealth and discard it. You can practise the ordinary principles of the grihasthadharma only if you discard your attachment for wealth. Your attachment for wealth can be discarded only if you contemplate sensibly on death. Xerxes, the great emperor of Persia set off taking two million soldiers with him to invade Greece. On the way, he sat on a mountain and watched his vast army. He thought, "One hundred years later not a single soldier of this vast army will be alive. Death will take them all away. Then, what is the use of this war ?" His eyes became wet. He developed an attitude of detachment towards his empire and he returned home". That contemplation on death saved millions of soldiers from death. It prevented a terrible destruction of human life. On account of that contemplation, the attitude of renunciation appeared in the emperor's heart. THE CONTEMPLATION ON DEATH IS ETERNAL All the great dharmas of this world deal with the theme of death and exhort people to discard their attachment for worldly things. The Jain dharma, Buddhism and the Vedic dharma have said a lot about death. Islam, Zoroastrianism and the Suphism contain profound and highly impressive theories of death. Man can observe the ordinary principles of the grihasthadharma properly only when he liberates himself from his attachments. There are many methods by which man can liberate Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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