RFD on advaita-siddhi 12

[Anand Hudli]

On Wed, 1 Mar 2000 14:25:59 -0800, Rajesh Venkataraman
<rajesh_venk at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>>
>>  So sometimes "sacrificing" one's thirst for wealth
>> and/or other material
>>  benefits may be called for in order to maintain
>> progress on the spiritual
>>  side. Instead, if one is deluded into thinking that
>> no matter how
>>  complicated and materialistic life becomes, one can
>> always find time to
>>  keep up with spiritual matters, that is a big
>> mistake, in my opinion.
>>  In brief, if one has an opportunity to make life
>> less complicated
>>  materialistically, then one must take that
>> opportunity even if it
>>  means some "sacrifice" is necessary.
>>
>>  In brief, if one has an opportunity to make life
>> less complicated
>>  materialistically, then one must take that
>> opportunity even if it
>>  means some "sacrifice" is necessary.
>>
>
>Will it be better if we don't choose spirituality in
>favor of material wealth with the idea of
>"sacrificing" something? Sacrifice generally is a
>selection between choices which are equal or atleast
>close to each other in the level of importance. Also
>by sacrificing one of the choices one gets a certain
>amount of pain.
>
>Here, for a true viveki material prosperity is at best
>an aid and spiritual pursuit is far ahead in his
>priority list and he should not be pained to sacrifice
>a little bit of material well being! So, where is the
>question of sacrifice? If still there is a certain
>amount of pain, the viveka is not strong enough, is it
>not?

 Please note that I put "sacrifice" in quotes in my message.
 It is not a sacrifice that causes pain but should cause
 happiness because one is convinced that one is making the
 right choice.  Also, I do not agree that any sacrifice
 (without quotes) comes with pain.

 If we take sacrifice to mean sacrifice as in the Vedas,
 there are many sacrifices that do not involve pain such as
 that resulting from killing animals. A sacrifice is like
 giving up something for someone or for the ultimate good.
 As long as the sacrifice is for a higher purpose I don't
 see why it should necessarily cause pain.

 Anand

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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