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Sloka 21

Chapter -16   Slokas —21
There are three types of gates to hell destructive of the self-lust,
anger and greed; therefore these three should be shunned.

  Sri Rama laughed only twice in the Ramayana. The greed of a man in Ayodhya and the lust of a woman at the Panchavati made him laugh. Earth has enough to satisfy everybody's need but not anybody's greed. Similarly thirst can be appeased but not lust. Soorpanakha's lust is demoniac crossing the limits of morality. And it is this lust that has brought Lanka's ruin.

  Confidence when coupled with egoism becomes conceit. Confidence is strength. But conceit is intoxicated strength unable to stand on its own feet. The former gives us contentment and peace; the latter makes us boastful and proud depriving us of our calmness. Vali is conceited. Therefore he is haughty bringing thereby ruin to himself.

   If we are content with what we earn and have, we are the happiest people. Happiness does not lie in the wealth or money we acquire or possess; it lies in our minds of contentment.

  A man was given seven jars of gold. But in one jar the coins were less. He wanted that also to be full. Want makes us miserable. This want made him toil day and night weakening him physically and mentally. Because of this want, he was unable to enjoy the wealth. He lost, therefore, his health as well.

  Man is but a king of wisdom if he knows the truth about need and greed, confidence and conceit, and wealth and want. As long as the latter three are present, the former three cannot be comfortable. Peace lies in contentment.

"Religions of the world have become lifeless mockeries. What the world wants is character.Religion is the idea which is raising the brute unto man, and man unto God."--- Swami Vivekananada

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