242
Aptavani-9
Questioner: Does intense greed (lalacha) mean that one
gets excited at the mere sight of something?
Dadashri: He will get very excited. But it is good if he
recognizes it as intense greed.
The moment a covetous person sees someone he knows,
he thinks, ‘We will go eat together.’ What should one do for
such an intense greed? He should tell himself ‘I just had
something to eat. I am not interested.’ Should there not be
some self-respect and dignity? People will take you out for
dinner and that impression will remain in your mind, will it not?
Does it get erased from your mind? So when you see that
person again, you will immediately have the thought, ‘it will be
nice if he takes me out again,’ will you not? It is Your job to
turn such thoughts around. That is called purusharth. And you
are at risk for not turning that around - if you don’t, that risk
remains.
Questioner: If we decline his invitation to eat out are we
not insulting and rejecting (tarchhod) him?
Dadashri: How can that be rejecting him? What if
someone tells you, ‘Let us go out for a drink?’ where is the
rejection in that? Why are you looking for sorry excuses like
that? If he invites you, you should go and if you do not like the
food, take it and put it aside. Surely, you should know how to
handle yourself in such situations!
If one eats only one thing, even then there is no problem.
He does not have any other intense greed (lalacha). If he has
intense greed for just one thing, even then there is no problem;
at least he will be preoccupied with just one thing. But avaricious
people are tempted by anything and everything. So wherever
thieving tendencies of intense greed (lalacha) creep in, a
person has to create a safe-side for himself. Intense greed is
very poisonous. There is no problem if lalacha is limited to
only one thing.