Autobiograpy Of Gnani Purush A.M.Patel Autobiograpy Of Gnani Purush A.M.Patel | Page 58

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[4] Business Life
Took same salary as any other employee
At a very young age I had decided that, if possible, I
would not let any dishonest money enter into my worldly
transactions and if for some reason it ever did, I would leave
it in the business and not let it come into my home. Today I am
sixty-six years old and I have not allowed any dishonest money
to enter my home and no conflicts or tension has arisen at
home. We had made a decision that we will manage our home
within a certain amount of money. The business made hundreds
of thousands of rupees. What would Ambalal Patel make if he
had a service job to make a living? How much would he earn?
He would not make more than six or seven hundred rupees.
Therefore I took six hundred rupees a month from our company
to run our home. The rest of the money I would keep in the
business.
Our business of construction contracts was a partnership.
My partner was Kantibhai Patel of Bhadran, living in Baroda.
All businesses are a play of karma. If they do well it is the result
of merit karma. If they fail it is a result of demerit karma. If ever
the business were to get a letter from the income tax office, I
would instruct them to use that money to pay off the tax liabilities.
There was no telling when the business would get an ‘attack’,
and if all the money was spent and the business were to get an
‘income tax attack’, then we were also likely to get a heart
attack. Such attacks are everywhere. How can you call this
living? Do you not see anything wrong with it? It is this wrong
that we have to destroy.
Never a Famine, Nor a Feast of Money
I have never experienced shortage of money neither has
there been any surplus. The thousands we earned in the business