Noble Use of Money
23
speech will give visible results and will be experienced in this
life.
This Is How Obstacles Are Destroyed
Questioner: So should we make sure that we do not
have any negative thoughts?
Dadashri: That is not possible. You cannot help having
such thoughts. However, your job is to erase them. The decision
not to have such thoughts is called nischaya. You cannot stop
your thoughts; they will continue to come. You must however,
erase them before they create a new karma for your next life.
If you were to have a thought that a person should not be given
any help, because of this knowledge that you received about
creating obstructions, you will have the awareness and you will
erase that thought. This is similar to erasing the contents of a
letter before you mail it. Then the problem is solved. But without
gnan you cannot erase anything! A worldly person (who has
not taken Gnan) will never erase his mistakes in this way! On
the contrary he will say, “Such thoughts are necessary, you
don’t understand.” Thus he only complicates his life further. By
saying and maintaining this, he doubles his faults and reinforces
them. The ego does the wrong thing; it causes harm to the
owner. It is like slashing your own legs with an axe. It is self-
destructive.
From now on you can erase everything through repentance.
If you hurt someone through your speech, first make a decision
that you should not speak that way again and then ask for
forgiveness. This will erase your bad deeds. This is similar to
changing the contents of a letter before you mail it. Your initial
negative thought of, “Charity is not necessary for him,” is now
changed to, “It is good to give charity.” In this way your initial
thought gets erased.
To give charity, to help others, to have an obliging nature,