Page 42 - Courage Redifined

for free. His greed did not overcome him. Instead, he
visualized the dreadful consequence of this act. He
thought that, “If I confiscate all his wealth then,

1) The state of merchant Kuber’s wife, mother and other
Mahajan-relatives would become miserable.

2) They would bind themselves with abundant sins because
of grief, anxiety, negative thoughts and kashayas*.

3) I will have so many fathers because it is said that being a
son you can enjoy your father’s money but not by being
a father. Thus, I will become the son of as many people’s
wealth I confiscate.

4) Also, confiscating someone’s wealth without our right
means we are expressing our consent on someone’s demise.
This is because the mind will surely feel, “Because he died,
I received this wealth.” This means expressing happiness
over someone’s demise.”

Seeing all these unwanted consequences, King Kumarpal
did not become greedy for that wealth. He made a strong
resolution to never take such wealth. He overcame the greed
of the enormous wealth that could come in his hands legally by
state law. Could you do something like this ? King Kumarpal
was getting enormous wealth according to his status. Suppose,
you are getting not so much wealth but a considerate amount
of wealth for free without any major lies or fraud. Would you
let go of the greed for such wealth ?

(B) Let's look at another example of Kumarpal's victory
over greed.

* Kashayas – The negative traits of anger, greed, deceit and pride

32 Courage Redefined