| Let worldly
fife be an appearance or a reality. Sri Sankara does not object to our enjoying life,
using our talents in approved ways adhering to Dharma. If one seeks pleasure in wrong
ways, the joy that one may get will be far outweighed by the sorrows one must suffer. If a
man leads a dharmic life, he must submit to sorrows as willingly as he accepts pleasures.
Both must be borne with equanimity. If we lay to
heart what Sri Sankara tells us, we shall acquire the courage to bear the sorrows of life
unperturbed. A man may escape all other hardships, but death and the parting, which it
imposes, are inevitable. Either the wife loses her husband or the husband suffers the
grief of separation from his wife. Other sorrows too we cannot escape. To bear these with
fortitude, one must acquire the true knowledge that Sri Sankara urges us to acquire.
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