Economics Of Mahavira: [10.19] Introspection and Clarifications (19)

Question:
Will a person preferring to live in a five star hotel be able to do sadhana (meditation) for transformation from within?

Answer:
A person likes to live in a five-star hotel because he does not give attention to change from within. If he is an ascetic and does sadhana for the change, his life will be of a different type. You see that in the place where we sit here, there is no fan. An air-conditioner is out of question. Until we change passion, the five-star hotel would continue occupying the mind. The reality is that man does not live in a five-star hotel; the five-star hotel lives in his mind.

A king asked an ascetic, "You lived in the palace and I also lived in the palace, then what is the difference?" The ascetic responded, "There was not much of difference. The only difference was that I lived in your palace and the palace lived in your mind. The tradition of sadhana was necessary to get the palace out of the mind. If we go through the process, the change would come. Today there is a great need to pursue this reality. Only when the motivation to devotion grows, there would be a real change within.