Slokam 9

When you practice spiritualism,  you are more than like;y to be ridiculed and denigrated,  as Rishabha was.  It is mentioned in the slokam that Rishabha went about in the world, practicing and preaching his attainment of rapturous bliss.  Small minded people who cannot imagine a higher state of attainment than this lie, ridiculed him as they would, a mad man.  Rishabha is said to have gone about his task,  completely ignoring such ridicule.

When we go on with life,  and we wish to lead a dharmic life, we would have to pass up on many worldly “opportunities” in order to avoid being caught in the trap of adharmic way of life.  We will be ridiculed as a mad person for missing these “opportunities”.  The ridicule will come even from our near and dear and our dependents,  who think we are foolish in missing opportunities for accumulating wealth.   These ridicules from our near and dear will  be particularly harsh because they will tell us that our dharmic way of life is the main cause of the family not being rich or well of.

This conflict will be felt since there will be a comparison between the apparent well being of a dharmic family and an adharmic family.  An adharmic family may make money by taking short cuts,  but in the longer run there will be a heavy price to pay. The problem is that this aspect of consequences of actions will not be apparent until when the family objects to some of the dharmic principles being followed,  and is tempted to veer towards accumulating wealth at any cost. 

This is the in built resistance and trap into which many families fall and are unable to recover. 

May we invoke the Paramathma to provide guidance and restrain our dependents from taking recourse to the adharmic way of life despite all ridicule and apparent lack of material well being that may ensue.