Who is a thief?
A person who "borrows" ideas, words, concepts from another and passes it off as her or his own without giving any credit or acknowledgement to the source?
A person who casually "takes" a fruit from an open air market, just because...?
What about that person who "finds" a lost treasure and neglects to look for the owner?
Who is a thief?
According to my beloved Sri Swami Satchidananda, a person may be categorized as a thief, a debtor, a fair business person, a good person or a saint.
"Who is a thief? The one who always gets things from everyone, but never gives anything.
The debtor gets ten dollars worth but gives only five dollars worth to others.
The fair businessman is the one who gets ten dollars worth of benefit from others and returns ten dollars worth.
A good person gets ten dollars and gives at least twenty or thirty dollars - more than what he gets.
And a saint doesn't get anything;he just gives everything he can.
So you can analyze your own life and see in which category you belong. The only way to wash out our bad karma is to be a really good person or a saint. That means through our service to the earth, to the people, to divine beings, to God. That way we can be pardoned for the karmas that we incur unconsciously."
- exceprt from "The Golden Present" by Sri Swami Satchidananda, today's daily inspirational reading
