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A king very often visited a saint to seek his blessings. He would always pray to him only to give him some holy sermon. The saint paid no attention to his frequent requests. One day the king made a forceful appeal to the saint. At length the saint was appeased and said to the king, "Tomorrow I shall visit your royal palace and deliver my sermon there."
The king was overjoyed and again insisted that the saint should oblige him by taking his meals too in the royal palace. The saint readily consented to it. The saint readily consented to it. The next day the saint reached the royal palace at the appointed time taking his begging bowl. The king had devotedly got prepared various types of delicacies and dainty dishes for the saint. At first the king wished to serve to the saint kheer, a preparation of milk and rice. The saint brought forward his begging bowl to take it. The king peeped inside the bowl and drew back his hand without serving the kheer into the bowl. At this the saint stood up and got ready to go back. The king was terrified, as the saint had neither taken meals nor delivered sermon. The perturbed king said, "O holy saint! You neither took meals nor delivered a sermon as per your promise; still you are going back home leaving us in the lurch." The saint promptly replied, "I have delivered my sermon, which you have failed to grasp." The king stood dumbfounded. Then the king asked the perplexed king, "Why did you not serve the kheer into my bowl?" The king said, "Holy Sir! Dust particles and pebbles were lying in your bowl. I did not serve the kheer into the bowl, lest my nectar like sweet and tasty kheer should get spoiled." The saint said, "I had also to teach you this lesson that your mind is full of filth and dirt in the shape of evil passions like anger, vanity, arrogance and greed. Until and unless your mind on being relieved of these evil passions becomes purified, how should I deliver my sermon to you? In the present state of mind my sermon will also be futile and go waste."
By and by as a living being goes on discarding evil passions like greed, anger and vanity he marches on ahead in the direction of uplifting his soul and attains perfect purity of soul. We should aim at achieving purity of soul. Besides discarding the evil passion of internal greed, freedom from external greed is also very essential. In 'Bhagwati Aradhana' Acharya Shivarya has also emphasized the need of discarding greed;
Lobhe keyai atho, nr hohi purisas aparhibhogasya Akevi havdi lobhai, athi padibhogvam tas
Despite being greedy a man bereft of good luck cannot possess wealth. On the contrary a man on whom fortune smiles can have boundless wealth without craving for it. Therefore, greed for money is in no way helpful in the acquisition of wealth, rather good luck helps it. Realizing this truth we should try to get rid of greed. The question arises, 'How should we put an end to the predominating feeling of greed?' This question has been answered by Acharya Kundkund Swamy in 'Kartikeyanupreksha' thus:
Sam santosh jalainr jo dhovadi tiv loh mal punjam Bhoynr gidhi vihinro tas saucham have vimlam
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