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generous mind never enjoys its possessions so much as when others are made partakers of them."
We can conquer the world through love, friendship and a spirit of renunciation. We cannot subdue the free spirit of nation merely by the force of arms. The military strength or power of weapons may give temporary defeat to an enemy nation but cannot vanquish her free spirit or win heart of people except with love and affection as the Holy Buddha did by preaching Buddhism in Shri Lanka, Burma and Japan. In the book 'Early History of Vaishali' an eminent historian of Europe has written that Lord Mahavira was born in a Kshatrya clan, whose people were always at war with one another fighting with swords. Lord Mahavira preached to them - 'Do not tease and torture even the smallest creature like an ant; rather give love and protection to it'. In the modern age one man is bent upon torturing and killing another man, instead of giving him fraternal love and affection. Should we call him humane? All of us have to develop the outlook of Lord Mahavira. Renunciation is a must to become great like Mahavira. In 'Baras Anupekha' Acharya Kundkund Swami has defined the supreme virtue of renunciation as below:
Nrichaigatiam bhavi, moh cheunr sachdvaishu Jo tas havai chayago idi bhanridam jinrvarimdaihim
Lord Jinendra has stated, "A living being. who discarding attachment to things, nonself maintains an indifferent outlook for physical body and worldly pleasures, is endowed with the virtue of renunciation." A man cannot obtain peace and happiness by accumulating material things like wealth and property, nor do these things enhance his prestige; rather their renunciation adds to his prestige and honor, and he achieves peace and happiness.
There lived a very wealthy householder in a city; but he was greedy by nature. He neither took nice food nor put on nice clothes, nor gave money in charity for religious deeds and other noble causes. His chief aim in life was to accumulate money by saving every penny day and night. What to say of seeing his face, people disliked even to hear his name in the morning. The scriptures say, "namatikripanrsya cha", i.e., the name of a miser is not worth speaking. Such people are condemned and disdained wherever they go. After all who can show respect to such selfish men? In the modern times we daily come across so many affluent persons, who hesitate to donate even a penny for religious functions and for a good cause, but are forced to pay huge amount of money as taxes. They are aversive to give donation to every category of charity-seekers viz. superb, medium and lower type. On the contrary such people try to win false prestige and glory by arranging garden parties in honor of high government officers, and feeding the gentry on the eve of wedding receptions. But this greedy rich person was a perfect devil. What to speak of giving donation to social institutions, he did not give even a tip of twenty-five paisa to a peon. If sometimes a hungry beggar knocked at his door asking for food, he would shut the door in his face and make a pretext of sickness but never offered him food. The Tamil scholar Ka Naa Subramanyam rightly says:
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