A Misunderstanding

in a Jaunpur market. From the start, he found excellent opportunities, and within a year his capital had doubled. In the second year of business, he had entered a stage where a wide door to growth and success had opened before him. But then a weakness slowly crept in. He became careless with his spending. His expenses on himself, his family, and his friends grew without limit. He forgot that of the one thousand rupees he took in from a day’s sales, only ten percent truly belonged to him; the remaining ninety percent belonged to the supplier. Yet he began to spend as if the entire amount was his income—just as a lawyer treats the full fee he receives as his own. Such extravagance cannot continue in shopkeeping. The result was that within a few years he was bankrupt. Not a single rupee of the fifteen thousand remained. After this, he lived for about fifteen years but was unable to restart any business. Someone advised him to perform a chilla (a spiritual retreat), saying this would solve his problems. He did so, but breaking the laws of nature cannot be corrected by a chilla. His situation only worsened, until finally, in 1971, in a state of distress, he was struck by a jeep and died on the road. One mistake in life can ruin all opportunities and push a person to the very edge of failure. This rule applies to all matters of life. With every neem tree there is a worm. With every matter there is a weakness