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## The Abandonment of Violence Rooted in Family Tradition by Sulas
**Chapter 2: Light of Yoga, Verse 30**
Obstacles that are not overcome become severe obstacles instead of peace. As narrated in the Samradditya story, Surendradatt, a being of Yashodhar, created a dough bird and killed it for peace from obstacles. This act of killing became an obstacle for him in the form of an increase in the cycle of birth and death. Similarly, violence committed with the mindset of "This is our family tradition or custom" is also destructive to the family. ||29||
How does one become praiseworthy by abandoning violence rooted in family tradition? This is explained in the following verse. ||86||
**Verse 30:**
Even if violence is passed down through generations, one who abandons it becomes a great man like Sulas, the son of the butcher. ||30||
**Explanation:**
One who abandons violence passed down through generations, becomes great and praiseworthy like Sulas, the son of the butcher. Sulas was well aware of the path to liberation. He was willing to die himself, but he would not harm others, not even in his mind.
**The story of Sulas, accessible to all:**
In those days, Rajagriha in Magadha was a prosperous city. There, King Shrenik, a devotee of the Lord Mahavira, ruled. Just as Krishna's father Vasudeva had Devaki and Rohini as queens, Shrenik had two beloved queens, Nanda and Chelna, adorned with virtues. Nanda, like the moon, brought joy to her husband, and she had a son, a gem of the family, named Abhaykumar. Recognizing his son's excellent intellect and skills, the king bestowed upon him all the rights and responsibilities. Indeed, virtues are the source of honor.
Once, Lord Mahavira arrived in Rajagriha. Knowing that the Lord, like a wish-fulfilling tree, had arrived, King Shrenik, feeling blessed and overjoyed, went to see him. There, in the assembly filled with gods, humans, and other beings, the king sat in his rightful place. The world teacher, Mahavira, began to preach the Dharma that destroys sins. At that very moment, a leper, whose body was oozing pus, entered the assembly. He bowed to the Lord and sat near him, like a mad dog, and began to smear his pus on the Lord's feet, as if it were sandalwood paste. Seeing this, King Shrenik, inwardly agitated, thought to himself, "This sinner, who has dared to defile the world teacher, deserves to be killed as soon as he gets up." At that moment, the Lord sneezed, and the leper said, "May you die!" Then Shrenik sneezed, and he said, "May you live!" Then Abhaykumar sneezed, and the leper said, "May you live or die." Finally, when the butcher sneezed, the leper said, "May you neither live nor die."
Angered by the leper's disrespectful words to the Lord, the king ordered his soldiers to capture him as soon as he got up.
After the sermon was over, the leper bowed to the Lord and stood up. The king's soldiers immediately captured him, just as hunters surround a boar. The leper, radiant like the sun, disappeared into the sky in an instant, before everyone's eyes. The royal servants informed the king. The king, astonished, asked the Lord, "Lord, who was that person who disappeared in an instant before our very eyes?" The Lord said, "This is a god."
Shrenik asked again, "Lord, if he is a god, why did he come in the form of a leper?" The Lord replied, "King, listen. In the city of Kaushambi in the country of Vatsa, King Shatanik ruled. In that city lived a poor and foolish Brahmin named Seduk. One day, his pregnant wife said to him, "There is only a little time left.