________________
Aptavani-2
293
294
Aptavani-2
beat him." The Lord started to get a beating even before he entered their area, but He knew and had the awareness of, 'I am not taking the beating. He had to suffer many insults and beatings. Sometimes if he came across a kind person, he would get half a rotlo (unleavened bread made of millet flour). In the civilized land he left behind, he could eat wonderful sweets and desserts, but there were no such things to be found here! The Lord spent some time in the primitive area, destroyed his karmas and returned. Today, in the current era of this time cycle, people do not have to go looking for penance like the Lord did; penance will present itself to them in their own homes and yet people go looking for it. You foolish people! Lord Mahavir had to walk sixty miles in search of penance!
Today you are so fortunate that penance is to be found in your own home, the minute you walk into your home, it is there: as you eat, it is there. This is where you have to suffer penance. The Lord had to go in search for penance; he had to walk sixty miles to uncivilized areas. But don't you find 'primitiveness nowadays just sitting at home? You are getting the penance free of charge so why don't you suffer it quietly. How fortunate are people of this day and age! This is what we call natural penance (prapta tapa). Your neighbors, your business partners, your brother, your wife, your children, etc., everyone will bring on the penance. In the past time cycle, everything was very agreeable and people did not have any suffering. Life at home was very comfortable and no body had to go outside looking for comforts. This current era of Kaliyug is such that people don't adjust anywhere. They do not adjust to situations. A person finds family members who do not adjust, neighbors who do not adjust etc., so you must learn to suffer all that and adjust yourself.
Prapta tapa is penance that comes on its own. You have to accept and suffer it without hurting the other person, the nimit. Not only should you not hurt the other person, but also your
mind must not spoil towards that person; that is prapta tapa. The Lord has forbidden all other penance, but even then just look at all the different kinds of penance people are putting themselves through. You foolish people! At least try to understand this! What is the point when a guru gets angry with his disciples throughout the day but fasts the next day for the anger? He will say I want to fast two days. The reality nowadays is, if some day the disciples are not able to get food and cook for the guru, the guru should make do with whatever food there is. Why not make do with just rice that day? Make adjustments here and there as the situation calls for. Instead of completely abstaining from food for one day, why not adjust to whatever there is on a day-to-day basis? If some day the food is not ready on time or when there is nothing to eat, adjust to the situation and suffer it quietly. The stomach is such that it will stop complaining if you put a little something in it. Even when you eat a little khichadee and vegetables at night, does it complain? No it does not. And you are able to meditate if you want you. The stomach is not the problem and neither is the mind, it is he, the one with the passion (kashaya) who is at fault. He is the culprit, the uncivilized one! He is the obstinate and misadjusting one. He suffers and spreads the suffering. What stupidity!
People call each other anadi (primitive). It is impossible to find a person who is not anadi in the entire city of Bombay, which is why they call each other anadi. You cannot speak this way because the kind of anadi people the Lord was looking for are to be found in your very homes! That is why 'Dada' says, eat, have fun and when penance presents to you, suffer it calmly. There is no need to go seeking for penance; people are constantly dishing it out to others. Those who seek penance do not suffer the penance that comes to them, but they go seeking for penance that does not come, they create it and then suffer it. They undergo so much penance, that if someone were to say even the slightest thing to him or her, they explode! People
