ISJS Transactions 2018 07 To 09 Vol 02 No 03

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 44

mind in a crematorium; prepared a furnace of wet sticky earth on the head of Gajasukumāra and putting burning charcoal in it and added other firewood and so there was great heat. Gajasukumāra's young tender body began to burn and seeing this, Somala went away from there. You can imagine what a terrible pain Gajasukumāra might have been suffering by burns. But he kept equanimity of mind and did not allow any anger to disturb his mental peace. On the contrary making his soul elastic he said to himself that had he accepted Somala's daughter as his wife in marriage, Somala might have given him a rich turban which would have been tattered by long use and resulted in worldly miseries but instead he gave him a turban of burning fire by which he could be released from his soul's attachment to his body and so helped him to obtain quick liberation. As a result of this unshakable extreme forgiveness, Gajasukumāra, bearing killing pain of burns with peaceful mind, became all seeing and all knowing, got infinite happiness of life. What an incomparable forgiveness and how excellent its result! Philosophers have rightly said that if one's soul proceeds completely in its own nature of eternal peace and bliss, it realizes liberation there and then. The famous forgiveness of Gajasukumāra gives us an absolutely correct advice to follow it and realize our self quickly.'
36 ISJS-Transactions, Vol.2, No.3, Jul-Sep, 2018
2. Once, Saint Ekanātha went to Banaras on a pilgrimage. The morning after having taken a
bath in the river Gangā, he began climbing some steps. There was a Pathāna sitting beside the bank who spat on him. The saint went down the steps and took another bath. Again, the man spat on him. The Saint ignored the man and quietly back into the river to take a bath. After hundred and one times of this happening over again, the Pathāna finally repented for his action and begged for forgiveness. The Saint replied 'I am grateful to you for your good deed, because daily I used to bath in the Gangā only once, but today I am lucky to bathe a hundred and one times due to you.'. Great men have great thoughts, and more importantly, immense purity of heart.
Conclusion
Since time immemorial, we've been wandering endlessly taking different forms, roles, setups and most importantly, accumulating karmic particles throughout the journey. It is time to put an end to this vicious circle, for it is not enabling us to be freed. Do we really want to leave this body without having met our true selves? No.
We have become so accustomed to anger and its family that we must take this birth as an opportunity to break our habits and live differently. Coal, diamond and granite are all carbon but their values are different. Indeed, we may all be humans but the way we live our lives and the values we choose to practise will determine the quality of our life. Anger is an easy-way out, but one that doesn't give a way out from the cycle of rebirth. Its opposite, forgiveness (with love at the center of our hearts) allows us to break our karmic bondage and ultimately, attain inner bliss.
Let us not live another life like all the ones we already have. Just as Pujya Gurudevashri Rakeshbhai says: 'God's favourites are those who have power to take revenge but choose to Forgive.'
Do we want the remote control of our lives to be in other's hands or our own? Let us take a