________________
Jainism: The Cosmic Vision Anger hurts the angry person himself. How preverted a man becomes when he grows angry ! His eyes are dilated and emit sparks. Sometimes he stamps his feet and sometimes he utters foul language. He, who is angry, defiles not only the other person, but the whole atmosphere. That is why Shakespeare said that anger is deep like the sea and quick like the fire. Saint Tiruvalluvar says that fire burns whatever goes near it, but the fire of anger burns the whole family. An angry man closes his eyes and opens his mouth wide. Anger expels discrimination from the mind and bolts it out. Such anger can be compared to a stone thrown at a beehive; it soon gets transformed into enmity.
A great man was returning from a riverbank, after having a bath. A Chandala (sinful man) splashed water on him. The great man flared up and began to abuse the Chandala. He bathed again. When he came out of the river, the Chandala went to bathe. This enraged him all the more. He said, "Why do you need a bath ?" The Chandala said, "It is necessary to wash away a Chandala's touch. When you were abusing me, the great Chandala of anger was inhabiting your mind. I bathe to wash away that foul touch of yours."
Thus, anger makes a man a great Chandala. It commits the offence of violence and destroys joy. Anger comes like a wave and develops into a great ocean engulfing man's mind. From a small seed of anger, a great banyan tree of enmity shoots up. Through a small hole, it enters the mind and pervades everywhere. Anger turns a man into a demon. In order to know it, we should find out the seed of anger. After the seed has been found, we should stop fertilizing it. This is what saints have done. Tukaram, the saint, never grew angry. Someone is said
Kshamapana to have declared a prize for making him feel angry. A man took up the challenge. He went to the place where Saint Tukaram was singing hymns and sat in his lap. Tukaram began to caress him like a small child. That man tried another trick. He jumped and sat on the back of Tukaram's wife in order to anger him. Tukaram said to his wife, "Take care lest he should fall." His trick failed. Thus, only he, who knows the root of anger, can forgive.
Anger is alien to the soul, forgiveness is natural to it. Anger is enmity, forgiveness is friendship. Anger kills, forgiveness saves. When the soul performs ablutions in the nectar of forgiveness, all obstinacy, quarrels, enmity, treachery, etc, melt away. If anger is harboured, it gets transformed into enmity. For births to come, enmity keeps man submerged in anger. "Enmity is fight, Kshama is restraint. Enmity is destructive, Kshama is conducive to progress. Enmity disjoins, Kshama joins. Enmity unfair, kshama is fair. Enmity argues, Kshama confesses. Enmity is perversity, Kshama is culture, Enmity is whirlpool, Kshama is a lotus. The surest remedy for the poison of enmity is forgiveness." Three Categories of Men
In view of the pace of life today, forgiveness is more important than ever before. In the cultural context of today, there is a greater need for forgiveness today than ever. In the times of Bhagwan Rishabhdev, men were simple and dull. By nature they were simple, but intellectually they were dull. A disciple went begging. He got 32 vadas. (A vadun is a fried eatable.) He thought, "Out of these sixteen some are to be given to the guru. Let me then eat sixteen fresh vadas."
86
87
