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20 Kshamapana the pain. Don't kill him. How agonizing is the pain of a mother's heart ! I won't have Ashvatthama's mother experience the pain. Release him."
Formal forgiveness
(Dravya Kshama) And Ashvatthama, the murderer, was released. This is the grandeur of forgiveness. The animosity and retaliation in our heart should be tranquilized before we ask forgiveness. He who becomes tranquilized, deserves to be propitiated. This means that you cannot practise spiritual austerities before asking forgiveness. We often make errors and develop animosities in life. If our hand touches someone and we say 'Sorry, or conventionally post a card of forgiveness, it is a formal forgiveness. Such formal forgiveness is a matter of routine in life, but it is inconsequential. Forgiveness for show is a vanity. Some say that absence of anger is forgiveness. To grow angry first and then to ask forgiveness is no forgiveness. Bhagavan Mahavir compares anger to a flaming fire. In the Puranas, anger is said to be the gateway to hell. In the Koran, anger is said to be Satan's son. In the Bible, anger is said to be a volcano burning every man to ashes. Anger
Kshamapana a 21 expresses itself in four stages. In the first stage, a person senior in respect of age, status or wealth grows angry with a junior person. A mother-inlaw grows angry with the daughter-in-law, a guru grows angry with his disciple and father grows angry with his son. For a slight reason they grow angry. The second stage is that of suffocation. When a person is unable to express his anger openly, he becomes mentally upset and seeks an opportunity for retaliation. The third stage is that of weeping. This is a helpless condition of anger, when feelings of anger cannot be expressed or contained, person bursts into tears. The fourth stage of anger is excessive tranquillity and it is found in gentlemen and great men. They transform anger into tranquility. They do not wish to retaliate.
Anger is Like Fire Anger is said to be blind. It means that anger destroys itself. Chandakaushik, the snake, was an ascetic in his previous birth. He grew angry with children who had completely destroyed his garden. So with an axe in hand he ran to strike them. But he came upon a ditch. Kaushika, the ascetic, did not see the ditch, and the axe in his hand recoiled on him and killed him. A similar incident happened during Bhagavan Mahavir's
