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24 Kshamapana transformed into enmity.
A great man was returning from a riverbank, after having a bath. A Chandala (sinful man) splashed 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 added to the great man's anger. He said, "Why do you need to bathe?" The Chandala said, "It is necessary to wash out a Chandala's touch. When you were abusing me, the great Chandala of anger was inhabiting your mind. I bathe to wash out its defiled touch."
Thus, anger makes of 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 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.
Kshamapana 25 Tukaram began to caress him like a small child. That man tried another trick. He jumped and sat on the back of Tukaram's waife 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.
Forgiveness Saves us from
Transmigration Anger is foreign to the soul, forgiveness is natural to it. Anger is enmity, forgiveness is friendship. Anger kills, forgiveness saves. When the soul performs its 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
