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[15] On The Path of Cause Ahimsa
291
292
Pratikraman
Dadashri: Even a child? So understand that you will not escape. Whether you do something knowingly or unknowingly, you cannot escape the consequences.
That is considered Lack of Awareness
Questioner: What occurs if a person who has received Gnan kills mosquitoes that bite him?
Dadashri: You can say that the intent got spoilt. That is not considered awareness of Gnan.
Questioner: Is that considered a violent intent (himsak bhaav)?
Dadashri: Not only that, but in doing so he has reverted to what he was. However, pratikraman would wash it off.
Questioner: What if he keeps killing the mosquitoes the next day?
Dadashri: Even if he were to do it a hundred times over, pratikraman washes it off. The Most Heavy Karma Becomes Light with
Pratikraman
suffer, but it can be made lighter, less bitter.
Questioner: Is there a change in the suffering? (276)
Dadashri: Yes. If one person gets hurt in a certain part of his body, he will not be able to bear the pain; whereas another person will put bandages on his wound and move about freely.
Questioner: When the shepherd forced bamboo needles in Lord Mahavir's ears....
Dadashri: That was nikachit karma.
Questioner: He was a God, so it should have become lighter for him?
Dadashri: No, it did not become light.
Questioner: Then how can it become lighter for people like us?
Dadashri: It can still become lighter if you try. He was a special person and so he would not make it lighter. He was a King when he had ordered his servants to pour hot lead in his guard's ears and he did not do any pratikraman for it either.
Questioner: But he had done that knowingly, and I have pierced needles in bed bugs and killed them...
Dadashri: Do people poke needles into them? What kind of a person are you? Just because they do not have parents to defend them? Why don't you do that to people?
Questioner: Now give me a solution for that, please. I have done many such deeds; what should I do about that?
Dadashri: Pratikraman, do pratikraman! Take some bed bugs, put them in a cup, look at their bodies and do pratikraman, then feed them, let them bite you, and then let them go.
Questioner: We have to suffer the nikachit karma (heavy and sticky' karma that one has no choice but suffer its effect) from the past life, but what about the nikachit karma created in this life?
Dadashri: That has to be suffered in the next life. It will not give its fruit immediately, not before first maturing.
Questioner: It cannot be destroyed; it has to be suffered, is that right?
Dadashri: It can become lighter if you keep repenting repeatedly. Half of the bitter juice that had entered into it will be removed from it. Nikachit means that one has no choice but to
