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TULSI-PRAJNA
situation. He believes that as far as non-violence is concerned, our life should be other wordly, an example and this faith was actually lived by him, on every occassion.
In 1954, a conference on Anuvrat was held at Jodhpur. The people opposed it and had covered the whole city with posters including roads, on which Gurudev had to walk on. He simply said that the ignorant souls opposing us, have done us a good unknowingly. They saved our feet from the pain of heat, which otherwise the bare roads would have given us and gave a new slogan, "opposition to us should provide us pleasure". So wide a vision cannot be disturbed by any opposition and gradually all the enemity of opponents was turned to friendship.
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There is an incident of Kanpur. The local papers had raised a slanging crusade against him. A local lawyer got upset on this and asked Gurudev that the editor of some paper was his tenant and he (Gurudev) may rebut it and he will get that printed. But Gurudev replied, that it was not worth the trouble; throwing a stone in a mud pond will get mud only in return, why to put in the effort? He further said that "I feel amused on the foolishness of my opponents, they provide me with further impetus to work still harder. Opposition to child Initiation :
In Jaipur when there was opposition to it, Terapanthi also started feeling angry Being an organised cult, thousands of followers started coming in and it was not an easy task to keep them calm. But Gurudev Tulsi again repeated his usual exhortions, "we have to meet opposition and anger and violence with non-violence and peace and self-restraint, because we believe not only on the achievement of the ends but also how to achieve it, to achieve it with pure and nonviolent means. We have not to get excited by any obstruction." And so it was done and produced very desirable results.
Agni Pariksha Vs Ahimsak Pariksha
Once Gurudev Tulsi's Chaturmas was on in Raipur, where he was welcomed warmly. Some people becoming envious of his popularity, made an issue out of his book 'Agni pariksha' and challenged that he had abused Sita Public got excited on hearing this, his effigies were burnt, and stone pelting took place. Seeing all this Gurudev spoke to pressed that he believed in non-violence and peace and if his publication had pained some people, he would keep that in view in its second edition. And that was the end of opposition. But the core element of opposition continued, on which he said that, for him, it was no question of prestige nor has it ever been, neither did he want to become a cause of friction, but at the same time if
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