182
Aptavani-2
day and night.”
‘We’ told him, “Then the mistake is yours. He does all
that to you because of your own mistakes. Why don’t you enjoy
the company of your other three good sons?”
‘We’ then spoke with his rebellious son, “Does it not
bother you that your father worries so much about you?”
The son told ‘us’, “Why should I worry? My father
makes the money. I am having a good time.”
Now between the father and the son, who is suffering?
The father is suffering and so the father is at fault. ‘The fault is
of the sufferer.’ The son has become worthless; he drinks, he
gambles etc., whatever he may be doing, his brothers sleep
peacefully at home, do they not? Does the mother also not sleep
peacefully? Only this old fool stays awake. Therefore he is the
one at fault. What fault is this? The fault is that he had corrupted
this boy in his past life and so this is account and interaction due
to the subtle bond of deeds of his past life (roonanubandha),
and that is why the old man is suffering. The son will suffer when
his mistakes mature and express. Who amongst the two is being
roasted and tormented now? The one who is suffering is the one
at fault. If one understands only this one law, then the entire path
of liberation opens up for him.
‘The fault is of the sufferer’, this sentence has expressed
absolutely exactly here in front of ‘us’. Whoever uses it will be
liberated.
If the pavement is uneven and a part of the cement edge
is jutting out, so many people may come and go to the cinema
and yet only Chandulal trips over it. Chandulal will say, ‘The
pavement made me trip.’ Arey! You are the one who bumped
into the pavement, the pavement does not move, it remains in its
place. You are the ‘lucky’ one to receive the ‘prize’! But
because of illusion, he says, “I was tripped by the pavement.”