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father too takes on the pain in his mind. The Lord says that
nature dispenses one pound worth of pain to the child, but the
father takes on half a pound of the weight and the mother a
quarter. Now if this is not foolishness, then what is it?
‘We’ are not a Gnani when you tell me you have a
stomachache and ‘we’ tell you, “You are Atma, are you not?”
‘We’ have to listen to you. But if you complain about not getting
clarified butter (ghee) with your rice, then ‘we’ will not listen to
you because that is not suffering.
This is a very subtle fact. Whatever misery, pain or
suffering there is, there is always a cure for it. It is considered
a misery when you have a toothache because you can go to a
dentist and get treatment for it or you can have that tooth pulled.
What is suffering? It is anything for which there is a solution.
Wherever there is no solution, it cannot be called suffering. Here
the child has a pound worth of pain, but why does the father
take on another half a pound on to himself? Dogs do not cry
when their puppies get hurt, they merely lick the wound to heal
it. There is a healing power in their saliva. And when the dog
gets hurt, it will cry out loudly! These humans however are non-
dependant (nirashrit), i.e. those who take on doer-ship. They
become miserable even when someone else is in pain.
One man came to me and told me, “I have a big problem
of pain (pida).” ‘We’ asked him what it was and he said, “My
wife is going to be delivering a baby.” Is the wife having a baby
something new? Even cats and dogs have babies, do they not?
Even a postman ‘delivers’ mail. What is so special about having
a baby? His neighbor’s wife had died during childbirth so he
was worried about his wife. ‘We’ explained everything to him
and made him understand. ‘We’ gave him a mantra to divert his
attention. Otherwise he would become consumed with negative
thoughts of, ‘the neighbor’s wife died during childbirth, what if
that happens to my wife too?’ If one has negative thoughts like