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even if the shopkeeper shuts his shop down in this life, are they
likely to leave him alone in the next life? No, they will not and
they will only rest having avenged themselves. And that is why
the Lord has said to become free from vengeance by whatever
means you can.
An acquaintance of ours had borrowed some money from
us, but he never came to return the money. ‘We’ understood
that this was due to some past life’s vengeance and that so it
was fine that he did not come to return the money, what is more;
‘we’ told him, “You don’t have to return the money. ‘We’ are
setting you free.” If you can break the bondage of vengeance by
writing off some money, then do so. Sooner or later, break the
vengeance otherwise bondage of vengeance with even one
person, will make you wander life after life.
How can one deal with such vengeful people? With such
people, even if you were to fire a gun at them, your bullets
would go to waste. In addition to that, they will bind vengeance
towards you. If you bind vengeance towards one person, that
vengeance will ruin your life for seven more lives. He will say,
‘I don’t want to go to moksha, but I will not let him go either.’
You know that enmity between Lord Parshvanath and Kamath
had been going on for eight lives, and the Lord became free only
when He became vitarag. Only the Lord could have tolerated
the cruel and malicious acts Kamath directed at Him. People of
today do not have the capacity to suffer what the Lord had to.
Kamath made balls of fire rain over the Lord as He sat in
meditation. He threw large rocks at the Lord. He created heavy
rain fall on the Lord but despite this, the Lord suffered
everything with equanimity and on top of that he blessed
Kamath and thus dealt with all enmity that Kamath had for Him.
Just as a cat can smell a mouse, so can those who have
a score of enmity to settle, they do not have to look for each
other. When Lord Parshvanath was sitting down below (on