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beat him.” The Lord started to get a beating even before he
entered their area, but He knew and had the awareness of, ‘I
am not taking the beating.” He had to suffer many insults and
beatings. Sometimes if he came across a kind person, he would
get half a rotlo (unleavened bread made of millet flour). In the
civilized land he left behind, he could eat wonderful sweets and
desserts, but there were no such things to be found here! The
Lord spent some time in the primitive area, destroyed his
karmas and returned. Today, in the current era of this time cycle,
people do not have to go looking for penance like the Lord did;
penance will present itself to them in their own homes and yet
people go looking for it. You foolish people! Lord Mahavir had
to walk sixty miles in search of penance!
Today you are so fortunate that penance is to be found in
your own home, the minute you walk into your home, it is there;
as you eat, it is there. This is where you have to suffer penance.
The Lord had to go in search for penance; he had to walk sixty
miles to uncivilized areas. But don’t you find ‘primitiveness’
nowadays just sitting at home? You are getting the penance free
of charge so why don’t you suffer it quietly. How fortunate are
people of this day and age! This is what we call natural penance
(prapta tapa). Your neighbors, your business partners, your
brother, your wife, your children, etc., everyone will bring on the
penance. In the past time cycle, everything was very agreeable
and people did not have any suffering. Life at home was very
comfortable and no body had to go outside looking for
comforts. This current era of Kaliyug is such that people don’t
adjust anywhere. They do not adjust to situations. A person
finds family members who do not adjust, neighbors who do not
adjust etc., so you must learn to suffer all that and adjust
yourself.
Prapta tapa is penance that comes on its own. You have
to accept and suffer it without hurting the other person, the nimit.
Not only should you not hurt the other person, but also your