Non-Violence Non-Violence | Page 63

50 Non-Violence Dadashri: If you are non-violent and you are to reincarnate in the animal kingdom, you will be born a cow or a buffalo (vegetarian animal). If you are violent in this life you will be born as a tiger, a cat or any other carnivorous animal. Even if you are non-violent as a human, you can still take birth in a violent family where your upbringing will be fraught with violence. This all has to do with your karmic accounts. This is all related to your likes and dislikes, your attachment and abhorrence. When a person does raag (attachment) or dwesh (abhorrence) towards others, he becomes bound and as a result will be born in close proximity with people who do the same. Nothing Affects the Non-Violent One Questioner: What is the karmic connection when a dog bites you? Dadashri: Without a karmic connection, not even a single mustard seed will enter your mouth! Questioner: Does it mean that we have a karmic tie with that dog? Dadashri: No. You have not bound karma specifically with the dog that bites you. For that matter, even people ‘bite’ each other, do they not? One man told me that his wife was like a serpent because she kept biting him at night. What he really meant was that she had a sharp tongue and would say vicious things to him. The consequence of interacting with someone in such a way would be a ‘dog-bite’, or ‘bites’ from others. Everything in nature is ready to deliver the consequences of your own actions. Nature is prepared to deliver the effects of whatever karma you have bound. So if you want to be free from all the suffering in this world, you must not strike back at the people who hurt you. If you hurt someone even slightly, then in your next life, the effect of the karma you cause will not leave without taking revenge against you. The