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[20] Awareness When Words are Flowing in Speech...
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Pratikraman
of him. The liability involved in making fun of someone is infinitely greater than directly slapping him. You misuse your intelligence when you make fun of another person. You take advantage of your higher intellect to overcome his lesser intellect and thus make fun of him.
people, because that is the same thing as making fun of God (within that person). It may be a donkey, but who is it in the real view? It is God.' Yes, ultimately it reaches the God within. Is God not present in every living being, in every creature? You cannot make fun of anyone. When you do that, the God within will know and say, 'Yes, come on; I will settle the score from this end!
(342) Questioner: Do I not have to do pratikraman as a solution to that?
So then God within the other person will say, 'Are you taking advantage of him because of his lack of intellect?' Here, therefore, you make even God turn against you. Had you slapped the person on his face, he would have understood immediately and he would have taken matters into his own hands, but when you make fun of him, because he has lesser intellect, he is not able to respond. So God within him knows, 'Ah ha! You are cornering him because he is not intelligent enough? Very well then, come on to the battleground.' Then the Lord will sort us out!
Questioner: This is all I have ever done in my life.
S:
Dadashri: But you can still do pratikraman, can't you? 'We' too have done the same thing, but it was wrong. That was the problem I had. Because the intellect before Gnan was being restricted, was without right direction; so what could one do? One will start bullying, won't he? So this is the advantage of having increased intellect (Dada being sarcastic), is it not? That is why the people who make fun of others have to suffer unnecessarily.
Dadashri: Of course, you have to do that. You have no choice.
Questioner: What if I confess and repent the wrongful mistake with You as the witness and do pratikraman and ask for forgiveness?
Dadashri: It will be acceptable even when you just say, *Dada! With You as the witness, I ask for forgiveness for whomever I have hurt with my speech,' and it will reach them.
Silence is Golden In this dushamkaal (current era of lack of unity in thoughts, speech and acts), karma is bound through speech. In sushamkaal (past era of time cycle where there was unity in thoughts, speech and acts), karma was bound through the mind. Moksha is natural and spontaneous, if it were not for the existence of these hurtful words. Therefore, you should not say a word about anyone. To say anything hurtful to anyone, to think negative of anyone, is tantamount to throwing dirt over one's own Self. Therefore, you have to do pratikraman so that you can be free. There is no problem with saying things as far as normal worldly interactions are concerned. But when you say anything negative about any living being, it all gets recorded (taped) within (both)! How long does it take to start 'recording a tape within these worldly people? Even the slightest of provocations will incite a hostile
If you laugh at someone because of the way he walks, God will say, 'Here! Take this fruit!' Do not make fun of any kind at the expense of anyone in this world. All these hospitals have arisen because of such fun-making (mashkari). These broken legs and other limbs are a fruit of making fun of others (in the past life). Mine too (Dadashri had sustained hip fracture) was the fruit of making fun of others.
That is why 'we' say, 'It is very wrong to make fun of
