Page 182 - Courage Redifined

all limits of committing sins. Mother Earth has become heavy
because of a sinful person like me. You seem to be a good
natured gentleman. You helped the other woman. Now help
me also. Get me some poison so that I can consume it and
go to sleep.”

Seeing the scholar sitting silent without any facial expressions,
she said, “Why are you lost in thought ? Why don’t you speak
anything ? Do not ponder over my grave sins. Just do this
little act of compassion and fetch me some poison.”

The scholar gathered courage and said, “Mother! Why will I
cry over your sins ? I am a sinner myself. When you were a
prostitute, I had come to you as your customer. You were not
very educated, but I had deeply studied all the Vedas. In spite
of that, I succumbed to a prostitute and committed such on
unforgivable sin. If an uneducated person commits sins, he is
worth sympathizing with, but if an educated person like me
commits such an error, he is just worth condoning.”

The scholar continued, “I was small when you left me.
Hence, I could not recognize you as my mother which led
to this dreadful state of events. You are my mother and I am
your son. Both of us are badly contaminated with sins. But
mother! Dying by consuming poison does not kill the sin.
If you want to kill them, then you should do prayashchitta
:“Come on! Let’s go to the upashraya nearby where sadhus
are present. Let’s narrate our sins to them and ask them to
give us prayashchitta. This is the real solution. Get up, do
not lose hope.”

Kamlata approached the learned Acharya bhagwants :

Kamlata got consolation. Both of them went to a Jain Acharya
residing nearby. They both bowed down to him and asked,
“Do your scriptures show any prayaschitta for a mother and

172 Courage Redefined