Values inspired by Mother

 One day, when I was young, I came home after fighting with a boy; I made him bleed. When my mother found out, she told me, ‘Son, if you were to bleed like him, would I not have to dress your wounds? Would his mother not be dressing his wound right now? He must be crying a lot. Just imagine how much pain he must be in.  So from now on take a beating rather than give a beating.  If you get hurt, I will take care of you.’  Now tell me, would such a mother not make a Mahavir? My mother instilled the highest of moral values in me.

Mother instilled values of Non-Violence

When I was young, I asked my mother, ‘We have bedbugs.  Do they not bite you?’  She replied, ‘Son, of course they do. But do they come with containers demanding, ‘Give us some food’?  Those poor bedbugs eat their share and go away.’  I told myself, ‘Blessed is such a mother!’  I have even allowed bed bugs to suck my blood.  I welcomed them, ‘Now that you are here, have something to eat before you leave.’ Because this ‘hotel’ of mine (my mind, speech and body) is engaged in a business of absolute non-violence towards all living being’

Profound understanding even at a Young Age

When I was twelve, the kanthi (revered thread) my guru had tied on me broke.   My mother said, ‘We will get the Guru to tie another kanthi.’  I replied, ‘I don’t want to tie such a kanthi.’  Mother replied, ‘You have to have a kanthi otherwise people will call you naguro (without a guru).’  I replied, ‘What use do I have for a guru that utters a mantra in my ear, splashes cold water over me and ties a kanthi around my neck?’  At that time my understanding of a guru was someone who gives enlightenment. If a guru did not give me direct enlightenment and knowledge, what use is such a guru ?  Does one become a guru by merely tying a kanthi?

NO, I don't want such a path of Liberation

When I was thirteen, whenever I had free time from school, I would go do darshan of the saints and ascetics that lived in an ashram close by.  I used to massage their feet.  One of the ascetics blessed me saying, ‘Dear child, God will take you to moksha.’ I told him, ‘Sir. I do not find this statement acceptable.’  The sadhu told me, ‘You will come to understand eventually’.  But it occurred to me that if God were to take me to moksha, then in my state of moksha, if some of his relatives were to come, he would ask me to move and sit somewhere else.  I did not want moksha where there is dependency on someone or someone over me.  I wanted the liberation of the vitraag lords where there is no superior over me or no one subservient to me.  Therefore at the age of thirteen the spirit of liberation had awakened within me.  From that moment I had the understanding that I did not want any superior over me.

Found GOD while Learning concept of COMMON Factor

I was studying in a Gujarati school when a teacher told me to learn the concept of ‘lower than the lowest’.  I asked him, what you mean by that. How can you reach to that state?. The teacher said, from all the numbers that I have given you, find the common factor which can not be divided further.
During that time, at my young age, I used to consider people as numbers. I used to say, ‘these numbers (persons) are not very good’. It then occurred to me is this concept applicable with numbers, applies to people too? God within all these ‘numbers’ (every person) exists in a form that cannot be divided. Therefore I found God from this.

More interested in knowing GOD than learning English

At school they taught us the English language.   I told my teacher, ‘I have been learning for the last 15 years and I still have not completed matriculation.  I would have discovered God in those fifteen years. I lost fifteen years in vain!’ They teach us A-B-C-D without purpose.  What kind of madness is this?  Here one can spend half of one’s life learning a foreign language!