Tendencies of past lives are tentacles that tightly grips one, postponing freedom. A short Jain story reveals the power of past influencing the present.

There was once a prince who was initiated by Lord Mahavira and who had left the comforts of his luxurious hearth and home to become a renunciate. Being a renunciate according to the Jain order was to live stark naked, sleep on bare floor with swarming mosquitoes, live among other sannyasins and other discomforts. The very first night of getting initiated, the prince could not succumb to the discomforts. He thought that this lifestyle was not for him and decided to quit next morning.

Mahavira, the all knowing approached the prince in the middle of the night. The surprised prince asked, “Why have you come?" Mahavira answered, “I have been watching you and you seem to be disturbed. I understand your difficulty. You are planning to leave next morning to return to your princely abode. You have been initiated formerly twice and you dropped out in between"