Aptavani:
Volume One
The Gnani
Purush unfolds the mysteries and secrets of Akram Vignan
Dharma – Religion; One’s
Duty
‘What is dharma?’
It is anything that remains
in and results in, reverts to, its own intrinsic properties.
Dharma means one’s intrinsic
nature and properties.
For example, when can you
call gold as gold? It is only when it
exhibits the properties that are intrinsic to gold. Another example is if these
grapes are bitter, then you could say that it does not exhibit its intrinsic
property and nature. Brass can look and shine just like gold if it is polished
enough. But if a goldsmith were to test it, he would be able to tell that it is
not gold from the intrinsic properties of that metal.
There are two mangoes in
front of you. One mango has an aroma,
given time it will become a little dry, the skin will shrivel and will
eventually begin to rot. The other one
looks exactly like a mango, only it is made out of wood. It does not have the aroma; it will not
shrivel or rot. They are both mangoes, but one does not have the qualities of a
real mango. The real mango will exhibit
its natural properties. It can only be called a mango if it has and remains
within its natural attributes.
Similarly you can say that a
thing is in its innate nature, dharma, if it exhibits its innate nature. The belief,
‘I am the body’, or to believe the body, the non-Self, to be your real
identity is dharma of another (par-dharma).
To believe the Self as the Self is one’s own dharma, nature
(swa-dharma). That is atma-dharma,
dharma of the Self.
Dadashri: Who Are You?
Questioner: I am Chandulal.
Dadashri: What is your name?
Questioner: My name is Chandulal.
Dadashri: Do you see a contradiction in ‘I am Chandulal’ and
‘my name is Chandulal’? How can the name and the entity it belongs to, be one
and the same? When a person dies, his
name is taken away from him during his funeral rites, is it not? It is even removed from the census records.
Who does this hand belong
to? Who does this leg belong to?
Questioner: They are mine.
Dadashri: They are all parts of this body. What is yours in
all that? Who does the mind within you belong to?
Questioner: It is mine.
Dadashri: What about the speech?
Questioner: It is mine.
Dadashri: Whose body is this?
Questioner: That is mine too.
Dadashri: When you say that, ‘it is mine’, do you get the
thought that the owner of these body parts is separate from the body?
Questioner: Yes I do.
Dadashri: Then have you ever wondered who you really are?
Questioner: No.
Dadashri: Before you purchased this watch or even the clothes you are
wearing, you checked to see if they were of good quality. Even when you were looking for a wife, you
looked very closely to see what she was like before you married her, did you
not?
Questioner: Yes Dada.
Dadashri: So then have you ever inquired about your own Self?
t Have you thought about what is temporary and what is permanent? “All these
are temporary adjustments.” When You, the real Self, which is permanent mix it
up with temporary things, how can you find the answer? If your equation is
wrong to begin with, how will you find the correct answer?
Would you call this a
trivial or a major blunder on your part that you have not realized your real
Self?
Questioner: It is a huge mistake. It is a blunder Dada!
Dadashri: Who do you think created
this world?
Questioner: ………
Dadashri: Say whatever is in your
imagination. We are not here to pass or fail anyone.
Questioner: God may have created it.
Dadashri: Why did God to create this
world? Did he have any unmarried
children he needed to marry? Where does God live? What is his address? Is there
such a thing as liberation, moksha?
Questioner: Of course there is liberation.
Dadashri: If God is the creator this
world and if there is such a thing as liberation, then there is an absolute
contradiction here.
Questioner: Dada, how is this a contradiction?
Dadashri: If God is your superior and
he was to grant you liberation, then you would have to do whatever he tells
you. That means that he can dictate what you do. So how can you call that
liberation? Liberation means complete freedom.
There is no superior over you and no subordinate under you.
The World Is The Puzzle
Itself…
The Christians, the Muslims,
the Hindus, say that God created this world.
They are correct by their viewpoints, but according to facts, they are
incorrect. If you want to know the
facts, I can give them to you.
Real knowledge (Gnan) accepts
and incorporates the entire 360° of viewpoints. I too accept
the 360° and that is why I am a
Gnani. Those who accept all points of
views are considered Gnanis (the Enlightened ones, Self-realized beings). I am
sitting in the center and that is why I am able to show you the facts. By fact
God is not at all the creator of this world. This world has not been created by
anyone. So how did it come into existence?
“The world is the puzzle itself.” We call it a puzzle because it has
become puzzlesome. The world has formed itself. I have seen this in my Gnan
(absolute knowledge, absolute vision and absolute experience). There is not a single atom in this world
that I have not traversed through. I am telling you this by living in this
world as well as living outside it.
The one who can solve this
puzzle is granted the degree of the supreme Soul (parmatma). And those who
cannot solve this puzzle have become dissolved within this puzzle. I have solved this puzzle and acquired the
status of the Supreme Soul. I see both
the animate (chetan – soul) and the inanimate (achetan – matter) as
separate. Those who cannot see the two
separate are dissolved within the puzzle.
God is not the creator, never was, and will never be. What does it
mean to be a creator? Creator means a
potter. It means that he has to labor.
Is God a laborer? When even the
wealthy mill owners of Ahemedabad do not toil and yet enjoy the benefits of
their factories in operation, then how can God be toiling as a laborer? To toil is to be a laborer. God is not like that. And if God were the creator, then everyone
would look the same. Just like the
impressions from a mould. But it is not
so. Furthermore if we say that God is impartial, then why does one person sleep
on the pavement from the day he is born and another in a palace?
I can give you the answer in
just one sentence as to how everything works in this world. You can find the
details yourself. This world is run solely by scientific circumstantial
evidences. There is no one up there who
has the time to run all this. I refer
to these scientific circumstantial evidences as vyavasthit shakti. It keeps
everything and everyone organized. Do you wake up in the morning or are you
awakened?
Questioner: I am the one who wakes up.
Dadashri: Are you sometimes unable to
fall asleep even when you want to? And
when you have to get up at four o’clock in the morning, why do you set the
alarm? If you decide, before you go to sleep, that you want to wake up at four
in the morning, then you should be able to wake up at that time. Does that
happen?
One is not the doer and yet
claims to be one. How can you call this a principle? It is a contradiction. So
who wakes you up in the morning? It is a force called vyavasthit shakti that
wakes you up. This same force keeps the sun, the moon, the stars and the entire
universe in regulation. It is the same
force that clears away the pollution caused by these industrial mills in
Ahemdabad, otherwise all the people of Ahmedabad would have been suffocated to
death a long time ago. When it rains, who goes up there to make water for the
rain? It is a natural adjustment, when two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of
oxygen come together, along with some other evidences like air, etc that water is
formed and the rain falls. A scientist would claim to be the creator of water
but if you ask him whether he can do so with only one atom of hydrogen and one
atom of oxygen, he will tell you that it is not possible. People are foolish to think that they are
the doers, when in reality they are just one of the many evidences in a
process. How can anyone be the maker? There is no maker in this world; everyone
is simply an instrument (nimit) in the process. Even God is not the maker or
creator. If one becomes the doer of an act then he also becomes the sufferer of
that action. God is simply the knower and perceiver and in eternal bliss. He is
always immersed in his own infinite bliss- the bliss of the Self.
Where does God live? What is
his address? What if you want to write to him some day, where would you address
your letter?
Questioner: That I do not know all that
but people say that he lives up there, above us.
Dadashri: So do you believe what
others tell you? Should you not question this yourself? I will tell you the
correct address of God. God is in every creature, whether visible or invisible.
There are infinite life forms between you and me, which are not visible even
through a microscope, and God resides in them too. God resides as life energy
in all living beings. This God is fully manifest within me. He is the effulgent light fully manifest
within me. He is the fully manifest
supreme Soul within. There is
tremendous light within. The person you see before you is Ambalal Muljibhai Patel
of Bhadran, who is a contractor by profession and the One who has manifest
within A. M. Patel is ‘Dada Bhagwan’. This is a tremendous and phenomenal
wonder. But how are you to understand this? This body is the outer packing and
the One within is God. Similarly your packing belongs to Chandulal and within
resides God. The outer packing of that animal is a donkey and God resides
within. People are foolish when they curse a donkey if it crosses their path.
They do not realize that the God within takes note of their condemnation, and
consequently they will have to endure one birth as a donkey themselves. The outer packing can be anything. It can be that of a mango tree or anything
else. What do the merchants and
shopkeepers pay importance to, the outer package or the goods within?
Questioner: The goods within.
Dadashri: Yes, of what use is the
packing anyway? We are only concerned with the contents are we not? Some packing may be rotten or torn but the
content within is pure, is it not?
From the time this Gnan, the
Lord, manifest within me, I have not identified myself with this body of
Ambalal Muljibhai even for a moment. I
look upon him as my first neighbor.
When I was thirteen years
old, it occurred to me that there should be no one in a position of authority
over me. I did not want even God to be
my boss. The notion of anyone above me
was intolerable to me. This was the spiritual development I had brought with
me. My spiritual endeavors of countless
past lives finally have come to fruition in this lifetime. If God were in a
position of power over us and if he were to grant us liberation, then we would
be obliged to obey his commands. If I
was sitting down and he asked me to get up, I would have to follow his command.
That would be inacceptable. How can one call that liberation? Liberation means
complete freedom, no feeling of a superior over us, or no feeling of a
subordinate under us either.
You can experience the bliss
of liberation here while living. No worries or external problems will affect
you. Liberation is when your internal
peace is not disturbed even when you receive a letter of audit from the income
tax office. The final liberation will
come later on, but first you must experience liberation here and now.
I got married at the age of
sixteen. During the wedding ceremony, the turban on my head slipped slightly to
one side. At that time it occurred to me that it was inevitable that one of us
would become widowed.
Life after life man learns
the same thing over and over again and yet ignorance veils it again. One need
not learn ignorance; ignorance comes naturally. It is Gnan (real knowledge) that one has to learn. The veil of
ignorance was relatively less and that is why even at the young age of thirteen
I became aware. In my maths class, the teacher had asked the students to find
the smallest indivisible number, which is common to all other numbers (LCM =
lowest common multiple). From this search, I immediately discovered God. We are
all ‘numbers’ and God is within each one of us, in an indivisible form.
The speech that emanates
from me shatters the veils of ignorance covering you and the enlightenment from
within helps you understand what I am saying. Otherwise you do not have the
capability to understand even a word I utter.
Your intellect will not work here. Many of these people are recognised
as intellectuals, but this is out of wrong beleif. I am without intellect. I do
not have any intellect. What is intellect? What is Gnan? The knowledge of all
the subjects of the world falls in the domain of the intellect and the
knowledge of ‘Who am I?’ is Gnan. Intellect is knowledge through the medium of
the ego and Gnan is knowledge without the ego. Knowledge of the Self is real
knowledge.
How can one remove conflicts
and difference of opinion? How should
one live life? Even when one has all the wealth and comforts, one still has
conflicts, which create endless miseries.
A circle has 360
degrees. Christians, Parsis, Muslims,
Hindus etc., all have different viewpoints.
One is sitting at 80 degrees, one at 120 degrees, and one at 220
degrees. Everyone sees through his or
her own perspective and viewpoint. I am sitting in the center, having completed
360 degrees, as a fully enlightened being. A Gnani Purush, sitting in the
center, can see and know things exactly as they are and can impart that
knowledge to others exactly as it is. All religions are correct but they are
relative religions. They are religions of viewpoints. But if one wants to know
the facts, then he will have to come to the center. Only in the center one
finds the real religion (religion of the Soul). It is only the one in the
center that can see all points of view and therefore is without any prejudice
or bias towards any one religion. That is why I say that I am Lord Mahavir of
the Jains, Lord Krishna of the Vaishnavas, Sahajanand of the Swaminarayans,
Christ of the Christians, Zarthustra of the Parsis and Khuda of the Muslims. So
anyone may come here and receive whatever he wants. I am the God of all
religions. So get your work done here. I can bestow upon you the status of God
within an hour but you have to be ready for it. However, you will not be able to digest all the Gnan that I give
you, for even I am stuck at 356 degrees. This is because of the current time
cycle. But I do bestow upon you the absolute Knowledge (Kevalgnan; 360
degrees).
A potato baking in a
charcoal pit bakes from all sides. Similarly the whole world is being roasted
from all sides. I see in my Gnan that the entire humanity is suffering like
like being in a blazing fire from all sides. My only concern is on how people
can be liberated from all this suffering. That is the very purpose for my life. Half the world will achieve salvation
through Me and the other half through My followers. However, I am not the doer at all. I am merely an instrument in
all this.
The Germans are in search of
Absolutism. They have researched volumes and volumes of our scriptures for
this. But it is not that easy. Today I am manifest as the Absolute. The whole
world is immersed in the theory of relativity.
All of my mahatmas (those who have acquired Gnan of Self-Realization
from The Gnani Purush) are in the theory of reality and I am in the theory of
Absolutism. Therefore when I go to Germany I will tell them that I have come
there personally and that they should take whatever they want from me.
This is the cash bank in the
world. I will give you cash in just one hour.
I will place you in the real state. Everywhere else they give you a loan
and you will have to make payments.
Regrettably that is what you have done for countless lives and yet there
is no end in sight. You have not received cash in any of your past lives.
There are two paths of
liberation: One is the common and the
main path, called the Kramik path, which is a step-by-step path where there is
a gradual spiritual evolution. In this path, if you are fortunate enough and
find the company of spiritual people, you may climb up to five hundred steps.
On the other hand in another life if you land amidst the company of
non-spiritual people you may go down five thousand steps. It is a very arduous
and grueling path. One has to do a lot of incantation of God’s name, penance
and renunciation in order to progress and even then there is no telling when
one will achieve liberation. The other path is the Akram path, where one is not
required to climb any steps. It is a lift (an elevator) path where you can
continue with all your daily mundane activities, fulfill all your worldly
responsibilities towards your wife and children, and still attain liberation.
Nothing will hinder your progress towards liberation. This is an exceptional
path and one, which comes around once every million years.
Emperor Bharat was the only
one who was given such Gnan. Of his
hundred sons, Lord Rushabhadev bestowed this Gnan to Emperor Bharat only.
Ninety-eight of his sons were initiated into monk hood leaving behind their
kingdom to Bahubaliji and Bharat.
Shortly afterwards Bahubaliji also renounced everything and left the
kingdom. Consequently the responsibility of the whole empire fell on King
Bharat. King Bharat had thirteen hundred queens. Don’t men get tired of even
one wife today? King Bharat had grown tired of the varying temperaments of his
queens, fighting wars and the worries of ruling an empire. So he asked Lord Rushabhadev if he could
relinquish the kingdom to someone else and be initiated into monk hood. He too
wanted liberation. Lord Rushabdev told
King Bharat that he was the instrument for ruling the kingdom and if he were to
forego his duties, there would be utter chaos. Lord Rushabdev told King Bharat
that he would bestow upon him such a Gnan that none of his queens; his kingdom
or the wars would hinder his progress towards liberation. This Akram Gnan is
the very same Gnan, which I give you now, in just one hour. King Bharat however, had kept servants who
would warn him every fifteen minutes to maintain awareness of the Gnan by
saying, ‘Bharat beware, beware, beware! But in this Kaliyug (current fifth era
of the six part half time cycle), where one is barely able to make ends meet,
how can he employ someone to do the same for him? That is why I place such
awareness within you that it will warn you every moment of the day.
Such an awe-inspiring Gnan
has never been seen or heard of in any era before. It is the eleventh wonder of
the current time cycle.
Commonsense
What is commonsense and how
do you define it?
Commonsense means that sense
which becomes applicable, whenever needed, theoretically as well as
practically.
Commonsense is very
important. It means that sense which
becomes applicable whenever it is needed. I have one hundred percent commonsense. You do not have even one percent
commonsense. When an entagled bunch of thread comes to you, to disentangle it,
without breaking a single strand is commonsense. Common sense means that sense
which can resolve a problem without causing any harm or damage to anyone.
People on the other hand, in their attempt to solve one problem, create five
more. How can they claim to have commonsense?
The greatest of scholars have education but lack commonsense. The Gnani is
without intellect (buddhi). I have no intellect whatsoever. Actually my
intellect is fully developed but in the presence of the light of my Gnan, it is
rendered powerless and stays in one corner. As one attains the state of no
intellect (abuddha), the state of omniscience happens. I am without intellect and I am omniscient.
Is your relationship with
your father, mother and wife real?
Questioner: Of course it is real.
Dadashri: Then as a rule, should your
father die; you should die along with him. Now how many people would do that?
There exists a relation between father-mother, brother-sister, wife-children,
but it is not real. It is only a relative relationship. If it were real, it
could never be destroyed. If a son were to tell his father, ‘you are an idiot’,
the relationship would end. His father
would disown him and tell him that he does not want to see his face for as long
as he lives. You even believe your wife to be yours, but what if she divorces
you some day? This is what the world is like.
All these are temporary adjustments. Even your own body is not yours; it too
will let you down some day. If you decide to sit in meditation (samayik), your
head may start aching or you may have a stomachache and you will not be able to
meditate. You are permanent and everything else is temporary so how can there
be a resolution between the two? That is why the world is trapped in such a
state of confusion. As far as relatives are concerned, you should act according
to your relationship with them. You should not be rigid or adamant about rights
and wrongs if you are to sustain that relationship. Inflexibility will destroy
the relationship. When the other person is trying to destroy the relationship,
you should mend it if you want to maintain that relationship. These are all temporary relations. For
example if your wife says, ‘ today is a full moon night and you say, ‘no, it is
a moonless night’ then the bickering will start and will last all night. In the
morning she will be sulking and you will know that the argument is not over
when she deliberately bangs the cup of tea while serving you. Instead it is
better if you understand the situation when she becomes adamant. Gently turn
the argument around, consult a horoscope and pretend to agree with her. If you do not do that, the argument will get
out of control and then if you were to give in suddenly, she will fall harder
and you will have to bear the consequences.
Instead it is better to be aware from the start and to let go gently.
Everyone is in search of
happiness but one has not decided what happiness is. ‘Happiness should be such
that it is never followed by any misery.’ Go find one instance of such
happiness in this world. Eternal happiness, bliss is within you. Your real Self
is an abode of bliss and yet people are looking for happiness in temporary
things. What is this search for worldly happiness like? Let me give you an analogy. A very tall man
is sleeping on the terrace on a cold winter night and he has a tiny blanket. If
he covers his feet, his head gets cold and if he covers his head, his feet get
cold. He spends the entire night tossing and turning. This is what the pursuit
of worldly happiness is like. In reality there is no such thing as misery in
this world. It is merely a figment of the imagination. If you project and
imagine that ice cream tastes terrible, you will not enjoy it and if you
project and say that it tastes very good, you will enjoy it. Therefore it is
not real. True happiness should be the same for all. Everyone would accept it.
Truth must be universal. What you believe giving you happiness, may be
tremendously miserable for others, and that is what this world is like.
Destiny Versus
Effort
People talk about fate and
destiny versus independent self-effort. They keep talking about the same thing
over and over again and yet make no progress. Some rely on destiny alone
whereas others rely on self-effort alone.
But both these supports are shaky and weak. What do all the factory workers, who toil in their effort from
morning to night, get for their efforts?
Do they get anything more than a meal on their table? And what would
happen if the fatalists were to sit idle?
When one makes a lot of
money he takes credit for it and claims that it was through his effort and hard
work. And when he incura a loss he will say ‘what can I do?’ and blames his
horoscope or luck or the God above. The
fool! He takes credit for good things
and claims to be helpless when things go wrong. He may even blame God for his
failure saying, ‘it is the will of the Lord’. In fact his horoscope or the
stars do not hinder him in any way. What hinders him are his own internal
negative ‘stars’ – his obstinacy, excessive obstinacy, insistence on being
right, insistence on relative truth etc. I am without obstinacy. Where there is
obstinacy there is conflict and when I am not obstinate about anything how can
there be any conflict? When everything runs systematically, success is the end
result but when there is a break in the systematic process people blame God. The effort to convert that, which is
disorderly, into orderly, is defined by the world as independent effort
(purusharth). If one were truly capable of doing purusharth, he would never
incur a loss. Real purusharth has no failures. Here is the contradiction: How
can you do purusharth, when you have not become a Purush (Self-realized)? True
purusharth is the one that is done through the extraordinary effort of the Self
(after Self realization). People are foolish to believe that they are the doer
when it is their prakruti (the formed complex of thoughts, speech and acts
which is a result of past life karma) that makes them do things.
Lord Krishna has said,
‘Odhavji, what can the weak attain?’ Even the most renowned Jain spiritual
master, Ananddhanji Maharaj, admits his weaknesses. One can only be called a
Purush when he has conquered his anger, pride, illusionary attachment and
greed. But here the weaknesses of anger, pride, illusion and greed have
conquered him. He is weak.
I have become a Purush. I am
with my independent effort and its extraordinary energy. Astrology and
purusharth are contradictory. Astrology has some scientific foundation.
However, what people believe to be purusharth is an illusion. People foolishly
go running to an astrologer when they suffer a loss. Why not do your
purusharth? This false purusharth is what sows the seeds of karma for your next
life.
The Alembic chemical factory
here employs so many workers. It takes all these workers to manufacture just a
few chemicals. The human body is made up of hundreds of such chemical factories
and yet it runs on its own. When you go to sleep after a meal, do you ever go
to check how much and how many digestive juices and enzymes are released for
digestion? How attentive are you in these matters? By the morning when you wake
up, the body has already assimilated the food you ate. All the nutrients are
absorbed in the blood; the waste products are transported for excretion and
everything is transported in its right place. Did you have to do anything in
running this process? So don’t you think that just as the inner mechanism works
naturally, the outer mechanism will too?
Why do you believe that you are the doer? Everything will continue to
run on it’s own. During sleep, the body is in its natural state. You are the unnatural one. In the daytime,
you claim that you are breathing. You say that you breathe shallow or breathe
deep. Who does the breathing when you are in deep sleep? Respiration that takes place at night is
natural. That helps the digestion.
Every human being is nothing
but a top (a toy that spins). I am a Gnani but this body of mine is a top.
These tops function because of respiration. The process of breathing is like
winding the string around the top, and as the breathing continues, the top
begins to spin. It may even lean on one side as it spins and it may seem like
it will topple, but then it comes back up again and continues to spin. That is
how life is.
Every leaf and branch of a
Neem tree is bitter. It is bitter
through and through. What effort (purusharth) does the tree have to make for
that? Everything that is manifest in the tree has come arisen from its seed.
Similarly human beings act according to their innate nature (prakruti) but
merely claim, ‘I am the doer’ and thus exercise their ego. What exactly does
one do in all this?
What people refer to
purusharth in this world, is really a language of illusion. Things happen
because your past karmas come into effect, and to claim, ‘I did it’ is egoism.
The real purusharth, the true purusharth begins only after one becomes the
Purush (Self realized). It is only then that your belief of ‘I am the doer’ is
destroyed. It is the state of absolute ‘non-doer ship’. All that is relative is
prakruti and the Purush (the Self) is real. What then is real purusharth? Real
purusharth is when You (the Self) remain the knower (gnata) and the seer
(drashta) when someone is cutting your hand. Knowing (gnankriya) and seeing
(darshankriya) are the only activities of the Self. The soul does not have any other
activity. True purusharth is when the Self remains in the state of the knower
and the seer.
Saint Kabir’s wife was
expecting a baby. The mother’s milk was
ready even before the baby was born. The milk began to flow after the birth of
the baby. On seeing this Kabir sang:
‘Destiny is formed first,
then forms the body
Kabir, it is a wonder, that the mind does not accept.’
You cannot just sit around
claiming that everything is predestined (prarabdha). If you do, then you become
completely idle. The mind will become restless with such dependency. If this
dependency on destiny is correct, you should not have any worries, but in fact
you are the factory of worries. Therefore even that dependency is on shaky
grounds. It is not real. It is not
scientific. People in India are
miserable and suffer because they have been given the support of such
dependency. That is why their progress is obstructed. My search, over a million
life times, has brought me to expose the fact that both destiny and independent
effort are false and therefore unsteady supports. The only real support is
‘vyavasthit’, and it is factual and scientific.
What is vyavasthit? It is
all that happens through scientific circumstantial evidences. The knowledge of
vyavasthit renders total satisfaction and closure in every situation. I will
give you a simple example. If this glass in your hand begins to slip out of
your hand and you make every effort to save it and it still breaks. Who broke
the glass? You had no intention of breaking it; on the contrary, you made all
efforts to save it. Then, did the glass wish to break? No, that cannot be so.
No one else was present to break it either, so who did it? Vyavasthit did it.
Vyavasthit works under exact principles of natural laws. It is not haphazard.
If the glass were not to break according to the principles of vyavasthit, then
how would these glass factories remain in business? Vyavasthit has to look at your interest and also the interest of
the glass factory and the livelihood of thousands of its workers. Therefore the
glass will break according to this law and no one will be able to prevent it
from breaking. So many foolish people get agitated and restless when things
break. If a servant is serving tea to some guests and breaks a cup, his master
becomes furious within. All he can
think of is how he will slap the servant a few times as soon as the guest
leaves. And some people even do this.
But if he knows and understands that the servant did not break the cup and that
it was vyavasthit, then would he do anything? Would he not remain absolutely
unaffected? In reality the poor servant is merely a nimit, instrument, and yet
these wealthy people assault their servants.
You should never attack a nimit; if you do, you are extremely foolish
because you do great harm to yourself.
Instead why not find the root cause behind it and then you will find
your solution.
When I was young, I used to
play a lot of pranks on people. There was a wealthy businessman who always used
to play with his puppy in his lap. I used to sneak in from behind and squeeze
the puppy’s tail. The dog could only
see his own master in front of him and so he would quickly bite his owner. The owner would yell back at the dog. This is what I call attacking the
instrument.
Are you convinced that there
is a soul in your body?
Questioner: Yes I am.
Dadashri: In what form is this soul? Is it in the form of a mixture or in
the form of a compound?
Questioner: A compound.
Dadashri: If it were in a compound
form, it would give rise to a third substance with completely new properties.
Then the soul and the non-self would lose their innate properties and neither
could be reverted back to their intrinsic properties and be separated. Let me explain this fact to you. The soul and the non-self are in a mixture
form, with each maintaining its own intrinsic properties and that is why it is
possible to separate the two. If copper, brass and silver were mixed with gold
a scientist would be able to separate each metal based on its properties. He
could easily do so. Similarly a Gnani who is omniscient with infinite powers,
knows the properties of the Soul and the non-self completely. He can analyze
and separate the two. I am the greatest
scientist of this world. I analyze every atom of the non-self, separate it from
the Self, and give you your pure Soul in your hand, within an hour. The soul
referred to in the Gnani’s enlightened speech is the real Soul. Everywhere else
when they say, ‘atma, atma’ are in fact taling about the mixed-form soul. It is
not pure. They are merely words.
The religions practiced
everywhere are those of the non-self; they are not the religion of the pure
Soul. How can you adopt the religion of the Soul (atmadharma), when you do not
even know of any properties of the Soul?
You cannot practice real religion until a Gnani Purush brings you out of
the theory of relativity into reality. Our mahatmas (those who are Self realized)
can see and do darshan of the God within you because I have given them divine
eyes (divyachakshu). What you currently have is physical eyes (charmachakshu)
through which you can only see the temporary and transient things. The eternal
God can only be seen through divine eyes.
During the war of
Mahabharat, Lord Krishna blessed Arjun with divine eyes. This vision lasted
five minutes, so that he could to get rid of his despondency towards worldly
life and his duties. Lord Krishna then
took them back. Whereas I give you the divine eyes permanently, so that where
ever you look, you will see God. You will see God in me, in him, in the trees
around you and even in the animals. You
will see God in every living thing. After that can there be any problems?
Three hundred years ago,
Ananddhaanji Maharaj, the renowned Jain master said that divine eyes are
definitely not available in this era. This is why everyone has stopped making
any effort, because they feel that all doors are closed. This phenomenal Gnan
of Akram Vignan has manifest naturally and that is why it is easy to acquire
the divine eyes within just one hour!
The Lord has said that it is
extremely difficult to find liberation, but if one were to meet a Gnani Purush
then it becomes easier than making a bowl of rice.
These words of mine will be
accepted by your soul because I reside within you, provided you are not
inflexible. I do not see any difference
between you and me. People say,‘have faith, have
faith’, but what is one to do when one simply cannot have any faith? People attend so many lectures on religion
and spirituality but they never leave with any lasting impression. The minute
they walk out, all is forgotten. Here, with me you do not have to keep faith.
If there is a soul within you and provided you are not inflexible, you are
bound to attain faith. This speech is
the direct enlightened speech of a Gnani. It cuts through all your veils of
ignorance and reaches your soul directly and that is why your soul has to
accept it. You will understand my words without fail.
There is a difference
between talks of faith and talk that brings understanding. A person would only
believe the latter.
I met a French
microbiologist on my way from Aurangabad. He told me that in his part of the
world they do not believe in reincarnation as Indians do. He asked me to
explain reincarnation. He even told me that he was prepared to stay in India
with me for ten years if he had to. I told him that I did not have that much
time, he then suggested staying with me for six months. I told him I had a lot of work to do and
that I really did not have any time. I
am an instrument for the salvation of this whole world. I told him, however,
that by the time we land at Santa Cruz Airport in one hour, he would become a
believer of reincarnation. I explained reincarnation to him and he understood
everything. By the time we landed he kept saying ‘Jai Sat Chit Anand, Jai Sat
Chit Anand’. He even forgot about his wife. He took some photographs of me and
went his way.
The mind, body and speech
are effective. They are effective at birth.
They are even effective in the womb. How are they effective? If someone
were to insult you in the morning, then even in the late hours of the night you
will not be able to sleep because of the effect on you. The effect of speech is obvious. Say if you
were to curse someone, the other person would react immediately. And lastly,
this body too is effective. It feels cold when it gets cold and hot when it
gets hot. It is effective from birth. A new born baby will start crying if it
is cold and when you wrap it up in a blanket, it will stop crying. If you put something sweet in its mouth, the
baby will start licking its lips and will grimace if you put something bitter
in its mouth. These are all simply effects.
Even in the womb the baby shows the effects.
I have personally witnessed
this. This happened about fifty years ago (in the nineteen twenties) in my
village of Bhadaran. A cow attacked a
lady who was eight-months pregnant piercing her uterus with its horn. One of
the fingers of the baby came out through the wound. It became a challenge for
even the missionary doctors and the mother’s condition was getting serious. An
eighty-year-old lady heard about this. She came and asked everyone to step
aside, sit and pray and give her room. She heated a needle tip and touched the
baby’s finger with it; the baby immediately pulled in the finger. The baby felt
the effect.
If there is an effect, there
has to be a cause. And if there is a cause, there will be an effect. This way
the cycle of cause and effect, effect and cause continues.
There cannot be an effect without a cause and where there is an
effect there has to be a prior cause. Our present body is the effect of the
causes of our past life. At birth one is born with both the gross body and the
subtle body. But then the ‘effects’ of this body produces new causes through
attachment (raag) and abhorrence (dwesh) and these are the seeds for its next
life. Upon death, the Soul (Atma) along with causal body and subtle body
departs leaving behind the physical body. At that same moment the causal body
finds another effective body.
If there were no such thing
as rebirth and if God had created every one, then we would all be identical, of
the same mould. We would not have short and tall, thin and fat, black and
white, rich and poor beings. The differences you see are results of different
effects of the causes from past life. Everyone has different causes and hence
different effects. If there is no rebirth, then show me even single evidence
that proves it. What do English-speaking people mean when they say lucky and
unlucky? Even the Muslims use words like taqdeer (good luck) and tadbir (bad luck). What does it signify? Their
language is complete but their beliefs are not. These words are meaningful only
in regards to rebirth.
As are the causes, so are
the effects. Good causes produce good effects and bad causes produce bad
effects. One cannot be free from these effects until the causes stop. Causes
will not stop as long as you believe and know that ‘I am Chandubhai’. They will
only stop when a Gnani awakens you and makes you realize your true Self. I
destroy your causal body leaving you to take care of ‘Chandulal’s’ effects and
while doing this, there will be no attachment or abhorrence and therefore no
new seeds will be sown. Yes, you will have to experience the effects. Effects
cannot be changed by anyone. This is scientific. Any of the scientists will have
to accept what I am saying.
This extra ordinary Gnan has
manifest in this Kaliyug. I am the Akram Gnani of this strange era and that is
why I have to personally declare and reveal the value of this precious Gnan.
(Aadhi= mental
suffering Vyadhi= physical
suffering Upadhi= affliction from
external source)
The world is suffering from
three afflictions: These are mental, physical and externally induced. Examples
of physical suffering, are stomachache, eye pain, hunger etc. Examples of
mental suffering are worries, doubts and fear. If someone throws a stone at us,
while we are sitting here, it is externally induced. When someone summons us,
it is externally induced suffering.
Whether one is a saint or a
monk, a king or a beggar, the whole world suffers from the fire of these three
afflictions. Those who have received Gnan from me will constantly experience
samadhi (one-ness with pure Self, undisturbed by any non-Self reactions) in
every situation, regardless of the type of affliction. This is because they are
knower and seer of these situations.
Let me give you an example.
If you enter someone’s home without his permission, would you not be uneasy and
nervous? You would. You would be afraid
that someone would get upset with you and throw you out. But if you are in your
own home, would you have any worries or tension? You would feel very
comfortable and at peace in your own home. Similarly ‘Chandulal’ is not your
home. You are the knower and seer but instead with the wrong belief ‘I am
Chandulal’ you have become what you are not. You have become the owner of
something that is not yours and have been deriving pleasure and pain from it.
That is why you are constantly experiencing worries, affliction and agitation.
You continue to struggle hopelessly like a fish out of water. These wealthy
people have all the material comforts but have sleepless nights due to worries.
The World And
The Self
Dadashri: Is this world real or is it
an illusion?
Questioner: An illusion.
Dadashri: No, it is not so. I will explain what an illusion
is. It is an illusion when you pull your pants up believing you are standing in
water but nothing gets wet. It is an illusion if you touch what looks like fire
but it does not burn you. People say that the Self (Atma) is real and the world
is an illusion. If that is the case, then put your hand in a fire and find out
whether it is an illusion or not.
One can tell whether it is
an illusion by or not by looking at the effects. For example, if you slam a
brick on a wall, you will not see any effect on the brick or the wall if the
world were an illusion. But it is not an illusion because you will see a red
mark on the wall and the brick will be broken also. Another example is if
someone tells you, ‘ you have no sense’ and it has no effect on you, then it
would prove that the world is an illusion. But instead what happens is that the
effect of such a statement will be there even when you wake up in the middle of
the night and remember what was said to you. This proves that the world is not
an illusion.
I am saying that the world
and the Soul (the Self) are both true. The world
is a relative truth and the Self is the real truth. My words are eternal truth. There is no telling when the relative
truth of this world would become untrue. All these relatives are temporary
adjustments and the Self is the real truth, it is eternal, it is permanent.
Three things possess every
human being: mind, body and speech; and that is why one claims, ‘I am
Chandulal, I am a collector, I am her husband, I am his father.’ Are you going
to be a collector forever? No, he will reply, ‘I will retire one day.’ This is
another form of possession. If a drunk, lying in the street claims to be a
king, would we not know that it is the intoxication of the alcohol saying so
and not him. Similarly the possessive influence of the mind, body and speech
makes people say ‘I am Chandubhai, I am a conductor, I am a father…’
I will tell you a true
story. There was a lady by the name of Kashi who was a gossipmonger. She would
gossiping with some of the women when
suddenly she began to shake her head incessantly and roll her eyes round and round.
This scared all the women. One of the women felt that she was possessed and
asked her husband to fetch an exorcist. When the exorcist came, he took one
look at Kashi and immediately confirmed that she was possessed. The exorcist
started to whip Kashi and she began to scream.
The exorcist asked her who she was and why she had come? Kashi replied
in English, “I am Chanchal, and this Kashi has seduced my husband with her
looks.” The exorcist knew for a fact that Kashi did not know even one letter of
the English alphabet and upon further investigation they were able to confirm
that Chanchal spoke fluent English. The
exorcist continued with the exorcism and through coaxing and convincing,
managed to release Kashi from being possessed by Chanchal’s ghost.
This is how ghosts are. Chanchal has left but Kashi remains to
suffer the pain of the scars left behind from the beating.
I am the ‘exorcist’ of the
ghosts of the mind, body and speech that have possessed you. I free you from
their attachments. You will however continue to experience their effects as
long as the ‘scars’ remain but you will
be permanently free from them.
If you simply understand
that the mind, body and speech are like the ghosts that take possession over
you, you will have learnt twenty-five of the forty-five Holy Scriptures.
There is no need for you to
renounce your wife, children and clothes. All you have to do is free yourself
from the possession by these three.
The Gnani
Understands Scriptures
Scriptures cannot be read
without the guidance of a Gnani Purush. Only the Gnani can truly understand the
scriptures. I have the understanding of the scriptures. How can one that has no understanding,
understand the scriptures?
You have to discover the
real ‘I’. What do you refer to every time you say ‘I, I’? Is it the body? Your
body is just a complex of intake and output. The worldly life goes up and down,
up and down, that is its nature. People think of accumulating wealth but that
is nothing but intake and output. Are there not two parts to a bank account:
credit and debit? Why don’t you just keep the part of credit on your account?
You cannot. It is a law that for every input, there is an output. Eating is
input and excretion is output. Drinking is input and urinating is output. Even
the coming and going of thoughts is intake and output.
The Gnani does not see
anything except ‘the dining room’ and ‘the latrine’, the intake of all that is
to be enjoyed in this world and the excretion of all that is left behind after
the enjoyment, and the Soul. He sees the karma that causes the input called
charge and the karma that results as effects called the discharge and the pure
Soul. He sees the enjoyment of fruits of past karma, dissipation of the past
karmas, having enjoyed its fruits, the charging and discharging of karmas
(relative world) and the Pure Soul. This encompasses everything.
Some people eat all the time
and then have problems of diarrhoea. What would happen if their intake of food
were not allowed to be excreted? They would become restless from distended
bellies. People are not aware that it is the same way for wealth. Show me one
person who has not undergone output. The rivers too have streams that flow into
them and away. I have asked many doctors why nails grow. They gave me all kinds
of explanations such as too much calcium etc. That is not so. It is actually
output of body waste. Food that is used by the body for building bones is
intake and output is taking place through the growth of nails. As a rule what
ever is of no use is discarded. Similarly there is continuous inflow-outflow or
charging-discharging of atoms going on in this body. The atoms that were
present in the body at age five would no longer be there at age twenty-five.
There is a constant inflow of new atoms and outflow of the old ones.
People charge demerit (paap)
karmas, but when those karmas come forth to give effect, they will be very
sorry; they will feel like they are on fire. And when they charge merit karmas
(punya), they will realize how sweet the rewards are when those karmas give
their effect. So think very hard and be judicious before creating any kind of
karma and beware of the kind of effects your actions will render. Be very careful when you are charging
demerit karma as when you try to increase your wealth by cheating others. Bear
in mind that the consequences of your actions are inevitable. Even if you put
your money in the bank, that money too will eventually go. Whatever demerit
karmas you create while trying to be rich, the adverse negative meditation that
occurs in the process, will also give its effect, and when it does, what will
become of you? Laxmi (money) is not
something that you can obstruct or prevent from leaving. Laxmi is the Lord’s consort and you are
preventing and obstructing her! What
becomes of a newly wed bride who is confined to her husband’s house and
prevented from going home to her parents?
And yet that is exactly what people do to Laxmiji! She is now tired of these people. Whenever I come across Laxmiji at the Baroda
railway station, I pay obeisance to her and give her my address in Mamanipod. I
tell her that she is free to come and go as and when she pleases. She tells me that she is tired of all these
wealthy businessmen and that she will now visit the homes of all the mahatmas
(all Self-realized beings), because they garland her whenever she goes to their
homes and also garland her even when she leaves. She says that she will no longer go to the homes that prevent her
from leaving. For those who have contempt towards money, she will not visit for
lifetimes to come. Money comes and
goes. Money that is present today will
not be there in ten years time; it is constantly circulating.
.
Everyone in this entire
world is caught up in turmoil. Whether
a person is an ascetic or married, no living being has inner peace. Inner peace only comes when a person
acquires the knowledge of the Self. In
the traditional kramic path, inner peace is only acquired once the aspirant
crosses the entire ocean of the worldly life over to the other side. What an
arduous task! But in this Akram path, once I place my hand over your head,
eternal peace occurs spontaneously.
What is the true meaning of
a mantra? Mantra means that which
stills the mind. The Lord gave us the trimantra to help us overcome obstacles
in our devotional practices. The trimantras are:
1. The Navkar Mantra 2. Aum
Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya 3. Aum Namah
Shivaya.
But the egotistical people,
who have created new cults and groups, have divided even this mantra. The Lord
had said that people could build separate temples and place of worship for
convenience but the three Mantras should not be separated. Nevertheless, people divided the Mantra. Not
only that, they have even divided the ‘agiyaras’ (observance of the eleventh
day of the moon cycle for fasting); the Shaivaites have their own and the
Vaishnavas have their own. How can the Lord be pleased with this? God will not be found wherever there is any
quarrel or differences of opinion. The trimantra that I am giving you is very
powerful indeed! It will bestow upon
you whatever you desire. It will remove your worldly obstacles and will
significantly lessen any major difficulties you have to face. This mantra pleases all the gods; it is a completely
impartial mantra.
Every morning if you recall
my face and recite the trimantra five times, you will never fall spiritually
and will gradually acquire liberation. I am taking full responsibility for
this.
I say that let all the
misery of world come to me. If you are
strong enough to surrender all your miseries at my feet without any
reservation, then do so. Thereafter, if you experience any misery, come tell
me. But alas in time cycle I even have
encountered people who claim that if they were to surrender all their miseries
to me, what would they be left with? These poor unfortunate people do not
understand that they have within them an ocean of infinite bliss and by
surrendering their miseries, they would be left with nothing but bliss. But no one knows how to surrender even his
or her suffering.
It is written somewhere in
scriptures that the term ‘deers in the human form’ has been quoted in
scripture. The word deer has been used out of the need to use mild language not
to hurt the reader. The one who merits
a rank of thirty-two points is born as a donkey, but an additional one point
will merit him a human body but his intrinsic tendencies and traits are still
that of a donkey. He may be a human
being but his internal qualities are animal-like and therefore he is an
animal. I say it like it is because I
covet nothing and have no expectations.
Your welfare is my only concern. I speak the naked truth out of infinite
compassion for you. I am the only one
who speaks the blatant truth in this world.
Lord Krishna says:
“Oh mortal one, why do you
worry?
Krishna will do what needs
to be done”.
In respone to this do you
know what some unfortunate people say?
They say that Lord Krishna can say whatever he wants, but we are the
ones who have to manage this worldly life so how can we do it without
worrying? People have created factories
of worries and yet they can’t sell its goods.
How can they? Wherever they go
to market to sell their goods, they come across factories that produce the same
goods! Find me just one man in this world who has no worries.
On the one hand you say ‘I
take refuge at the lotus feet of Shri Krishna’ and on the other they say
‘Krishna surrender to me’ (do what I ask).
If you take refuge at the feet of lord Krishna, why should you have any
worries? Lord Mahavir also said that
one should not worry. A single worry will result in a life as an animal form.
Worrying is the greatest ego. ‘I am running all this,’ leads to worries.
A true devotee will even
reprimand the Lord if he has any worries, he would question the Lord why he has
worries when the Lord says that he should not.
He who does not reprimand God is not a true devotee. Scold or reprimand
the God within you if you have worries. True love is when you reprimand even
God. One cannot find a true devotee these days. Everyone is caught up in his or her own worldly needs and selfish
plans.
When you go around
believing, ‘I am the doer, I am the doer’worries will occur. Narsinh Mehta
(reknowned spiritual poet) says:
‘I am doer, I am doer, itself is ignorance
Like the dog, under the
cart, claims, ‘I am pulling the oxcart’
The world runs
automatically,
Rare is the One
(yogi-yogeshwar) who knows this.’
When all the yogis (worldly
saints) read this, they were flattered. These lines refer to atmayogi and
atmayogeshwars (those who have known the Soul). An atma yogeshwar is a rare phenomenon, which happens about once
in a million years. He alone is the one
who has traversed through every atom of the entire universe. He lives within and outside the universe and
speaks from experience. He alone knows who created the world, how it was
created and how it functions. I am the
atma yogeshwar of this age. Make the most of this opportunity that presents to
you. I will take away all your worries
in just one hour and what is more, I give you my guarantee that should you
experience any worries, then you can file a lawsuit against me. I have granted this worry-free state to some
fourteen hundred mahatmas. Ask me for
anything. Whatever you ask, I will
grant you, but ask for something worthwhile.
Ask for something that will remain with you forever. Do not ask for any temporary things. Ask for eternal bliss.
Use of the authority of the
non-self leads to worries. What has been acquired in the foreign department
will remain in the foreign realm. Your
acquired wealth of cars, bungalow, factories, wife and children will have to be
left behind when you leave. At the
final station no power can save you.
You will be allowed to carry forward only your meritand
de-meritkarma. In other words whatever
wrong you do here will carry forward with you. The wealth you acquire through
your wrong doings will be left behind but your liability for those actions will
be carried forward. You will acquire a new body based on your actions and you
will have to start all over again to repay your past life debts. So you
unfortunate souls! Better shape up from the start. There is so much bliss in your own homeland but you haven’t seen
it!
When, even the hair on your
head does not stay loyal to you, what else will? People keep grooming their
hair with their hands all day long. But
would they still like to run their fingers through the hair when it is cut off?
Worry is ego. Why does a
child not worry? Because they know that
they are not doing anything and they are not even bothered about who does.
People worry by merely comparing themselves with their neighbors. The neighbors
have a car and we do not. The foolish
man! How much does he need for his
livelihood? Decide just once what
your requirements are. For example, you
need adequate food and water, a house to live in and enough money to run that
household. This much you are bound to get.
But you become jealous and disturbed if you come to know that your
neighbor has a bank balance of ten thousand.
This is how suffering starts. Foolish people, they invite their miseries
themselves.
A landlord came to me and
asked me how much a person needs to live life.
He told me that he had a thousand acres of land, a bungalow, two cars
and a significant bank balance. He
asked me how much he should keep. I
told him that everyone could assess their needs based on what their
circumstances were when they were born.
They can come to a decision about how much they need for the rest of
their life based on whatever luxury they had at the time they were born. That is the standard guideline. Everything that you have in excess is poison
and it will kill you.
Lord Krishna has said:
“Enjoy what you have, do not
worry about what you do not”.
One day I was visiting a
wealthy businessman in Ahmedabad. His
wife had prepared a delicious meal. As
the man and I sat down to eat, the wife said to her husband ‘At least eat well
today’. I asked her why she made such a
comment and she replied that whenever her husband sat down to eat, it was just
his physical body sitting at the table but his mind was always at his factory.
He never enjoys his meals. Goodness you foolish man! Know that now this delicious meal is in front of you; why not
enjoy it in peace? People have become
so foolish they start worrying about their daughter’s marriage even when she is
only four years of age. Some wretched
soul will be on his deathbed, gasping his last breath. All his relatives have lit the lamps for the
final farewell and yet he sobs worrying about his young daughter. His daughter tries to console him and tells
him to be at peace and not worry about her anymore. He tells her that she would
not understand such matters and in his mind he believes that she is only saying
things to console him because she is not as clever as he. The foolish man – his
intellect is such that no one would pay even a nickel for it.
One of the properties of
the Soul is that whatever a person contemplates, he will become that. A person
can create bondage of a new lifetime for each situation – this is how
everything is.
Meditation And
Adverse Meditation
The Lord has said that every
human being is in one of the four types of meditative states: Artadhyan,
raudradhyan, dharmadhyan and shukadhyan.
Apdhyan is meditation that cannot
be included in the above four. In the
past some people used to have apdhyan, but nowadays even a peon has it. These people will tremble at my words, if
not today then after I leave. Apdhyan
is even worse than durdhyana (evil meditation). It exists only in this time cycle and is not included in raudra,
arta or dharma. And the scriptures say
that shukla-dhyana is nowhere to be found in this day and age.
Apdhyana is the meditation
that you failed to do methodically in all activities related to your
liberation. When a person is doing samayik (introspective meditation), rather
than focusing on the meditation itself, he is preoccupied with how much time he
has left to complete his samayik. When a person does samayik, his attention is
on his doership, he even claims that he did the samayik, but at the same time
he is looking at the hourglass. How can
you call it meditation when his focus is on the hourglass?
Raudradhyan: What is raudra-dhyan? The cloth merchants quote a price of twenty
rupees per meter of cloth. When you
inquire about the quality of the material, they tell you it is terelene and its
cost is twenty rupees per meter. You decide to buy it. But what do they do when
they measure the material? Have you
seen them stretch it this way and that way?
Do you think they are exercising their arms? This is raudra-dhyan. Raudra-dhyan is to sell the customer short
and cheat them out of their fair share. Here the merchant’s intent is to hyper
stretch the material while measuring so that he will end up giving you less
than the amount you purchased. Raudra-dhyan is to take more than needed or
cheating the customers when measuring or weighing their goods and selling them
short. Adulteration of food and other
goods is also raudra-dhyan. To covet
other people’s belongings or to even think about seizing other people’s
happiness is raudra-dhyana. Decide in advnce what your profit margin needs to
be. It is acceptable for you to make
fifteen to twenty percent profit in your business. If in addition to this, you sell your customers short by
stretching the material when you measure, that is an offence. It is a serious and grave offence. A true
Jain will not have raudra-dhyana, and should it occur, it would occur only once
in a while, just like accidents. Getting angry, cursing someone and quarrelling
is also raudra-dhyan. The fully enlightened
Lords have said that a Jain should utilize raudra-dhyan very sparingly and yet
today it is used the most. The spiritual leaders are committing raudra-dhyan
when they get angry with their less intelligent disciples. Even internal annoyance is considered
raudra-dhyan. These days what can be said about people who use foul language
directly and frequently?
A life in hell is the
consequence of raudra-dhyana.
Aarta-dhyan: Artadhyan is meditation that causes suffering to the soul (the
person himself). A person who does not
hurt any living being but worries about his future is in aarta-dhyan. It is
however, better than raudradhyan because he is not hurting anyone. Artadhyan
does not hurt the other. Anger, pride, attachment or greed does not occur in
aartadhyan. Aartdhyan is not to be found in this day and age. Raudradhyan is by far the most predominant
meditation in this day and age whereas there was very little of it in the
satyug. It is aartadhyan when parents worry
about the marriage of their ten-year-old daughter. It is aartadhyan when you
are anxious for your unwanted guest to leave. It is also aartadhyan to keep
wishing your that your guests would not leave because you like them or you are
attracted to them. A guru, who is internally agitated with his disciple because
he does not serve him well, is also in aartadhyan.
What are the consequences of
aartadhyan? It is a life in the animal
kingdom.
Dharmadhyan is absence of worries and
all internal conflicts. Dharmadhyan is
the absence of any aartadhyan and raudradhyan; it is to remain in that which is
good for all. Such a person is fearless, has patience, is worry-free and
remains steadfast in his opinion. God does not have any objection to one being
ignorant about one’s real Self, but one must always remain free from both
internal and external conflicts.
In the current time cycle of
kaliyug, only a few people have dharmadhyaan.
Only about two to five percent have dharmadhyan. In this kaliyug, it is
not just the ordinary family man who has to endure worries and externally
induced miseries but also the sadhu sadhvis (ascetics), acharyas (spiritual
preceptors) and mendicants. When there
is nothing to worry about, one will be annoyed with his disciples.
What are the consequences of
dharmadhyan? If there is only dharmadhyaan, then one will be born as a
celestial being (devgati), but if there is dharmadhyaan along with any
aartadhyan, then one will be born as a human.
Shukladhyan: There are four stages of
shukladhyan: First stage is not a clear, but vague and indistinct experience of
the Soul.The second stage is a constant, clear and distinct experience of the
Soul My state is the second stage of
shukla-dhyaan. The fully enlightened
beings are in the third stage of shukla-dhyaan. And the fourth stage is the
final liberation.
The clear and distinct
experience of the Soul takes place when one comes to know the supreme Lord
completely, but does not have complete knowledge of all that is to be
known. And absolute and complete
knowledge (Keval Gnan) is where all and everything knowable is known.
An analogy of first stage
with lack of clarity of the Self is when you can sense the presence of ice in a
dark room, even though you cannot see it, you can feel the coolness of the air
that flows over the ice throughout the room.
And the direct experience, second stage of shukladhyan of the Soul is
the experience of actually touching the ice itself.
I have not kept much
difference between you, Kevli Bhagwan (fully enlightened One) and myself. The
current time cycle has obstructed absolute knowledge for me; I am stuck at
three hundred and fifty-six degrees, short of four degrees required to achieve
Keval Gnan. But to you I bestow Absolute Knowledge.
What is the consequence of
shukladhyan? Liberation.
I am considered a meddlesome
vitarag (one without any attachment), I am not a complete vitarag. I am
absolutely detached in all aspects except one: I meddle by telling people.
‘Come, I will grant you liberation’. I meddle all I can in order to bestow
liberation onto others.
What does the Lord say? The Lord says that he does not look at your
actions. Your actions are a result of your past life karma. But what is noted is your dhyan and what it
is in while you are doing a samayik or pratikraman. One may be doing samayik
but his dhyan is on the hourglass or he keeps getting irritated with his
disciples and then he claims that he did samayik.
An acharya maharaj was
sitting before Lord Mahavir in samayik. The acharya was given spiritual knowledge
(Gnan) but he did not have the knowledge of vyavasthit. Another enlightened
being asked the Lord about the acharya’s future life.
The Lord replied, “At this
moment he would go to a celestial life form.”
A little later someone again
asked the Lord about the acharyas’ future life and the Lord replied, “He is
destined for a life in hell. Fifteen minutes later someone else asked the Lord
the same question and the Lord replied that the acharya would attain
liberation.
‘Lord how can this be when
the acharya is so deep in meditation?’ they asked the Lord and the Lord said
‘you cannot see what I can see and what you see, I regard irrelevant. Although the acharya is seated in mediation,
only I can see where his dhyan is. At first his dhyan was such that would have
taken him towards a celestial life.
Later his dhyan became diverted and would have taken him to hell. Eventually his dhyan became positive and was
worthy of acquiring liberation for him. It is dhyan that determines the
consequences for next life. It is the pudgal (complex of intake and output)
that creates the images but if you identify with those images and become one
with them by feeling, ‘this is happening to me’, then you are endorsing them.
If on the other hand, you remain detached and do not become one with them and
simply remain the observer of them, then you are free from the
consequences.
A cloth merchant cheats his
clients by stretching the material as he measures it with the dhyan that, ‘how
proficient I am in my business, I am earning a lot of money’. He does not
realize that he is really binding karma for a life in hell. This is
raudradhyan. Another merchant cheats
his customers in the same way but while doing it his dhyan is, ‘this is a wrong
act on my part. A disciple of Lord Mahavir would never do that.’ Such
repentance exists in his dhyan. He will be born in the animal kingdom. Their actions are the same but the
difference in their dhyan binds different life form worlds.
No one in this time cycle
era has the knowledge of the Self. If at least people understood dharma
(relative worldly religions), then dharmadhyan would be possible or they would
be able to practice it. The religions
of today are not based on their original real foundation and that is why people
do not have dharmadhyan. They only have
aartadhyan and raudradhyan. People
praise a person who makes a generous donation of fifty thousand rupees. The donor while doing this feels that had
the mayor not coerced him into making the donation, he would never have done so. Those who give against their will are in
raudradhyan and therefore bind a life in hell.
While the person who has no money feels that he would make a big
donation if he had the money, binds for a higher life form without even giving
a dime. The other person, who donated fifty thousand rupees, binds a life in
hell.
People, who use their
intellect to trick and deceive others in order to make money, create grave
liability for themselves. Every such use of intellect, every trick is severe
raudradhyan. To use one’s higher intellect to take advantage of another with
lesser intellect is a trick.
Intellect binds one to the
worldly life and will never allow one to achieve liberation. Lord Krishna too has referred to intellect as
‘vyabhicharani’ (licentious or seductive).
The intellect drowns one in the worldly life; it will never let a person
come out of it. It is totally
detrimental to the self with reference to liberation. As the intellect increases, so does one’s internal suffering. Why
is it that a twenty-year-old sibling will have greater sorrow than his
two-year-old upon the death of their mother?
It is because the twenty-year old has more intellect.
The Lord has said that one
does not need to use intellect at all in the worldly life, but if there is a
need to do so, then he has set a limit. Just use enough intellect to free
yourself from a precarious situation and to ensure that you do not find
yourself in the same situation again.
But these foolish people have started to use their intellect to make
money through devious means. Not only
that but people have learned to swindle others by tricking them. A trick means
to deceive the other without him knowing that he has been deceived. That is
grave raudradhyan and for that not even the seventh hell (the worst of the
seven layers of hell) will not accommodate them.
What is the definition of
‘syaadvaad’? Syaadvaad is never to say
that the viewpoint of anyone is wrong.
No one’s viewpoint is opposed or hurt in syaadvaad. You may find it
wrong but it is the other person’s viewpoint. The one who is syaadvaad will
accept every viewpoint because he is sitting in the center. I am syaadvaad. I am sitting in the center.
The Lord has said to do
samayik (introspection with awareness), pratikraman (apology) and pratyakhyan
(inner resolve never to repeat the error). These are are activities for the
attainment of the Soul. These
activities are to be performed properly and in accordance with his
instructions.
From the perspective of
absolute knowledge, no one is at fault. Their circumstances are such. I speak
frankly and sometimes sternly; I do so purely out of compassion, in order to
rid him of his disease.
Many people claim that their
daily life interactions (vyavahaar) is their dharma (religion). But you cannot say that until you are
Self-realized. How can you say that
your worldly life is your religion if you do not have the knowledge of your
Self? The Gnani uses his infinite powers to create a line of demarcation
between the real (the Self) and the relative (non-self). Then they are
eternally separate. Thereafter, your worldly interaction becomes your relative
religion and the ‘activity’ of the Self is your real religion. It is only then
that you understand the difference between the two. The Gnani will separate the
territory of the real from the relative and you will inherently come to
understand what belongs to the Self and what belongs to the relative self. How can anyone claim vyavahaar dharma until
he acquires nischaya (the Self) dharma? Until the Self is realized it is all
regarded as worldly religion.
Worldly religion means
religion believed by the worldy people. Worldly religions teach people to
remove bad habits and instill good ones. They teach you to do merit karma and
avoid demerit karma. Such religions teach people not to steal or lie and to
conduct themselves in a way that will bring them happiness and peace. According
to the world, real religion is doing good deeds, but I call that relative
religion. With such religions you are bound for a birth in one of four future
life worlds. These are the celestial, human, animal or hell.
Relative religion is to move
from bad to good. Real religion is to
move from good to the absolutely pure. If you want liberation you will have to
embrace the real religion. In the real
religion you become free from the good and the bad, the pleasant and the
unpleasant, the right and the wrong. The religion of the Self is the only true
religion. It is a non-worldly religion. All other religions that focus on the
physical body and its actions are relative religions; they are the religions of
the non-self, they are worldly religions. There are no boundaries or sects in
real religion, no flags to fly, no conflicts of opinions, nothing to renounce
or accumulate. In the real religion
there is no partiality for anything. Liberation is never attainable through
partiality.
People want liberation and
yet they engage in conflicts and difference of opinions, and take sides. By
claiming you are right, you automatically say that the other person is wrong.
You will never achieve liberation by saying someone is wrong. You will only
attain the abode of the supreme Self, which is void of any partiality, when you
get rid of your differences of opinions, discord, and sectarianism, and come to
the center. By taking sides you strengthen the foundation of partiality and in
doing so you bind yourself to infinite future worldly lives. Do you want
liberation or do you want to remain in sects? How many factions and warring
camps have been created from just one religion? There is no liberation wherever
there is any kashaya (anger, false pride, attachment and greed). True religion
has no kashaya. People resort to kashaya to strengthen their sects. They have reduced religion to a racecourse. They
compete for disciples. A man renounces his wife and children but takes on
disciples in their place. Then he spends the entire day in discord and restlessness
with his disciples. How can you call that a path to liberation?
A vitarag, the enlightened
One, would never speak such harsh words but what can I do? In order to rid these people of their
disease, the speech that flows through this medium is full of compassion and
absolute detachment. It is not their fault. They also desire liberation but
because of their lack of understanding, they do everything wrong. This era of
this time cycle is extremely strange and everyone is caught up in its storm.
I have infinite compassion.
In my eyes, everyone is innocent because I have made my vision flawless and see
the entire world flawless.
A spiritual master was
sitting in Lord Mahavir’s assembly. He had the ego that, ‘I know something, I know
a lot’. He asked the Lord, ‘ Lord, what is the difference between you and me as
far as liberation is concerned? How many more lives are left for me?’ He was
under the impression that he would attain liberation within three births. The Lord who is absolutely detached
understood the master’s inner state.
The Lord’s reply was that his question was a good one but since five
other beings’ merit karma had also come into fruition, they too should be
called forth. The Lord called for the mayor of the town, a chaste woman, a
prostitute, a pickpocket and a donkey who happened to be standing close by. The
Lord then went on to tell the master that there was no difference between him
the Lord, the master, the mayor, the chaste woman, the prostitute, the pickpocket
and the donkey. ‘What are you saying
Lord? Is there no difference between
you and us? There is so much visible
difference!’ exclaimed the master. The Lord explained that the difference was
in his perception. The Lord went on to say, ‘Three lifetimes ago, I met a Gnani
who bestowed upon me flawless vision, a vision that did not see faults in
anyone. I used that very vision for the
two subsequent lives and in this life I am flawless and have the full flawless
vision. Having acquired such a perfect vision, in this lifetime, I see everyone
as completely flawless. With this
vision, I am telling you that there is no difference between you, all these
others and me. The master still
insisted that he could see a lot of difference and that he could not understand
and accept how the Lord could consider a master, a mayor, a chaste woman, a
prostitute, a pickpocket and a donkey and Himself as equal. The Lord went on ‘Look revered master! The inner content (the Soul) within you, the
mayor, the chaste woman, the prostitute, the pickpocket, the donkey and me is
the same. The only difference is that in me, the Self is fully manifest and in
yours it is veiled. I can see in my absolute knowledge that from all of you,
the donkey has the least number of lives left before liberation. Because dear master, the mental load that
you carry from having studied voluminous scriptures will take many lifetimes to
unload whereas the donkey will meet a Gnani in his next life and be liberated!’
Mental burden is really
intoxication of ego. The lesser the intoxication, the sooner liberation will
come.
Those who have intoxicated
ego will never attain liberation. The attitude and feeling of ‘I know
something’ is heavy intoxication; it is present even in sleep. Only those who
do not have such intoxication attain liberation. Do people read scriptures and
assimilate them for the purpose of acquiring liberation or do they do so to
increase their wandering for lifetimes to come, by increasing their intoxication? The intoxication of a drunkard is easily
removed by splashing water over him but the intoxication one has of having read
the scriptures and ‘I know something’, can never be destroyed.
Possesed By
The Mind, Speech and Body
A person keeps looking in the
mirror when he has a tiny pimple on his face because he believes that he is
indeed ‘Chandulal’. He has an ingrained belief that he is also the body and
that is why the poor fellow keeps gawking in the mirror. But this body does not belong to you, it has
taken possession over you. It is really an unnecessary baggage that has latched
on to you. If a boy is loafing around
with a girl, his father will ask him. ‘How come you found this baggage?’ The son will retort ‘what do you mean by
baggage? She is not a baggage? What do you know about such matters?’ It is only after some time when his
girlfriend quarrels with him and she jilts him for another boy, that he will
realize what his father mean by baggage.
In the same way this body has latched on to you. Once you know that You are not the body,
it’s possession and attachment over you will be broken. Such baggage can never be without
betrayal. What kind of entrapment does
this mind, speech and body have over us and what do we mean by entrapment? It means that you cannot free yourself even
when you want to. Entrapment is the
same thing as a baggage. A person will
look for a way out when he realizes that a baggage has trapped him, but what if
he happens to love it? Then it will
cling to him even more and trap him even deeper. Such entrapments are based on attachment and abhorrence
(raag-dwesh). I free you from your
attachment and abhorrence and then this entrapment will gradually disappear. Do
you think you need to get rid of this baggage by hitting it or punishing
it? No, you have to get rid of it
through vitaragata (non-attachment) and ahimsa (non-violence). Your mind, speech and body are an
entrapment. If you become the knower
and observer of this baggage, it will loosen its grip and fall away on its
own.
Insist only on liberation.
In all other circumstances and situations remain without any insistence.
Nothing is poisonous, only your insistence is poison. I am stating this very candidly: Any path that requires you to
make any effort is a worldly path and will not liberate you. Have desire for
liberation only. If you were to desire
liberation just once, then after a hundred thousand lifetimes, you would
encounter a Gnani and you would achieve liberation. Liberation means to be completely free, freedom from all worldly
miseries. Efforts are needed for the
daily mundane life but not for attaining liberation, because liberation is the
very nature of the Self. Water by nature is cool and one has to make an effort
to heat it but is any effort required to cool it? No, no effort is required, it cools on it’s own because that is
its nature. But how can you understand this?
By nature you are free but dense illusion and ignorance prevents you
from knowing this. This illusion can
never be destroyed until you meet a Gnani Purush. The Gnani Purush will destroy this illusion for you, so look for
a Gnani Purush. Look for a living Gnani
Purush.
Look for the One who is liberated. Look for the One who has
crossed the ocean of life and has the power to help countless others do the
same. Find such a person and follow him fearlessly. Only I am such a liberated
one in this present era. I am the
amazing incarnation of Knowledge. I can bestow liberation in just one
hour. You do not have to do anything
nor do you have to give anything in return.
I have no need or desire for anything.
God only manifests in those who become absolutely desireless. You will come across many ascetics who have
no desire for wealth, you may come across some who have no sexual desires, but
they will have desire for respect, fame or disciples. There will always be some
deep-rooted desire of one kind or another within them. Where there is absolute desirelessness, only
there will the Supreme Lord manifest. I have no desire for wealth, sensual
pleasures, disciples, fame or anything thing else. There is nothing that I want. But if you want anything from me,
come to me and take it. However ask
wisely so that you never have to ask again.
All worldly happiness is a
by-product and to realize the Self is the main production. People have abandoned the factory of main
production and instead have started factories of by-production, so when will
they ever realize the Self? The entire world wanders around in ignorance as a
result of not knowing the path to liberation and as a consequence, they get
lost wherever they go. If you want
liberation, ultimately you will have to go to the Gnani. Even when you want to go to Dadar Railway
Station, you have to ask someone who knows the way there. But this path to liberation is narrow,
complicated and like a labyrinth. If
you attempt it on your own, you are bound to get lost so look for a Gnani and
follow his footsteps exactly. I am the giver of liberation. I am licensed to
give liberation and can take you all the way.
I am an incarnation of Akram Gnan. I can bestow upon you the status of
Godhood within just one hour. You should be completely ready for it.
When you come to
me for liberation, come with only these two things: First,‘I do not know
anything’and second, ‘absolute humilty’. The belief
of ‘I know something’ is in fact intoxication. Real knowledge is enlightenment.
This is a ‘light’ and where there is light, one does not stumble. How can you say that you know when you keep
stumbling every step of the way? Have
any of your worries gone away? If you
had real knowledge, you would not have any worries. How can I fill your pot when your pot is half filled with your
belief of ‘I know something’? But if
your pot were empty, then I would fill it up with nectar. Then you can go wherever you want, live your
worldly life, get your children married but make sure that you abide by my
Agnas.
This talk is unprecedented,
never before has anyone read or heard it.
I am not a doer in all this. I am merely an instrument for the salvation
of the world.
This world is empty, without
any substance. I am saying this as I
see it in my knowledge. If
you think that this world has any substance or any worth, then you are
mistaken.
There was an ayurvedic
doctor who prescribed a very good medicine to his patient and instructed him
not to eat any chillies because his disease was a result of eating an excessive
amount of chillies. The doctor worked
very hard to get him the best of medicine and treatment. He experimented with
various medicines for a few months and yet he could not see any progress in his
patient. One day the doctor decided to
pay his patient a visit at his home. On entering the he saw the patient was
having his dinner and on his plate were two large green chillies. Upon seeing
the chillies on the patient’s plate, the doctor was overcome with such a rage
that he suffered a heart attack and died instantly. Now whom can you blame
here? The poor unlucky fellow! The
patient may drink poison but why did you drink it? Everything is so empty and without any substance in this world,
you cannot afford to get stuck anywhere otherwise you will be trapped. Here the
patient ate the chillies but instead the doctor was overcome with tension and a
ruptured artery. It is nothing but poison of knowledge. If a person sees nasal mucous fall in his
tea, he will not drink it but if he had no knowledge of it, he would drink the
tea with pleasure. Ignorance is bliss.
You only feel that something is wrong if you come to know about it; you get
scared when you learn the truth but up until then, you had no fear of it. This is the very meaning of hollow and
empty.
One man used to come to see
me frequently. He had a daughter. I had explained to him from the very
beginning that the current era of the time cycle of Kaliyug was such that it
influenced negatively even the most decent people. I cautioned him about such
influence on his daughter. He understood what I meant and later when his
daughter eloped, he remembered me and came to me. He told me that I was right and that had if I had not said
anything to him, he would have committed suicide. This is how the world is.
It is empty and without substance.
You will have to accept whatever happens. Is anything worth sacrificing
your life for? Besides if you do,
people will call you foolish. People
keep their reputation intact by hiding everything and then claim to be noble
and honorable.
A Gnani purush is very
wise. He acts before the damage is
done. He cuts out the rot before it sets in. Do you think it is easy to see
this world as empty, shallow and superficial?
What does a shepherd
do? He gathers his sheep and lamb with
his calls of ‘tihi, tihi’ and rounds them up in a fenced compound so they
cannot escape. The sheeps think that he
is protecting them form the tigers and the shepherd even tells so. But little
do they know that he is exploiting them by milking them everyday, shearing off
their wool which protects them from the cold and eventually serve them as a
meal to his guests! This is called
superficial and empty.
All human beings of this
time cycle are considered to be without dependence or protection. The animals are regarded as having
dependency but the humans have no one to depend on. Even if you find a person
on whom you can depend, he himself has no one to depend on, so how can he help
you? Let me explain to you what I mean
by nondependency.
A wealthy man, a priest and
his dog set out on a journey. They come
across a dense forest and in the forest they meet four robbers carrying guns
and daggers. What effect does this situation
have on each of them? The wealthy man
has fear of what will become of him if they take away his bundle of ten
thousand rupees. He also has fear of
what will happen to him if they kill him.
The priest feels that he does not really have anything worth losing
except his drinking pot but he is worried about who will take care of him if
the robbers break his leg and if he becomes lame for life. The dog on the other hand will bark at the
robbers and if one of them were to hit it, it will whine a few times and then
with wide-eyed will see his master being beaten. The dog does not worry about what is to become of him because he
has someone to depend on and the other two unfortunate ones do not have anyone
to depend on. What does the Lord
say? As long as you have not done the
darshan of the enlightened One you are without faith and protection. And
darshan of an enlightened One will make you independent. The enlightened One
becomes your protector.
Once you are blessed with
the realization of the Self from a Gnani, you will never have to worry about
what will become of you under any external or internal circumstance.
The one who is dependent on
me will have shelter and protection after countless lifetimes of having no one
to depend on.
The one who has the Gnani as
his shelter will never have to worry about what is to become of him, regardless
of the kind of situations he may encounter, because my presence along with my
Gnan will prevail and give him protection in all situations.
Today, there is an excess of
worldly science in the foreign countries, this has become ‘above normal’. It needs to regain normality. People will
become happy only if this happens. 97° Fahrenheit is below normal fever and 99° Fahrenheit is above normal fever. 98° is the normality. America and other countries are trapped in
the fever of ‘above normal’ (everything being in excess) and India is trapped
in below normal fever. In the foreign
countries, the discoveries they are making are above normal and yet they cannot
find what they are looking for. What
does this indicate? It shows that they
are lost. Their technology has become
so advanced that they can pin point the location of a car in trouble. You
foolish men! Why don’t you look for
something that will be useful to the body? Men have to shave everyday, look for
something that stops the hair on their face from growing altogether. The body has needs and those needs have to
fulfill. But what happens when there is
an overabundance of anything? What
would happen if it rains non-stop? It
will create destruction everywhere.
Destruction is inevitable with an overabundance of anything. People complain even when there is an
increase in heat. I had a friend who
kept saying ‘its very hot today, its very hot today’. So I asked him how much heat would he allow if he were in charge
of regulating the temperature. He said he would put out just the same amount of
heat. I asked him why then was he complaining.
This is nature and nature fulfills everyone’s needs whenever it arises. But these foolish people create hindrances
by cursing nature. A well-dressed man
will curse nature if it rains on his well-ironed clothes. Many wish that it
would not rain on their daughter’s wedding day but the farmers anxiously wait
for the rain. When such contradictions
arise, they obstruct nature. This
cosmos functions according to the adjustment between different phases of your
feelings and nature. So do not disturb
the working of nature. You will
encounter everything naturally and spontaneously. Do people ever worry about whether the sun is going to rise
tomorrow? And what would happen if they
started to worry about it? There is no
end to interference. So do not interfere
with nature.
These scientists have become
so advanced in their discoveries that they have reached above normal
proportion. A time will come when people will say they do not want any
scientists. These are all preparations
for a revolutionary change, a transformation.
Wherever anything happens in
excess it will lead to exhaustion. You
feel tired if you have to sit or sleep for too long. Happiness and misery is relative. If a wealthy man is walking in the heat, he will seek relief from
even the sparse shade of a thorny tree.
But if you tell him to sit under the same tree for four hours, he will
not because he will get tired from sitting too long.
A seven and a half feet tall
person will be considered very tall in India, but if Indians were to go to a
country where people are generally seven feet tall, they would be considered
short. Everything is relative in this
way. A person appears tall or short in
comparison to another.
If a fifty-five year old
person is still in school, people will ask him when will he marry if he keeps
going to school. That is above normal
and it is below normal for a child of two to be married.
Foreign countries look upon
India as an under-developed country. I
say that they are the ones who are under-developed. They are fully developed in material things but spiritually they
are under developed. India is
materially under developed but spiritually it is fully developed. I can transform even a pickpocket of India
into god in one hour. But elsewhere where the people are spiritually
under-developed, how can I make them understand spirituality?
The anger, pride, attachment
and greed of people elsewhere in the world are still in the process of
developing whereas anger, pride, attachment and greed of people in India are
fully developed. They have reached the top limit.
People of foreign countries
would be willing to drive you somewhere, even if they had to drive for fifty
miles each way. A casual acquaintance will drive you there and back and not
only that but he will also pay for your meal. Whereas here, in India, your own
nephew will calculate how much it will cost him in gas, oil, and wear and tear
on his car. Then he will even lie to
you and tell you that he cannot take you because his boss is going to be in
town the next day.
Now what does this all
mean? It means that in the foreigners,
greed is as developed as it is in the Indians. In the Indians it is so highly
developed that it will last for up to seven generations. And what is the level of greed in
foreigners? Their greed is limited to their own needs. When their children turn
eighteen they want them to move out and live on their own. If married couples have differences they
will resort to a divorce, whereas in Indians their attachment is fully
developed. There was an eighty-year-old
couple that fought with each other their entire married life. They would bicker with each other all day
long. When the old man died, the old
lady was performing the ritual of saravani, which is performed on the
thirteenth day after death. As she
placed various items for offering, she would say, “This was your uncle’s
favorite sweet, this is what he liked…” When I asked her why she was doing all
this when she fought with him every day, she replied, “Things are always
so. However, I will never find a
husband like him again. I want him to be my husband in every life.” In Indians, attachment too has reached to
the top!
Prakruti:
Natural And Deviant
Foreigners are spontaneous,
impulsive and natural. Natural and spontaneous means that if there is a docile
cow, she will not hurt anyone, even if a child were to grabs hold of her
horns. And if there is a foul-tempered
cow, she will readily hurt anyone, even if not provoked. These are natural traits. Foreigners are very straightforward; they
will say yes to you if they want to help you and no if they don’t want to, but
they will not lie to you. They have a
propensity towards both reactions. If they are straightforward, they are
completely so and if they are crooked, they are completely crooked. People of India are not spontaneous or
natural. They used to be natural during Satyug (era of truth in the time
cycle), to the level of ideality. In India there was a classification of four
major casts: the Brahmin (the priests, scholars and thinkers), Kshatriya (the
warriors), Vaishya (the businessmen and Shudra (the working class). This classification was indicative of
different levels of development amongst people. Now this development has reached its zenith. Even the sons of carpenters are extremely
intelligent. Spontaneity and naturalness in people during the satyug was
absolute and complete and it peaked to such heights that it gradually started
to decline. That is the law of
nature. People began to exploit the
four classifications. They became
condescending and arrogant towards the untouchables and insulted them. They misused their intellect to hurt others
and gradually became hostile and rude.
India began to loose its luster.
People became so very obstinate and despicable that their conduct became
demon-like. Alas! If they came across a twenty-year-old widow,
instead of consoling her they would look upon her as a bad omen. The fools!
A widow is considered personification of the holy River Ganges, how can
you call her an ill omen? Then came the
British to rule India. Their natural disposition and spontaneity began to
mingle with the unnatural, obstinate and rude tendencies of the Indians and
this brought the Indians some relief.
This was all a result of an excess of everything here. Now a
new dawn is rising for India. Elsewhere there is dusk but in India, this new
dawn will lead to full light. Since
1942, I have been saying that by the year 2005, India will become the center of
the world. Currently it is in the
process of becoming one. People from
all over the world will come to India to learn the art of living. They will come to learn what is normal. At the moment everyone has become so above
normal that they do not know how to live anymore. Despite having so much material comforts, they have to resort to
taking sleeping pills. You are taking poison!
You have gone so far past the limits of what is normal, that you have
lost nature’s gift to mankind- sleep.
How can you call this living?
Alas! You have gone all the way
to the moon but how did it benefit you?
Has going to the moon, eliminated the sleeping pills for you?
The State Of
The Spiritual Seeker
Who can be called a sadhu
(ascetic)? Anyone who attains the Self
is a sadhu. A sadhu’s conduct is always
focused towards liberation. However, the conduct of the sadhus of these times
is contradictory. It is focused on liberation but it also creates more bondage.
For their rituals of samayik and pratikraman they earn one hundred merit
points, but when they become aggravated with their disciples, they lose a hundred
and fifty points. One is only able to
work continuously towards one’s liberation after having acquired the Self. A
true sadhu means to progress towards the state of absolute liberation. However,
no one is at fault here. They are all
trapped because of ignorance; it is not their wish to bind new karma.
Karma: Merit
And Demerit
There is only Soul and
matter (parmanu - sub-atomic matter) in this world. When you make someone happy
or give peace to him, atoms of merit karma (punya) are attracted and when you
cause misery to others, atoms of demerit karma (paap) are attracted. This is
the very thing that brings you misery. When things go according to your wishes,
it is because of your merit karma and when things go against your wishes, it is
because of your demerit karma. There are two kinds of merit karma and two kinds
of demerit karma:
(1) Paapanubandhi paap (New
demerit karma stemming from past demerit karma): A person binds new demerit
karma while experiencing the effects of demerit karma from his past life. For
example, when a person inflicts pain on somebody and enjoys doing so.
(2) Punyanubandhi paap (New
merit karma stemming from past demerit karma):
A person is suffering as a result of demerit karma from his past life,
but he binds new merit karma by leading a moral and ethical life.
(3) Paapanubandhi punya (New
demerit karma stemming from past merit karma): A person enjoys happiness as a
result of merit karma from his past life but while doing so, he binds
tremendous demerit karma. Today, this type of karma is rampant everywhere. A
wealthy man is not even able to enjoy the comforts of his huge mansion. He is
out the entire day making money, his wife is out shopping and running around looking for beautiful clothes and his daughter is
driving around in her car. Only the servant is to be found at home and the
entire bungalow is uselessly wasted. He has acquired all his materialistic
comforts as a result of his merit karma from his past life but despite this
merit karma he binds demerit karma as a result of his behavior. He is consumed
with immese greed and attachment and he is not able to enjoy his wealth. Such people with paapanubandhi punyas are
involved in illicit sexual behavior.
(4) Punyanubandhi punya (New
merit karma stemming from past merit karma): A person performs rituals and
works towards attainment of Self-Realization while enjoying the fruits of his
past merit karma. He accumulates more merit karma and reaps the fruit of
liberation.
All activities
of rituals and austerities carried out with obstinacy, inflexibility and
staunchness bind papanubandhi punya, whereas austerities and rituals performed
with the proper understanding of what is beneficial for one’s Soul and
liberation binds punyanubandhi punya. With such karma, the person will one day
meet a Gnani Purush and eventually achieve liberation.
Wealth does not
come to you without merit karma.
Who in this
world is considered one with the most merit karma? It is the one who in a
passing thought will desire something and having decided on it will have his
wishes fulfilled for years to come without any efforts on his part.
Second come the
ones who desire something and having decided on it over and over again, will
acquire it easily at the end of the day.
Third come the
ones who desire something, will make an effort to acquire it and their wish
will be fulfilled.
Fourth come
those who work very hard towards fulfilling their desire and eventually get
what they want.
Fifth and final come those who desire
something, work very hard for it and still do not get what they want. These laborers work very hard, on top of
that they face abuse at the hands of others and still they do not get any
money. And when they do get any money,
there is no certainty that they will have anything to eat at home. They work
the hardest and yet they are not rewarded for their labor.
Many people
believe that demerit karma created unknowingly or in ignorance bear no
consequences. Why would there be no
consequences? Is there not a
consequence to putting your hand on a hot plate unknowingly? Demerit karma
carried out knowingly or unknowingly, are the same in weight. The only
difference between the two is that the consequences of the deed carried out in
ignorance will have to be experienced in an unknowing state and the consequence
of deed carried out deliberately will have to be experienced in a knowing
state. For example, there are two brothers; one is sixteen years old and the
other is two years old. Their mother dies.
Both have to suffer the consequence of their past demerit karma. The older one
has to suffer consciously and the younger in a state of unawareness.
Merit karma can
also be carried out unknowingly. For example, you stand in a line for four
hours to buy sugar, on your way home the sugar slowly leaks out through a tiny
hole in the bag. The ants reap the benefit from this and you created a merit
karma without being aware of it, the consequence of which you will enjoy
without being aware of it.
Every human
being is trapped in a labyrinth of merit karma-demerit karma, demerit
karma-merit karma and is subject to endless wandering; there is no liberation
from it. The most a person gets from
earning a lot of merit karma is a life as a celestial being, but he never
acquires liberation. Liberation is only acquired upon meeting a Gnani Purush
who will destroy your demerit karma of endless lifetimes, through the fire of
spiritual knowledge, and gives you the Self , your Soul. Until then you have to
keep on wandering within the four life form worlds.
Every living
being, starting from the single sensory life form to the five-sensory life form
experiences endless suffering, just like a man confined to total darkness with
only two meals a day. Such are the
dense layers, which cover the Soul. If human beings with their five senses have
to suffer so much, can you imagine what suffering the living beings with lesser
senses have to endure? There is no living entity with six senses. The trees and
animals are life forms we refer to as ‘tiryanch gati’. They are subject to
severe imprisonment. The human life is comparatively an easier form of
imprisonment. But life in hell is so excruciatingly painful that if I were to
describe it exactly, a human being would die from fear by just listening to me.
It is thousand times more painful than the pain of being boiled in water. Those
in hell are subject to the pain of near death experience over and over again
and yet death will elude them. They are doomed to a life of suffering and that
is why death will not come to them. Their
physical body is very much like liquid mercury; their body parts and limbs are
subject to being severed and then join together again. They have no choice but endure pain and
suffering. Hell is life
imprisonment.
The celestial
beings enjoy life in the celestial world but under surveillance. They cannot
attaine liberation. The atmosphere there is dazzling and intoxicating. Just like the atmosphere at weddings where
you can become completely lost and absorbed with your surrounding. All your senses are indulged. The food
tastes great and is pleasing to the palate.
You hear music that is pleasing to the ears. Your eyes are admiring the
beauty of the bride and the groom. Your
sense of smell is filled with fragrant incense. All your senses are completely occupied. Your mind is filled with different
thoughts. You can never remember your
Soul at times like this; such is the happiness enjoyed by the celestial beings. There is an abundance of happiness there,
which never ceases and that is why they are in a state of intoxication. They do not even think of the Soul. However, they too are subject to mental
restlessness, jealousy and other emotions that torment. They too get tired of too much
happiness. How is that? Its like after feasting non-stop for four
days at a wedding, you will crave for something simple to eat. In the same way, the celestial beings too
wish for a birth in the human being in this world, with a moral and religious
family, so that they too can meet a Gnani Purush. Only after meeting a Gnani Purush can one break free, otherwise
one is doomed to wander between the four different life form worlds.
I-ness And My-ness
Vikalp is
‘I-ness’ and sankalp is ‘My-ness’. ‘I
am Chandubhai’ is I-ness and it is the biggest vikalp of all. Sankalp is
my-ness; the belief associated with the sense of ownership, for example, my
wife, my children, my house, my car etc.
Charge And Discharge
Cause
And Effect
You are Brahma –
the creator, and yet you sleep tucked under the bed sheets. You make various plans (create new causes).
When you create new causes (charging new karma), you become Brahma, the
creator, but the discharge of these causes (the effect) is not under your
control. When these causes begin to
discharge (give effect), you are under illusion and become confused and
frustrated. When you create a cause,
initially it is just a fleeting thought but once you become completely engulfed
with it, a new cause is created, and when that cause materializes into a
tangible event, it is called an effect.
No one, absolutely no one, in this world can change the discharge
(effect). If one could, one would never allow unpleasant things to happen to
them, they would only let pleasant things occur. But discharge is under the control of another entity. It is under the control of vyavasthit
(scientific circumstantial evidences).
Vyavasthit rules exclusively and no one has any control over it. So be cautious when creating new
causes. Once you acquire the Self, you
will never be deluded. Once you meet a
Gnani Purush, he will take your faith in the world and place it in the Supreme
Soul in just one hour, and once he does this, you will remain as the Self. Once this happens, you will no longer be
creating any new causes and your physical body that remains, will continue to
discharge gradually.
The human birth form is the only one that
creates causes. From there, the transmigration to all the four life form worlds
takes place and liberation is also possible from here.
The
Self And The Non-self
The entire world
is trapped in trying to understand prakruti, the non-Self. From time immemorial, people have been
trying to explore the Self and the non-Self, but it is not something that is
easy to grasp. In the traditional
kramic path, one is only able to understand the Self after completely knowing
the non-self. The puzzle of the non-Self and the Self cannot be solved even
after countless cycles of birth and death.
Whereas in the Akram path, when the Gnani Purush bestows his blessing
upon you, you become the Self and thereafter you are able to completely know
the non-Self. What is more, the two
will always remain separate. Even the
mightiest are trapped in the labyrinth of the non-Self; what can they do? When you try to understand the non-Self
through being a non-Self, how can you find a solution? The non-Self is to be
known after acquiring the Self. Only then
every facet of the non-Self is known.
What is non-self
(prakruti)? Pra = excess and kruti=
action done. An action, which is done
not in one’s natural state but in having gone away from one’s natural state, is
prakruti. Action done out of one’s natural state is prakruti.
The non-self (prakruti) is
female and the Self is male (purush).
Lord Krishna told Arjun, “Become free from the three gunas of the
prakruti”. The three gunas (inherent
qualities) of the non-self are sattwa, rajas and tamas. Become a liberated
‘purush’ by rising above the three gunas of the prakruti. If you remain in
these qualities of the prakruti, you become subservient and weak. If you remain
in the attributes of the Self then you are a ‘purush’ (the Self – absolutely
free).
‘Prakruti is like a top’
(spinning toy). What does that mean? The winding of the string around the top
is cause, as the string is pulled away the spinning of the top is prakruti.
There is skill and precision in the winding and there is also skill and
precision in the unwinding. Everything occurs exactly as it was caused. Even
when a child eats, does he put the food in his ear instead of his mouth? If a serpent dies before its eggs hatch, the
baby serpent when born will know how to strike people. What is the reason
behind this? That is the wonder of prakruti. The precision with which prakruti
functions is a wonder in itself. How
far can prakruti go? There is a limit
from the very beginning as to how far it can go. Even when a top is spinning, it spins within its boundary. For example, even the thoughts that come to
you have a limit. When you are overcome
with illusionary attachment, there is a limit to that also. Every living being
has its ‘center’ in its navel. In the navel area the soul is completely free
from covering by any kramic matter. The
pure light of knowledge is to be found here.
If prakruti were to go beyond it’s limit, then this area would become
obscured and that living being would become inert, but this can never
happen. No matter how intense a
person’s illusionary attachment becomes, it will reach its limit and then begin
to subside. All this occurs according
to the laws and limits of nature.
Nothing ever occurs outside the boundaries of nature.
The deities of Brahma,
Vishnu and Mahesh represent the three attributes of prakruti. These are sattwa,
rajas and tamas respectively. Those
with tamas attributes worship Lord Mahadev, those with sattwa attribute worship
Brahma and those with Rajas attribute will worship Lord Vishnu. You acquire the attributes of those you
worship. There is a predominance of
rajas attributes in people of India whereas the rest of the world is inclined
towards tamasic attributes. The three
deities represent the three attributes . They are not born but are symbolic
representations. Even the Vedas state
that one should become free from these three attributes and become the
Self.
It is the prakruti that
makes a person dance or do things but people claim ‘I am dancing’ or ‘I am
doing it’. It is foolishness to think
this way. Every human being is like a top, what effort does he have to make when
it is the prakruti that is making him spin? When a man makes a lot of money, he
claims he is the one who earned it but does he accept responsibility when he
makes a loss? At that time he will
claim that it is God’s doing.
It is prakruti that dictates
what you do, but you claim to be the doer.
Fasting, doing penance,
meditating, giving alms, being kind, speaking the truth, practicing
non-violence (ahimsa) are all attributes of the prakruti. Good habits or bad habits are all qualities
of the prakruti. However charming and
graceful one’s prakruti may be, one never knows when it will deceive him or
disgrace him. You may have a king who is very benevolent and devout but if
he were to get lost in the jungle and not eat for days, would he be embarrassed
to beg for food? Definitely not! What
happens to his imperial and monarchical qualities at that time? Alas! His prakruti is crying out from within
and he is trapped in circumstances that reduce even a king to becoming a
beggar. If this can happen to a king then what chance does a commoner have? It
is the prakruti that makes you give alms and it is the prakruti that makes you
beg, so where is your effort in that? A thief steals twenty rupees, goes to a
restaurant and orders a nice meal and enjoys himself. On his way out he gives
the remaining ten rupees to a leper, what is all that? This is all a play of
prakruti. It is incomprehensible.
A person will say, ‘today I
did four samayiks and pratikraman and read the scripture for two hours.’ The
fool! The prakruti makes him do it and he claims that he is doing it, and if he
truly is the one doing the samayik, let himtry doing it the next day. ‘I could not do samayik today’, he will say,
‘but I did it yesterday.’ What a great contradiction between these two
statements! If you really are the doer,
then you can never say that ‘I can’t do it’.
The very meaning of ‘I can’t do it’ proves that you are not the doer. The whole world is trapped in this wrong
belief. Prakruti makes a person renounce and it is also prakruti that makes him
acquire. Even the practice of
brahmacharya (celibacy) is forced upon one by one’s prakruti and yet he claims
he is practicing celibacy. What a
contradiction.
Dualities such as attachment
and abhorrence, kindness and cruelty, greed and benevolence, truth and false
are all qualities of the prakruti, and the Self is beyond all duality.
Many people say that God is
without any attributes. You foolish
people! Why do you slander God in this way?
They say that a mad person has no attributes. Madness is an attriubute of one kind so how can one say that a
mad person is without any attributes?
It means that by saying the Soul is without attributes, is to say that
the Soul is worse than a mad person; it is like saying that the Soul is
inanimate. The Self is neither
inanimate nor is it void of any attributes. It too has its inherent
qualities. By saying that God (Soul)
has no qualities, people embark on the wrong path. Come to me and I will give you the correct understanding. ‘From
the perspective of prakruti’s attributes, the Self is without any attributes,
and from its own perspective, the Self is full of attributes.’ These attributes are infinite: infinite knowledge,
infinite vision, infinite energy and it is an abode of infinite bliss. How can it ever be called without
attributes? If you call it so, you will
never acquire the Self because the Self is not separate from its own
attributes. A thing has within it, its own intrinsic qualities, so in order to
know the thing, by knowing its qualities; you will come to understand it. For example, if you want to know gold, then
if you know the qualities of gold, you will come to know gold; gold is never
separate from its inherent qualities. A flower and its fragrance can never be
separate. You can recognize a flower from its fragrance. In the same token, you can know the Self
only through its attributes. That is the only thing you need to know - the
Soul. You have come to know the
attributes of the prakruti for countless lifetimes but even then you have made
no progress and the puzzle remains unsolved.
All the worldly religions are considered religions of the prakruti; they
are religions of the body. The Supreme
religion is the religion of the Self; that is the Real religion.
Bathing the body, feeding
it, pampering it, making it fast is all religion of the prakruti. This religion has no substance and you
cannot depend on it because it is not under your control. It is controlled by some other power. The prakruti is such that one person will
have diarrhea without taking a purgative and another will have constipation
without taking a medicine for constipation. That is prakruti!
Worshipping Prakruti: Worshipping Purush
The worshipping
that goes on in this world is worship of attributes of prakruti. These
attributes do not have any permanent existence; these attributes are
illusionary. These prakrut attributes are dependent on the three humors of the
body: mucous, bile and air (kapha, pitta and vatta). The qualities or
attributes of the Self are independent whereas the attributes of the prakruti
are governed by other factors, but this only becomes evident when one becomes
delirious or demented. Everywhere in the
world we find only worship of the prakruti, not the purush. I have not seen worship of the purush
anywhere. The reward of worshipping the
prakruti is worldly wanderings and the reward of worshipping the purush is liberation.
We as the
purush, the pure Self are completely independent but we are in bondage because
of the prakruti. The prakruti and the ‘regulator of this world’ (vyavasthit
shakti) run this world. God does not
meddle in it at all. Once you become the
purush, your relationship with the prakruti comes to an end. Whatever occurs is because of prakruti and
the one who has no attachment or abhorrence towards any event is the pure
Soul. This Gnan is so wonderful that
even if you were to get into a fight you will not experience any attachment or
abhorrence.
Prakruti Dharma: Purush Dharma
Every belief of
‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’ falls in the domain of the prakruti. The beliefs that have not occurred will not
come in the prakruti.
You can
distinguish a Patel, a Vanik or a Muslim, through their prakruti. The prakruti of the Vankik is thoughtful and
prudent in nature. The Patels are
considered bold and fearless; their prakruti is such that they will take off
their opponent’s head or sacrifice their own depending on the circumstances. The Muslim prakruti had a tendency towards
insurrection. Actually prakruti differs form individual to individual. There is
no limit to its differences and variations.
The mind, speech
and body are three components of the prakruti.
All three are effective. As they manifest effects of past causes,
because of illusion, new causes are created and this binds new causal prakruti,
the effect of which is the effective prakruti, (manifest prakruti).
As long as there
are doubts about the Soul and the reality the worship of prakruti will
continue. When one becomes free from
all doubts about the pure Soul only then does one become the Pure Soul. Only
after that, new causal prakruti ceases to form.
The Garden Of Prakruti
Whatever effect
there is, whatever effective prakruti there is, it is unchangeable. It can
never be changed. Every father wishes
that his son be exactly like him.
Alas! Are you trying to turn
your home into a garden or a farm?
Everyone has different prakruti; they all bloom into different
flowers. How is it possible for other
plants to grow the same flowers as your own?
If there were only roses in your home, would it be considered a
garden? No, it would be a rose farm! Just as you have a wheat farm, you would
have a rose farm. But here you have a
jasmine, a rose, a frangipani and thorns too- you have a garden. Prakruti is a garden.
People want
roses but they do not like thorns. How
can you have a rose without thorns?
When people
plant a lemon tree, how is it nurtured?
Through the elements of earth, air, light and sky. Do these nourishing elements have a sour
taste in them? Do they have tart juices
in them? No. But where did the tartness in the lemon come from? And where did the bitterness in each and
every leaf and branch of the neem tree growing next to the lemon tree come
from? Both the trees are nourished by
the same five elements, they both get equal amount of nourishment. Was the
water bitter? No, so where did the differences come from? The bitterness and the tartness were
inherent in the seed of each tree and thus the corresponding fruits. The seed of the banyan tree is even smaller
than a mustard seed and yet how vast is the tree born from it. The entire banyan tree with its leaves,
branches and aerial roots exists as potential energy in a subtle form in its
seed. Vyavasthit shakti brings together the appropriate environment and
circumstances and the resulting banyan tree is due to it’s own inherent prakrut
attributes.
The knowledge of
prakruti is amazing and immense! It is
easy to cross a river but you cannot cross the river of the prakruti.
Renunciation
There are three
forms of renunciation:
1) Renunciation
precipitated by suffering: A person will
abandon his worldly life and commitments at the expense of his family. He thinks that his worldly problems can be
solved by renunciation and that the only suffering he will have to endure is to
go around bare feet begging for his meals, which he is willing to endure. What are the consequences of such a renunciation?
He will have to wander for countless lifetimes.
2) Renunciation
for the reward of worldly gains:
A person who renounces his worldly life and commitments in the greed of
gaining disciples, respect, fame, praise and worship. He too will have to
wander for countless lives.
3) Renunciation
for acquiring Gnan: This is the true
form of renunciation. Rare is the person who will take renunciation for the
purpose of knowing the Self. But it is very difficult to acquire this Gnan.
This knowledge can only be acquired through
a Gnani, after which true renunciation will begin through the light of that
knowledge.
Focused
Awareness Of The self And Self
There are four types of
upayoga (focusing of the awareness of the self or the Self):
Ashuddha
upayoga:
(impure use). An example of this would
be if a person, without any reason or cause hunts and kills a deer and then
takes pleasure in it and proudly boasts about his killing. Killing purely for pleasure, without any
motive or reason, is impure use of the soul.
People who gloat and derive pleasure from hurting others or causing
destruction to other people’s property, people with sadistic tendencies are all
third-class citizens and are headed for a life in hell.
Ashoobha upayoga: (inauspicious use). A man
is forced to kill a deer because there is nothing to eat at home. His wife and children are starving and he
has no choice. From within, however, he
is tormented by the killing and repents immensely for his actions. This is inauspicious use of the soul. The outward action for both impure and
inauspicious use of the soul may be the same.
But the difference between the two is that in former the person takes
pleasure in his actions and in the latter he has tears of remorse. All beings
that use their energies of the soul in an impure way are considered
second-class citizens and are headed for a birth in the animal kingdom.
3. Shoobha upayoga: (auspicious use). Even when
everyone at home is starving he feels he does not want to kill anything to
satisfy their hunger. This is auspicious awareness of the self. Wishing well
for others, doing well to others and being benevolent towards others, keeping
the heart truly moral are all good use of the soul. Very rarely does a person remain in solely auspicious use. Generally people vacillate between
auspicious and inauspicious awareness of the self. Nevertheless these people are considered ‘first-class passengers’
and will be born as humans again. Those
with purely auspicious awareness are considered as ‘luxury class passengers’
and will be born as celestial beings.
4.Shuddha upayoga: (pure awreness of the Self). A person with shuddha upayoga sees
the pure only. He will disregard the
packing (the body) and see only the contents (the pure Soul within). To see
with elemental vision (tattva drashti, to see the Self as one of the six
eternal elements) is shuddha upayoga. Shuddha upayoga only begins after
Self-realization. When this awareness is total and continuos it is called Keval
Gnan (the Absolute and Perfect State of Knowledge). The result of shuddha
upayoga is liberation. I am in constant shuddha upayoga.
One priest asked me, “You
travel by car and so many insects get crushed under the car, are you not
responsible for that sin?” I asked him
“Dear Priest! What do your scriptures say?”
‘The one with in shuddha
upayoga, is poised in the Self
His Knowledge and meditation captivates the mind
Aloof he remains from the
binding of karma,
Becomes he the Absolute
(Shiv)’
I am always in shuddha
upayoga. Does a shuddha-upayogi ever commit violence? The priest answered no. I told him that I do
not bind karma but he does because according to his knowledge, he has a
constant belief of ‘I am a priest. These are my feet and the insects are being
crushed under my feet’. Alas! This belief remains even as he sleeps and
that is why he is liable for his actions. I constantly remain constantly aware
as the Self. Not even for of a moment do I feel that this body is mine. I have no sense of ownership over this body
and that is why I am not held liable for the karma.
For example, say you sold a
piece of land a week ago to Mr. Lallubhai and you transfer the documents of
ownership to him. One day the police
come to arrest you because they found smuggled gold buried on that land. The police tell you that you are responsible
because the gold was found on your land. You immediately breathe a sign of
relief and show them the proof of sale of the land to Lallubhai. The police will accept your explanation and
apologize for their mistake and will go to Lallubhai.
Such is my state. I am the Lord of this Universe and yet I
have no ownership of any ‘plot’ anywhere.
I (the Pure Soul) possess enough power to make this universe tremble,
but Ambalal Muljibhai (the physical
body) does not have the strength to break even a pappadum!
The humans of this world
have one million four hundred thousand different layers. Of these only those in the top fifty
thousand layers are worthy of hearing this discourse. Spiritual development of
every human being is at different levels. This results in different standards
and for each standard there is a God and its relevant scriptures. These
standards are of worldly relative religions.
‘Illusion (maya)
has long horns and reach,
They strike you
from the front and kick you from beind’
What does
illusion (maya - ignorance of one’s real Self) say? It says, “Even if you kill
all my ‘sons’, they will resurrect as long as my son, maan (pride), is alive.
Anger, pride, illusion, greed, attachment and abhorrence are my six ‘sons’ and
I make up a family of seven, which will remain evergreen.
This maya and
her six ‘sons’ have created discord in this world, so if anything needs to be
destroyed, it is these seven. (Translator’s comments: Maya is the root cause,
the ignorance of the Self. From this stems two divisions, attachment and
abhorrence, raag and dwesh. Abhorrence has two components, anger and pride.
Attachment has two components, deceit and greed). Drop an atom bomb on them! Maya is responsible
for the discord and quarrels in this world. It is also responsible for
propagating and perpetuating the worldly life. Of her six sons, anger is
guileless. He frankly and unwittingly blurts out what is on his mind. People
can easily identify him and will ask, ‘Why are you getting angry?’ Pride (maan)
is good too, although it is slightly inferior to anger. People will recognize
it and will ask you why you walk around arrogantly. Whereas deceit and
attachment are very difficult to detect, even the person in whom these quality
reside, is oblivious of them. Finally comes greed and it is last on the
list. Even the Lord gets tired of
deceit, attachment and greed; they will not allow anyone to attain liberation.
This family of maya is very powerful indeed. In the traditional kramic path,
maya remains unconquerable even till the end. When godhood comes finally to
grace the aspirant, maya intervenes. One can only be freed from this worldly
life by meeting a Gnani Purush, only then will maya and its progeny be
destroyed. The Gnani does not do anything else, except eradicate maya and her
eldest son ego, after which all five of maya’s remaining sons along with ‘old
lady’ maya will perish. This is how one
becomes free from bondage and achieves liberation. When I give you the Gnan, I liberate you from all bondage of
illusion.
There are three kinds of
happiness in this world:
1.Happiness related to the
senses (indriya sookh)
2.Happiness not related to
the senses. (nirindriya sookh)
3.Happiness beyond the
senses (atiindriya sookh - of the real Self)
The happiness that one
experiences through the medium of the five senses is the happiness of the first
kind. The person who renounces sensorial pleasures but has not acquired the happiness
of Self is caught up in a bind; he is neither here nor there. The happiness void of the senses is
ego-inebriated; it is merely donkey-pranks!
The happiness that is beyond the senses is the infinite bliss of the
Self. This happiness cannot be acquired without knowing the Self.
There are three travelers,
one enjoys the pleasure of the senses (indriya sookh), the second is given to
ego-pleasures (nirindriya sookh) and the third remains within the realms of his
pure Self, beyond the senses (atiindriya sookh). All three happened to spend a
night at a village inn. During the night it snows and it turns very cold. None of them have any blankets. How do they
spend the night? The first one keeps
crying out, ‘It’s very cold, I am going to die from this cold’, and by the
morning, sure enough he is dead.
The second traveler keeps
saying, ‘Darn! It’s so cold. The heck
with it, it does not affect me, it affects the body’. This is how he spends his
night and by the morning his entire body becomes very cold but the fellow is
still breathing very slowly.
The third traveler just
withdraws within the cave of the Self, the moment it starts snowing. He remains completely detached from his body
the entire night. He lives in the infinite bliss of the Self and by the morning
he is on his way.
The person who is given to
ego-pleasures remains intoxicated by the ego.
People fuss over him, calling him ‘Bapji’ ‘Bapji’ and he remains
intoxicated with pride.
The Vedanta says that
liberation is acquired once impurity-obstructed view and ignorance are
gone. The Jain scriptures say that
liberation is acquired once attachment-abhorrence and ignorance are gone.
The impurities of the body
can be removed through purgation. But
the impurities of the mind and the chit cannot be removed by anything. As long
as there is ignorance of one’s real Self all obstructions remain. People try to remove impurity and
obstruction for peace of mind. Once you acquire Gnan what remains? Only impurity and obstruction, and these
will dispel when you come to satsang.
What causes bondage of the
human being? Ignorance. So what will liberate it? The opposite of what binds it – knowledge.
‘I am Chandulal’, is the
false imposition of the Self and hence attachment arises at the false location
for Chandulal. That results in abhorrence for the other end, the Self. When
attachment exists on one end, abhorrence will for sure exist on the other end.
I awaken you to your real Self and at that very moment you become free from
abhorrence (vitadwesh). As you progress higher as the Self you become free from
attachment (vitarag). Vitarag means knowledge and vision of the Self. I bestow upon you absolute knowledge and absolute
vision. This absolute vision remains
intact but you are not able to digest the absolute knowledge of complete 360°.
This is due to the effect of the current time cycle. Alas! I too was unable to digest the final 4°! I
give you the full knowledge of 360° but you will not be able to
digest it and hence yours is a state of partial absolute-knowledge. By whatever degree the Self manifests
further, the degrees of your perfect-knowledge will increase. When the Self
becomes fully manifested, concomitantly y perfect-Knowledge will too.
In the traditional kramic path delusion is destroyed with
delusion. For example, we need soap to wash a dirty cloth, but the soap will
leave behind its residue and stain and so we need ‘Tinopal’ (bleaching soap) to
remove that stain. Tinopal will remove
the soap stains, but leave behind stains of its own. In this manner whatever
tool is used, that tool will leave behind its own stain and so one never
becomes absolutely pure. Absolute
purity can be achieved only when one meets a Gnani Purush. The Gnani Purush who
is absolutely pure Himself, is the only one who can separate each atom of the
non-Self and destroy all your sins and give you your pure Self. Only then the
puzzle will be solved and you will attain liberation. Otherwise, you will
continue to ‘wash the stains from your clothes’ for endless births, each time
leaving behind the impurities of the ‘soap’ you utilize.
A young woman named Chanchal
silently suffers her mother-in-law’s nagging from dawn to dusk. If the
mother-in-law uses abusive words non-stop for four hours and you ask her to
repeat the same words in the same manner, will she be able to do so? No.
Why? This is because the
mother-in-law’s speech is a ‘record’ that is playing. What if this record (Dada pointing to a record on a record
player) were to say, ‘Chanchal has no sense, Chanchal has no sense?’ Will
Chanchal retaliate by saying, ‘You have no sense, mother’ to the record? I am
the only one who has revealed that speech is a form of a record. Speech is
inanimate; it is a record. When a tape recorder plays back, does the tape not
have to be recorded first? In the same way, the tape of your entire life speech
has already been recorded in the past life and in this life it is playing. Just
as a record starts playing when the needle is placed on the record, so will the
record of your speech commence as soon as the appropriate circumstance
arises. But people claim that they are
the ones speaking. When a lawyer argues
a case in the courts, he will boast that he won because of his pleading, but
what happens to his ability to plead when he loses? He looks for excuses for
having lost the case. But all along it
was a record that was playing. He would
not be able to articulate even a word of what he intended to say, if he prearranged
it meticulously. Only that which has been recorded will play.
Does it not often occur that
even though you firmly make up your mind that you do not want to talk back to
your mother-in-law or your husband, you end up doing so? What is it that spills out in the form of
words? You had no desire to talk back. Your husband had no desire to be
verbally abused. Then what makes you talk back? It is the prerecorded record
that is playing, and absolutely no one can change it once it has been recorded.
There are times when you
decide to confront and say certain things to a person but when you see that
person with five other people, do you not return without uttering a word? Even
if you want to say something you will be tongue-tied, does that happen or not?
If speech were under your control, you would be able to say what you desire,
but does that happen? How can that happen? The speech of this Ambalal Muljibhai
too is in the form of a record, despite having a body in which the Supreme Lord
has completely manifested. I have no power or control over my speech. All I do
is know and observe the kind of speech that is being uttered by Ambalal. Speech
is completely inanimate. But this
speech first touches the Lord present within before it flows outward and that
is why it is spiritually alive. It is Saraswati (Goddess of speech)
herself. The Goddess Saraswati you see
in the pictures is an indirect form of Saraswati, whereas my speech is direct
Saraswati, which destroy your sins of infinite lives.
My speech is completely
vitarag, completely syaad-vaad (does not hurt anyone). The easiest way to recognize a vitarag is
through his speech. The value you place
on this speech is dependent upon the level of your expertise as a ‘jeweler’ (as
an seeker seeking the real guru). But
where can one find such jeweler in this day and age? The poor wretched souls of today place a value of five rupees on
a diamond that is worth five billion! And so the diamond itself has to disclose
its own value. That is why today I
myself have to say to you that I am The Enlightened One. I am completely vitarag. God, himself, has
given me this status as his superior. He said, ‘I was looking for a qualified
person and I see that in you. I am completely vitarag and liberated. I cannot help anyone now. You are
enlightened with a physical body. You too are completely vitarag and that is
why I give you my power to continue the work of salvation.’ Today, I am the
superior of the Lord of the fourteen worlds.
This is the incarnation of Gnan with all the special powers. So come and
‘kindle your lamp’ and move on. Don’t try to scrutinize everything. How can you
measure the worth of the Gnani Purush who is immeasurable? How can you measure
a Gnani Purush when at home your wife scolds you and calls you senseless? What
qualifications do you have to assess a Gnani? Do you have that expertise? If
you try to assess me, your intellect will become assessed instead. Instead, why
don’t you bundle your obstinacy and dispose it in a sewer and come to your
senses. Accept with humility that you do not know anything and ask to be
liberated from the wanderings of infinite lives. That is all you need to ask and I will solve your puzzle of
life. A Gnani can do whatever he
chooses because he has the power to grant liberation. How many Gnani’s can you
find in this world? Five, ten?
Alas! Gnanis are very rare
indeed and a Gnani of the Akram path comes about once every million years and
that too only in the peculiar time like the current cycle of Kaliyug! He will
directly take you up in a lift instead of you having to climb steps and exhaust
yourself. Thread your necklace with this invaluable pearl in the flash of the
lightening that has occurred. But the foolish ones go in search of a thread at
a time like this. What can one do? They
fall short of merit karma.
Only the speech, which is
free of any attachment, can lead you to liberation. My speech is sweet,
melodious and has never been heard before.
It is a direct speech which has never been heard before whereas as the
speech found in the scriptures is indirect. If you were to hear direct speech
for just one hour, you will become enlightened. My speech is syaadvad – speech
that is acceptable by all, and absolutely non-violent in type. It is one that
accepts all doctrines. It is one that
accepts all viewpoints. This speech comes forth because I am sitting in the
center. My speech is impartial. People of all religious sects, Hindus, Moslems,
Parsis and Khojas, listen to my speech and they all accept me as an Aptapurush
(absolutely trustworthy person). I do not have any intellect that discriminates
and divides. I reside in everyone: I am the speaker and the listener too.
Vitarag speech is the only
speech that is filled with the intent of total salvation and liberation of the
other. Such speech itself will take one all the way to liberation.
Although this record of mine
plays all day long, I am silent. My
speech is only used for that which is related to the Self and nothing else.
That is why I consider it silent. A
muni is the one who takes a vow of silence however, these munis observe
physical or external silence, but from within they are restless, so how can
they be called a muni? I am the supreme
muni. I am completely silent. This silence is considered the silence for
the highest cause.
Speech that is beneficial,
short and sweet is true speech, all other speech is untrue. This rule is
applicable for speech in the worldly interactions.
Look here Natubhai! You are recording my speech but you will
derive fifty-percent benefit from doing so and others who read it will not
derive even two percent of the benefit. As long as this bubble (Dada’s body)
has not burst, make the most of this opportunity and make the connection with
your Self. Later on it will be of no use. I tell everyone not to display any
photographs or idols of me, after I am gone. Do you not have pictures of Lord
Mahavir and Lord Krishna? Display theirs, not mine. They will be of no use to
you later. I will leave behind a ‘progeny’ of Gnanis. I will leave behind the Gnani who will continue the Work.
Thereafter the link of Gnanis will continue. Therefore look for a living Gnani
(sajeevan murti). There is no salvation without one.
Antahkaran:
Inner Psychic Organ
The science, which the whole
world is in search of, is being fully revealed here for the first time by me.
It is very difficult to understand the mind (mana). What is the mind? What is
buddhi? What is chit and what is ahamkar? I will explain each of them exactly
as they are.
Antahkaran has four
components: mind (mana), intellect (buddhi), chit (that which sees scenes,
previously registered) and ego (ahamhkar).
All four have a form and can
be read. They are not visible to the eyes but can be comprehended through Gnan.
They are completely physical. The Pure Soul (Shuddhatma) has nothing to with
the antahkaran; it is completely separate from it. I am completely separate
from it and that is why I am able to describe it to you exactly.
Function: Each of the four
components has its own separate function but every action is carried out with
the co-operation of all four. The basis on which the human body functions has
two parts: The sthoola (physical body) – The external division called
baahyakaran (the external organ) and sookshma (subtle body) – The internal
division called antahkaran (internal organ)
For any action that takes
place, first the photograph is created in the antahkaran (internal organ) and
then it manifests as physical action in the external organ and in the world.
The mind never leaves the
body; it jumps around inside only and shows you different cues and pamphlets.
Wandering is not an attribute of the mind. It is wrong when people say their
mind wanders. It is the chit that wanders. Only the chit can leave the body and
wander outside. It takes pictures of things exactly as they are and one can see
those images. The intellect gives advice and makes decisions and the ego
endorses them. There is interplay between the mind, the intellect and the chit
and the ego endorses whomever the intellect sides with, the mind or The chit.
For example, you are sitting
in Santa Cruz and your mind shows you a ‘pamphlet’ a cue, that you want to go
to Dadar. Your chit will immediately go to Dadar and you will see exact images
of Dadar, while sitting in Santa Cruz.
Then the mind will show you another pamphlet that you want to travel by
bus, and the chit will show you the bus. Then the mind will show you a third
pamphlet of going by taxi and the fourth one of going by train. Then the
chit will keep showing you the image
of a taxi. Finally the intellect will then make a decision to go by taxi and
the ego, like the President of India, will endorse it. The work will then be
executed and you will find yourself waiting for a taxi. As soon as the
intellect makes a decision, the mind will cease to show you any more pamphlets
of that subject. It will then begin to show you pamphlets about another topic.
The ego will endorse either the intellect and the chit or the intellect and the
mind. Intellect is the common factor in the two. Without it no decision
regarding any work is arrived at, and when the decision is made, the ego
endorses it and the work is executed. No work can be executed without the ego;
you cannot even get up for a glass of water.
Thus the antahkaran is like
a parliamentary system.
Now I will explain what the
mind is and its nature.
The mind is like a tuber. It
is made up of many tubers and is very subtle. It is neither a subatomic
particle (parmanoo) nor an atom but a stage between the two. When any situation
arises, it expresses attachment or abhorrence towards that situation and it
remains absorbed in that situation.
Because of this, a new causal-mind is created, the effect of which is
brought into fruition by vyavasthit, and this effect manifests as
‘effective-mind’. Everyone’s mind is
different because his or her causal-mind is different. The longer the mind remains caught up in a
situation, the greater the number of parmanoos accumulate and come together and
it is this very collection of parmanoos that creates a tuber. The mind is a
collection of tubers. When the circumstances and timing is right in accordance
to the principles of vyavasthit, the tuber sproust and that is called thoughts.
The nature of the mind can be understood from the thoughts and the kind of
tubers that have been created. Thoughts
can be read. You have attachment towards pleasant thoughts and abhorrence
towards unpleasant ones and then you say you want to conquer the mind. The mind
can never be conquered, but it can be contained through Gnan, just like water
is contained in a pot. Conquering the mind is the biggest contradiction. The
Real you is sentient (chetan, with life principle) and the mind is insentient
(achetan, non-self, without life), so how can the two be compatible? Only when
the Self does the ‘work’ of the Self and the mind does the ‘work’ of the mind,
can the problem be solved. You should maintain awareness not to interfere with
the functioning of the mind or to become absorbed or one with the mind.
Let me explain what these
tubers of the mind are like. Say you visit your farm in the summer and find
nothing growing in it. You will think that the farm is clean but I tell you to
wait and see what happens after it rains.
After a good rain you will see all kinds of greenery on it, all kinds of
creepers everywhere. Where did these
creepers come from? Each creeper had a
rhizome under the ground, which sprouted with the first shower of rain. Then if
you uproot all the creepers, you’ll feel happy that your farm is completely
clean. I would tell you that you could only say it is clean, if it remains free
from any creepers after three years of rain. Only then can you consider that
your farm is free of any tuber (nirgrantha). Similarly this mind is made up of
tubers; the bigger the tuber about a specific topic, the greater the number of
thoughts about that topic and the smaller the tuber, the fewer the thoughts.
For example, if you ask a young Vanik (vegetarian sect) boy how many times he
thinks about eating meat, he would tell you that during his entire life of
twenty years, he has thought about it only a few times. This means that his
tuber of eating meat is a small one, the size of a beetle nut. Now, if we were
to ask a Muslim boy the same question, he would tell you that he thinks about
eating meat several times a day. This means that his tuber of eating meat is
very large, the size of a large sweet potato. If you ask a Jain child, he will
tell you that the thought of eating meat never crosses his mind, meaning he has
no such tubers at all.
If you were to plot a graph
about your thoughts and what they are about, over a period of a month, a week
and a day, you would come to know the kind and the size of tubers you have. You
will have only about five or ten large ones and these are the ones, which
create a problem. There is no problem
with the smaller ones. Do you think you can do this?
I do not have any tubers
within me, thus I am considered nirgranth (without tuber). Human beings are
like a piece of wood full of tubers; one cannot even make any ‘furniture’ out
of them! When these tubers become excessive, they express themselves as tumors
in or on the body.
The mind is quite separate
from the Self and can never become one with it. When you have pleasant
thoughts, you are deluded to believe that it is you who is doing the thinking
and your thoughts are good. And when the thoughts are unpleasant you say that
you have these thoughts even when you do not want them. What does that suggest?
When the thoughts are pleasant you claim to be the thinker and when they are
unpleasant you say, “What can I do?” If you were the thinker and the thoughts
were under your control then you would only think pleasant thoughts. Nobody
would entertain unpleasant thoughts. But that does not happen, does it? Both,
the pleasant and unpleasant thoughts will come.
There are those who claim
that the God within them inspires them to steal. The fools! Do they mean to say
that God is the guilty one, while he is innocent? Would God ever give such an
inspiration? God neither inspires one to steal nor does he inspire one not to
steal. Why would he inspire one to steal and become the thief Himself? The law
is that the one who inspires to steal is the thief.
Do you think God meddles in
this way? He is the Knower, the Observer and is in permanent bliss. He sees and
knows everything. So where does the inspiration come from? It is when a
person’s tuber to steal sprouts from within; he will have thoughts about
stealing. If this tuber is big, he will have many thoughts and he may end up
stealing. He will even boast about his
skills in stealing and by doing so he nourishes his tuber of stealing, which in
turn will continue to sow new seeds of stealing, and his tuber to steal will
grow bigger. Now there is another man, who also steals, but while stealing he
feels remorse for what he is doing but he has no other means to feed his family. He continues to repent sincerely and
therefore his tuber of stealing does not get any nourishment. By repenting he is also sowing seeds of not
stealing and so in his next life he will not steal.
The mind brings forth,
different thoughts and because of a person’s ignorance about his real Self, he
becomes entangled with the thoughts. He
believes the thoughts to be his, thereby creating new images or
‘photographs’. These images are
recorded in the form of a negative and when they manifest into a physical
action, it is like watching a movie on the screen. The movies you see in a theatre will last only a few hours,
whereas the movie of the mind is endless. Once it ends, a person will achieve
liberation. That is what Kavi sang
during the opening ceremony of a movie theatre in Aurangabad.
“A movie lasts three hours
in the world,
But the end of the movie of
the mind is liberation.”
People try to control their
mind. When they see an unpleasant ‘movie’, they try to censure it or cut it
out. How can they censure it or cut it after the fact? They should have been
more careful while making the movie. Mind is a movie. All you have to do in a movie is to watch it and know it. You do
not have to become emotional in it. If someone is dying in a movie, people start
crying sitting in the audience, as if their own loved one is dying! How
foolish! It is only a movie and there
is no need for anyone to cry.
I merely observe and know
the movie of the mind. I observe and know the kind of thoughts that come and
go. My friendship with these thoughts extends only as far as a handshake. I do
not marry them. Lord Mahavir did the same. He merely observed the thoughts that
came and went. He too had thoughts till the very end (nirvana, liberation). You exist as long as you have thoughts. Thoughts are
gneya (object to be known) and you are gnata (the knower). The relationship is
that of the knower and the object to be known. How can you be the knower if
there is nothing to be known? You will
continue to see the movie of the mind till the last moment of your liberation.
When it ends, there is perfect liberation – nirvana. If you are walking alone
in the dark and have thoughts about being robbed, assume that if not on that
day, some day you will be robbed. If you do not have such thoughts, then you
will not be robbed. Thoughts are a forecast of things to come. The stock is already within you and that is
why it manifests in the form of a thought. The kind of thoughts you have is one
of the evidences. All You, the Self have to do is just remain the knower and
the observer and maintain extra awareness there. It is very important to know
the science of the mind. Everyone tries to destroy the mind. The mind is not to
be destroyed. A person would become mad if his mind were destroyed. You should
not expect only good things to come to your mind; accept whatever comes
along. You should tell your mind that
it could do whatever it wants. It can blow a horn or play a flute. Who are we
to stop or change the ‘effect’ mind? No one can do that because it is an
effect. Why should you be afraid of it? What would we listen to if the mind did
not play any music? You are the one
that needs to make the adjustments.
Tell your mind to play whatever it wants because now you like all kinds
of music. Before Gnan you only liked
good music but now you have become adjusted and so now you have neither likes
nor dislikes.
Even before Gnan I had the
awareness of the thoughts that arose in the mind and would know that they would
not let me sleep. So I would tell the mind, “Just keep on running. You are the horse and I am the rider. You
can run in whichever direction you want. It is just you and I.” This would go
on until the morning. It is the law of the world that whatever you try to
control or restrict, will take control over you. When sugar is rationed in the
market, the price of sugar goes up. It is the same with the mind; if you try to
restrict the mind, it will run twice as fast. So do not try to restrict
it. There would be no problem in
restricting the mind if it were obedient.
But if it does not listen to you, then you should let it run till it
gets exhausted. Why should you worry?
You have the reins in your hands. But instead what do people do? They try to
control the mind; they try to suppress it so they can sleep. You should forget
about sleeping because such times present you with an opportunity to ride the
mind. When will you get such an opportunity again?
It is only after riding the
mind over and over again that I have acquired such perfect and
non-contradictory Gnan.
The mind is a boat in the
ocean of worldly interactions. People
try to destroy the mind to create a state of thoughtlessness, but such a state
cannot be achieved. If a person were to achieve
such a state he would be considered a stone.
What do people mean by a thoughtless state? If the mind becomes restless
in certain matters, they try to suppress it in those matters but they don’t
realize that it will become restless in other matters. What is the real definition of a thoughtless
state? ‘The one who remains as the Self, completely separate as the knower and
the observer of thoughts that emerge with the passing of time – he is the one
who has acquired the thoughtless state in the Lord’s language.’
Many foolish men renounce
everything; their homes, wife and children and wearing only a loincloth go off
to conquer the mind. They run away from
people and go off to the jungle to look at the animals and the trees. But they don’t realize that the mind they
take with them will continue to behave the same. In the jungle, these men will
keep a cow or a goat, grow plants, and build a hut. The nature of the mind is such that it will create a worldly life
wherever it goes. It will create a
worldly life even in the Himalayas. Now
how can you control such a mind?
Control of the mind is the greatest paradox. It is impossible to control the nature of the mind. But there are certain yogis who have brought
with them such tubers from their past life that makes them feel that their mind
is under their control. But they will realize it is not so once their mind
starts to oppose them. Those who practice yoga too will realize that their mind
is not under their control when someone tries to provoke them. They practice
yoga because of their tubers. Practicing yoga is in his prakruti and yet he
believes that he is the one doing it.
He believes that he has conquered his mind.
The mind surrenders to Gnan.
The Gnani is able to dissolve the tubers through Gnan thereby attaining a state
free of tubers (nirgranth).
Your mind is the image of
your nobility. Understand the mind and its nature completely.
What is a Khashtriya’s mind
like? It is very generous and
noble. If he is in a temple he will
donate whatever money he has in his pocket, he will not hesitate or stop to
think about how much he is giving. The
mind of a person with Vanik intellect is very narrow. Patidars, Patels are called Kashatriyas. They have a very generous mind but they do
not have the wisdom and the pragmatic approach to worldly interactions, as do
the Vaniks. No one has all the
attributes.
Goddess Laxmi, the Godess of
wealth says that she will reside in a home of a person who is sincere to one
hundred persons. This means that such a home will have an abundance of wealth.
Thes other homes will be rewarded only proportionate to their effort and hard
work. What do we mean by sincerity? It means that one should know one’s mind,
how noble it is and to what extent it is so?
Money does not come through
hard work. It comes only to those with open and generous minds. Do you think
these wealthy businessmen work? No,
they all have a generous mind. The businessmen enjoy their wealth but it is
their staffs that do all the work.
Mind should be divine. Divine mind means to help even those who
are ungrateful; to help even the one who cheats you and calls you a fool on top
of that! When such people become victim
of circumstances, only the divine-minded will help them. Those with divine
minds bind a celestial life form in their coming life.
What does the intellect of a
Vanik do? If there is only one blanket between you and him, he will grab it
first and cover himself from head to toe and pretend to be sleeping. He knows
that you would ask for the blankest if he is awake. It is a mind like this that
causes one to suffer a lot. This whole world is yours but you should know how
to enjoy it with nobility. Kabir was a very wise man, he said:
‘Eat, drink and be
hospitable to others; thus do your duty,
for when leaving this world,
nothing will accompany you.”
To do your duty means to
make preparation for liberation. It is the narrow mind that creates an obstacle
to wealth. Why else would wealth be obstructed? The intellect of the Vanik is
wise but it is very obstructive in the path of liberation.
If the mind were to
calculate and balance accounts every day, the next day you would not be able to
cook. Suppose you don’t earn even a
dime in your business, does that mean you should not cook the next day? What is this mind like? Let me explain. Suppose there is path five feet wide, you will catch burs on your
clothes from the bushes that grow in the path.
The same thing would happen on a two feet wide path and the same will
happen when the path is so narrow that only one person at a time can pass
through. He will still manage to
squeeze through and the burs will still stick to his clothes. The mind knows which holes it has to escape
through and it will squeeze its way through, no matter what the situation. It can even pass through two wires. That is why we say Oh fool! Do not turn a
royal mind into that of a beggar. If
you do not have a flower to give, give even a petal but do not let your mind
become a beggar. Depending upon
circumstances, even a king may have to beg but does that mean that his mind has
become beggarly? It will still remain
noble and generous. The broader the
mind, the greater is the freedom. The narrower the mind, the greater is the
confinement.
It is like this, the direction the mind drags a person to, depends
upon the kind of tubers his mind is made of. A miser has a tuber of greed; a
benevolent person will have a tuber of benevolence. An ascetic will have a
tuber of ascetism. A renunciator will have a tuber of renunciation; it is this
tuber that makes him renounce and yet he says,‘I renounced’. You unfortunate
man! You just made your tuber larger! When will this tuber ever dissolve? How
will you get liberation? These tubers are to be seen and known. You are
separate and the tubers of your mind are separate. The fact that your mind is
separate from you is very evident because when you want to fall asleep the mind
will start all kinds of pranks and will not let you sleep. You may have all the
comforts for sleeping and yet it will not let you sleep.
Foreigners come to India in
search of peace of mind, but is it that easy to find? The Jains too go for
darshan of Shantinath Bhagwan for shanti (peace) but Bhagwan says that while
you are doing my darshan, you are also doing darshan of your shoes and also
your business. So how will you acquire peace?
In this age there is no
harmony between one’s mind, one’s speech and one’s actions. For example, Chandu and his friend go
shopping. Chandu’s mind, speech and
actions are all different. In his mind
he feels he wants to pay less but he claims and his behaviour indicates that he
want to buy at a fair price. Whereas
his friend maintains in his mind, speech and behaviour that he will purchase
things at a fair price. Chandu’s friend
will attain a higher life form world, whereas Chandu is destined for lower life
form world. Why did he keep the mind separate from his speech and acts? This is the very evil effect of the mind,
which binds him. This discord between
your mind, speech and behaviour does not escape God. This age of kaliyug means evil effects and these evil effects are
inherent when one is born, some with a lesser and some with a higher
degree.
The Nature Of
The Mind
What is the nature of the
mind? If you show your mind someone who
is unhappier than you, then it will be happy and make you feel that you have
more happiness. If you are living in a
two-room apartment, your mind may become restless for a bigger apartment. That is when you should ask your mind how
people manage to live in just one room?
Some don’t even have a chair to sit on, how do they manage? Then your mind will become happy again. Sometimes when your mind becomes idle it
will ask for nourishment, so you should nurture your mind in this way. This
approach is for the one whose mind has become weak. However with the Gnan that
I give you, you will not need anything else.
The knowledge of vyavasthit is such that the mind will not revolt and
complain. Wherever the mind goes it will always be at peace. Where the mind remains at peace in any
situation, there is true Gnan – that is true religion.
The nature of the mind is
very strange. It is such that it will steal five dollars from someone and give
away two dollars to someone else. The
mind is very unpredictable; in no time it can create dislike for a person you
have always revered. So be cautious, do
not act according to dictates of your mind.
What has Saint Kabir said?
‘The person who is dictated
by his mind loses everything.’
The mind is very elusive; it
will never let you become aware that it has deceived you. If the powers of the self enter the mind and
become one with the mind, it can sabotage you.
That is like jumping into a pond then crying for help. In this age, people’s minds have become
fractured. Such minds can drive a person to jump into the ocean.
The mind is like a
dancer. People say that it is the king
who makes the dancer dance. I say this
is not so. It is the dancer who makes the king dance. Similarly, your mind
makes you dance.
Two friends are out walking
and one of them gets a whiff of some meat cooking in a restaurant close
by. Within him his tuber for eating
meat starts to erupt and tickles him from within. He gets an intense desire to eat meat. He makes an excuse and tells his friend he has to meet someone
and asks him to wait for him. He lies to his friend in this way and goes and
eats in the restaurant. Alas! People
even take a false oath in the name of God.
When the tubers erupt, they will start lying. This is what God calls kashaya.
The wretched man binds a tuber of deceit and a tuber of lying and
strengthens his tuber of eating meat. When a tuber erupts in an ignorant person
(person without Self-realization), he will bind five new ones. Instead if he
were to become flexible and straightforward when his tuber for eating meat
erupts, he will one day solve his problems.
In his ignorant state he will never become free from his tubers of
eating meat but by telling the truth that he is going to the restaurant to eat
meat, he can benefit greatly. If his
friend comes form a virtuous family, he may even try to free him from his
meat-eating habit or may show him a way out.
His friend may make him understand and if he continues to repent, he may
break his habit in the end. But if he
does not soften and relent and goes away by lying and deceit, then he will
never become free because he will bind new tubers of deceit and lies. That is why God has said for us to adopt a
principle of not stealing through the medium of the mind, speech and acts. That
way some day the tubers will dissolve.
There are all kinds of
tubers in the mind; greed, pride, deceit, and anger. There may be tubers of all
of these. The tuber of pride is better than that of greed. The tuber of greed is very bad; even the one
who has it is not aware of it. Whereas others can see the tuber of pride
sprouting and when someone asks him why he walks around being boastful and in
arrogance, his tuber of pride will dissolve.
The tuber of greed may become evident some day but the tuber of deceit
will always remain hidden.
The tubers of greed and
anger will cause a lot of suffering to you and others. The Lord has said for the one with greed to
be charitable. Such people should
gather some loose change worth about twenty-five dollars and walk along
scattering the money and when their mind begins to fight back, they should
scatter more money. This way the mind will become quiet. But the best way to dissolve the tuber of
greed is through thinking things through.
Think about why and for whom you have gathered your wealth and what
kinds of happiness do you want from it.
You don’t achieve any happiness for yourself. Additionally, working like
a donkey for others, you loose your happiness and precious time. Finally on top
of this you incur the liability of all the kashays- crimes committed in the
process.
When a tuber erupts in a
Gnani, the Gnani simply remains the seer and the observer of that tuber. In accordance with the Gnani’s instructions,
if you look at the tubers of the mind from a vantage point of the pure Self,
then those tubers will gradually dissolve.
I have infinite powers within and that is why I am able to dissolve your
tubers; but as far as possible, I avoid using these powers unnecessarily. I show you the way to do it. You acquire experience when these tubers
erupt and you get the opportunity to watch the film of the mind. What will the ‘seer’ do if there is nothing
to see? To the extent the mind unfolds,
the Self too will blossom. The knowing
power of the Self will increase in proportion with the increase in the number
of objects seen. The more the number of
objects you see, the greater the knowing power of the Self. Wherever the mind
has become defiled with dirt, you can clean it by using the soap of Gnan.
If the mind craves for some
french fries, you should instantly become aware whether it is vyavasthit
prodding you or whether you are being enticed by the roughnecks within. Be assured that it is vyavasthit when it
strikes three times. The mind and the
intellect will remain subdued if the body gets only just enough for its nourishment. Nevertheless, in my Gnan, there is no need
to renounce or acquire. Vyavasthit will guide you.
The mind constantly needs
nourishment. It needs pressure It needs to remain busy. The mind will behave
badly when you are alone. Mahatmas who have acquired my Gnan remain detached
and unaffected in worldly life and experience solitude of the Self in extreme
congestion. The mind gets its food in crowds and becomes engrossed in its own
work and at that time the Self is left alone to remain in bliss.
If someone’s mind becomes
weak, even a person without Self-Realization will ask ‘Why are you so
preoccupied with your thoughts, snap out of it!’ The mind will express anything.
Do you think people have
thoughts about dying? Certainly they
do. Everyone thinks about dying but
what do they do? They shove such
thoughts aside the moment they erupt.
Why not get rid of all your thoughts?
But no, people would not do that.
They cling on to thoughts that please them. This Gnan of ours is such that at the moment of death, the Self
will manifest fully. At that moment one
will withdraw completely in the domain of the Self. The mind, intellect, chit and ego will all become still and at
the moment of death, there will be absolute peace (samadhi – deep meditation). All my mahatmas have samadhi at the time of
their death.
The mind is completely
physical. It is mechanical. If a man manufactures machines, at the time of the
manufacturing he becomes one with the machinery. And when that machine runs,
his ego will take credit for doing such a good job. And if he were to
accidentally stick his finger in the machine, will the machine have any
hesitation in cutting his finger? No it will not. It will cut his finger in no
time because the machine is physical: insentient – in that the maker of the
machine has no power. The same is true of the mind.
There are atoms that are
lighter than the atoms of the body. Speech is made of these atoms and the mind
is made up of atoms even lighter than these.
There are two kinds of
minds: gross and subtle. – The subtle mind is also known as bhaav mun, intent
or causal mind or charge mind, and the gross mind is called dravya mun, the
effect mind. The causal mind is located at a depth of two and a half inches
from the center of the forehead at the eyebrow level. The effect mind, also
known as discharge mind is in the heart. It has petals. Many people say,’My
heart does not accept.’ In situations of sudden shock, the heart becomes very
agitated, that is physical mind- it is in the form of discharge, whereas the
causal mind creates new causes and therefore it charges karma.
The causal mind has a
purpose and that is why the seeds of cause are sown. The causal mind can be recognized from one’s intents. But one does not have the ability to see his
deep inner intents. It is only when you
attain the Self. Then You are absolutely impartial and are able to see the mind
completely separate like a movie. Only then can you understand what causal mind
is. Only the omniscient can recognize the causal mind. The Gnani, who is
omniscient, seals off your causal mind and so there is no charging of new mind,
but only the discharging mind remains. Thereafter you only need to see and know
the effect or discharge.
What the foreigners refer
to, as conscious and subconscious mind is physical or discharge mind. No one
can grasp even a single atom of the subtle causal mind. That is the task of
only the Gnani Purush because it can only be ascertained through Gnan.
I have given you, the
mahatmas, the knowledge of the Self and so you are completely separate from
your mind. I have put a stop to your charge mind and have made you the knower
and the observer of your discharge mind. Thus you can remain undisturbd when
you are faced with the infinite states of the mind. That is Gnan. And those who
become affected and entangled in any state of the mind create new causes. The
effect is brought by vyavasthit. They become affected again and this gives rise
to new causes and thus the cycle of cause and effect continues.
The Self is steadfast and
the thoughts fluctuate. Both are separate. This is the only relationship
between the Knower and the known.
That is why I tell everyone not to spoil his or her inner intent
under any circumstances. An unexpected guest may come to visit you at an
untimely hour, but do not spoil your inner intent. Feed him a simple meal but
do not spoil your inner feelings. Do not let your mind become narrow and miserly.
Anger breaks the other
person’s mind beyond reconciliation. This will cause you to wander many life
times. There is a saying that a mind, a pearl and a glass, once broken can
never be joined again.
‘Manahparyavagnan’ means to
know thoughts taking place in the mind of the other before their echo is heard
in your own inner instrument (antahkaran). The person possessing
‘manahparyayagnan’ can read, see and know those thoughts slowly but clearly. In
the language of the Vitarag – to see and to know all the phases of your own
mind is ‘manahparyayagnan’.
I am the doctor of the mind in this world. You will
find doctors of the body everywhere but go and find me a doctor of the mind.
The diseases in the body arise from the diseases of the mind. I stop all the
diseases of the mind and stop any new ones from occurring and help you maintain
the newly acquired healthy state. I separate you from your mind and give you
your pure Self. After that the mind will not disturb you. Such a mind will help
you towards liberation. This mind will obey you completely.
The Light Of The Intellect:
The Light Of Gnan
Knowledge of all the topics
in this world is contained in the intellect and egoless Gnan is the Self.
One can have the knowledge
of all the topics of the world. This knowledge is associated with ego and
therefore it is under the domain of intellect (buddhi). Such knowledge is not
reliable. This is egoistic knowledge.
Many highly intellectual individuals, under certain circumstances have
become stupid. A man with intellect is liable to lose it and become stupid.
Intellect is the indirect
light of the Self. It comes through the
medium of the ego. For example, the sunlight coming in through the window falls
on the mirror and that light is then reflected in another room.
Gnan is the direct light of
the Self. It is the full light. It shows everything exactly as it is. Intellect
is reflected light. It is the original light reflected through the ego. It is
not light itself, whereas Gnan is the light.
It is self-illuminating and also has enough energy to illuminate the
entire universe. For example, the sun is self-illuminating and also illuminates
other things whereas the light of the moon is the sun’s reflected light.
Comparing intellect with
Gnan is like comparing a candle to the sun.
I have the full light of Gnan and that is why I have absolutely no
intelligence. I am without intellect.
Concommittant with the demise of the intellect, omniscient state expressed
within me.One can only become omniscient when one becomes completely free from
intelligence.
There are two kinds of
intellect: (1) Right (samyak) intellect. (2) Wrong (viprit) intellect.
The right intellect is the
intellect that is on the right path and this intellect can only be acquired
when one becomes Self-realized. Thereafter this intellect will show what is
right. It will show things exactly as they are. Only rarely does one attain the right intellect.
The wrong intellect is
always to be found when there is absence of right intellect. Wrong intellect
means it is wrong from the perspective of attaining liberation. It is the nature of wrong intellect to
strengthen the foundations of worldly life and it will never help one towards
liberation. Intellect wanders around only in the worldly life constantly
assessing benefits and losses for the worldly life, never for liberation.
As one’s intellect
increases, so does one’s internal suffering.
If a mother of a two-year-old toddler is on her deathbed, he will not be
affected. He will still be laughing and playing, whereas her twenty-year-old
son will have so much internal suffering.
As the intellect increases, so does the internalh suffering. These laborers have no worries. They sleep
soundly everyday, whereas these wealthy businessmen worry constantly. They do
not even sleep soundly as night. Why?
This is because they have greater intellect. Internal suffering is proportional to the amount of the intellect.
Higher the intellect; higher is the internal suffering.
Where there is intellect,
there will always be ‘I am the doer’, the ego. That is precisely why one
worries. It is the intellect that keeps
us separate from the Self.
Lord Krishna has referred to
the intellect as vyabhicharini (perverted), and says that it makes one wander
endlessly in the worldly life.
Up to what point is
intellect necessary? The intellect is
necessary up to the point one acquires the Self. The use of the intellect
should be limited to solving difficult life situations and preventing such
situations. The intellect should never
be used to earn money aggressively or to deceive others. There is grave danger in doing so.
Money comes to you because
of your merit karma and not because of the use of your intelligence. The owners of these big factories and mills
have no intelligence and yet money keeps coming to them in large amounts. Their
employees use a great deal of intellect.
They are the ones who deal with all the tax officers and have to hear
verbal insults of the tax officers, while the boss sleeps soundly and
leisurely.
Every man is happy in his
own home. A person that lives in a hut
will not be happy in a bungalow and vice versa. The reason behind this is the
‘receptacle’ of the intellect. A person
will only like whatever he has brought with him in the receptacle of
intellect. Whatever one fills in the
receptacle of his intellect in the past life, is divided into two categories: Fruits of merit karma, and fruits of demerit
karma. Everyone divides up this receptacle of intellect. Of the total contents
of this receptacle, they use up most of the percentage to acquire material
wealth, nice home, a car and a family. This way they use up most of their
fruits of their merit karma, leaving behind only one or two percent for
spirituality and religion.
There are two thieves who
steal. One gets caught and the other
escapes cleverly. What does that
indicate? They have brought with them intellect
that prompts stealing, but for the one who gets caught, his demerit karma has
come into effect and therefore he is using up his demerit fruits while the
other uses up his merit karma in escaping. In this way everyone uses up the
merit and demerit karma according to what they have brought in the receptacle of
their intellect. If one comes in this world with intellect for becoming
extremely wealthy, then his merit karma will be used up for that. Other person
has brought same kind of intellect in his receptacle, but for him instead of
his merit fruit he is faced with the fruit of his demerit karma and so he never
sees any money. So clear and precise are people’s life after life accounts that
no one has any power over them. And these fools believe, ‘I earned ten million
rupees.’ Alas! He has used up his merit karma fruit and on the wrong path.
Instead change what you fill in the receptacle of your intellect. Your intent
should be only for the true religion, not for the transient things like things,
wealth, cars, bungalows, radios etc. Keep the receptacle of your intellect
purely for the purpose of attaining the knowledge of the Self. Whatever you
have right now, let it be. From now on fill the receptacle of your intellect
with that which will liberate you.
In my receptacle of
intellect, I have brought forth for this life that which is totally for the
real religion and for the salvation of the world. I have not spent any ofmy
merit karma anywhere else - not for money, house, wife, children or anything
else.
Everyone who has come to me
and taken this Gnan, have been able to do so because they had allocated two to
five percent of their merit karma for liberation in their past life. Because I
had allocated a hundred percent for true religion I have been given a
certicicate of ‘No objection’ as far as religion is concerned.
Lord Ganpati is the chief deity of all the deities representing
wisdom and intellect. He possesses the sole right to write scriptures. There is
not a single place where his intellect does not shine. There is no weakness in
his intellect. That is exactly why he is placed first and foremost among all
deities. Even in rituals of prayer worship, Lord Ganpati is placed first. The
intellect becomes humble, and becomes free from illusion by worshipping him. If
a person encounters a few difficulties in a month but constantly lives in fear
everyday, it is the result of wrong intellect. Worship of Lord Ganpati converts
wrong intellect to right intellect. That is why Lord Ganpati is always placed
first in any worship, but because people perform their rituals without the
correct understanding behind it, their worship does not prove fruitful. If
worship is performed with the correct understanding, it will bring good
results.
Ganpati has successfully
passed through all the intricacies and perplexities of the intellect. By
worshipping him with understanding, the illusion of the intellect disappears
and the right intellect is attained.
Experience
Through Intellect: Experience Through Gnan
If a person who has never
tasted cardamom flavored ice cream before, were given the ice-cream in the
dark, he will begin to wonder whether the ice-cream is naturally cold; whether
the nature of the milk and all the ingredients in the ice cream, such as sugar,
cream and cardamom; is also cold. Intellect has the ability to discern and
analyse the inherent qualities of the ingredients in the ice cream, and why it
is so cold. One is able to know and experience all this through his intellect.
If the intellect, the indirect light of the Self, can be so useful in mundane
worldly matters, imagine how powerful the direct light of the Self can be.
I tell everyone to put their
intellect on pension after they acquire the light of the Self. The whole world
needs intellect. They are dependent on it but the knowledge of the Self is such
that the intellect is not needed any more. I refer to the intellect as a lying
rogue. Never give any credence to it.
You should tell her, “Listen, Madam intellect, life after life you have
harassed me. Dear Madam now return to your own home, go to the ones who need
you. I have no need for you anymore.” Retire your intellect in this way. You do
not have to insult it or be contemptuous towards it, because as long as there
is any contempt or hatred within you, you will not attain liberation. So try to
appease it anyway you can and send her home. Pension means consolation.
If you want liberation then
you should not listen to your intellect at all. The intellect is such that it
will show you faults even in a Gnani Purush. Oh unlucky one! You see faults
even in the one who can grant you liberation? Your liberation will go away from
you for infinite lives.
It is intellect that makes
you clash in the worldly life. Just by listening to your wife you encounter so
much clash and aggravation, just think what Madam Intellect will do to you! If
you listen to her, there is no telling where you will be thrown. Even at two in
the morning she will awaken you and mislead you. Your encounters with your wife
are not so many but this Madam Intellect is always with you. She is such that
she can dethrone you from your seat.
There is a diamond worth
five hundred million. If you were to aska hundred jewelers to appraise it, they
will each give you a different value, because they each are guided by their own
intellect. It is the same diamond and yet so many different values, because
everyone’s intellect is different. Therefore do not try to measure the
intellect of a Gnani Purush. It is not in capacity to do so.
You should not use your
intellect before a Gnani, even by mistake. Every part of the Gnani and his
divine karma are worthy of worship. The intellect can never be used here. This
Gnani Purush has a physical body but within resides the one who is eternally
aware. What is visible to you is the physical form of the Gnani Purush, which
is purel for play-acting for worldly interactions. It is completely dramatic.
For the sake of worldly interactions, the part the Gnani Purush plays is
dramatic – outwardly he plays his role as Ambalal, but from within he is
completely detached. I have no intellect. Only through the association with the
one who is without intellect, can you become the same.
The work of the people in this world is done by the intellect and
the work of the Gnani is done by vyavasthit, and so there is no need to
interfere at all.
What is intellect? It is
your viewpoint from your past life. If you are traveling on a highway, you look
at the landscape around you for four miles and you decide that it would be good
to have everything this way. The intellect endorses this and the viewpoint of
the four-mile becomes decided. In the next mile the landscape changes and so
does your viewpoint and the intellect endorses this too, but the intellect does
not disregard the viewpoint of the past because of the new one. That is why it
presents itself to you, over and over again. If you were to disregard the
viewpoint of the past then there is no problem but this is not possible. Your
opinions always present themselves before you – this I refer to as your past
vision and knowledge because the intellect has endorsed them and that is why
there is an on going conflict from within. Your intellect of today is the
viewpoint of your past and your viewpoint of today becomes your intellect for
the next life and this is how everything carries on.
A thief steals because he
has an opinion for stealing. It is the endorsement by his intellect from his
past life and that is why he steals in this life but if he were to associate
with someone noble, he may change his viewpoint. He may even decide that it is
wrong to steal, and so although he steals in his current life because of his
viewpoint of the past, his current opinion is changing to one of “I should not
steal’ and so in his next life he will acquire the intellect which will not
allow him to steal.
Why do we have difference of
opinion with others? This is because everyone has different viewpoints and that
is why they perceive things differently. To steal is a viewpoint of a thief; he
is not a thief forever. To say that someone’s viewpoint is wrong is tantamount
to calling his self wrong because that is his belief; he believes his body to
be his real self. He is correct in his viewpoint. As long as there is ignorance
of his realSelf, his viewpoint is his only support. After Gnan he comes to the
center and thereafter both ignorance and his viewpoint loose support.
I never tell anyone, ‘ you
are wrong.’ I do not even tell a thief that he is wrong because he is correct
from his point of view. Of course I would explain to him the consequences of
his actions.
Each and every human being
is groping around in the territory of good or evil intellect. Good intellect
shows good things and evil intellect will show wicked things. Ultimately both
kind of intellect will make a person wander around in the worldly life and that
is why I call it wrong intellect (viprit buddhi). Wrong intellect hurts both
the giver and the receiver. The right intellect will help both the giver and
the receiver.
Wrong intellect causes tremendous suffering. If someone is ill in
your home and your intellect points out to you, ‘What if he dies?’ then it will
keep you up crying all night.
The Vaniks have a lot of
intellect. But it also makes them
suffer a lot. The intellect of a Vanik can even become an obstacle for
liberation. Liberation is a feat for the brave, it is a feat for the kshatriyas
(warrior class). The Self has nothing to do with social divisions but the
attributes of the prakruti, confuses it and deludes it(self) in the ignorant
state. Kshatriyas are very powerful and determined. All the twenty-four
Tirthankars were kshatriyas. When kshatriyas desire liberation, they do not
consider worldly things of any value, whereas the Vaniks who desire liberation
will attach importance to the worldly things also. One has to be cautious of the Vanik intellect. Beware of it; it
causes a great deal of confusion on the path of liberation.