Gnani Purush Dadashri shows us the inner vision as we look at the images of Lord Ganesh
Lord
Ganapati 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 Ganapati
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 Ganapati converts wrong intellect to right intellect. That is why Lord
Ganapati 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.
Ganapati
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 analyze 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.
The
Vaniks have a very large tuber of greed. This is not easily evident to the
owner. Whereas kshatriyas are restless by nature and they exhibit their
aggressiveness everywhere. Nevertheless they come to their senses quickly
because they also suffer in the process. But it is very difficult to bring a
Vanik to the level where he can see his weaknesses.
When
a kshatriya goes to a temple, he will put his hand in his pocket and put all
that comes out in his hand into the donation chest. Whereas a vanik decides how
much he will donate before he leaves home.
On the way he will get enough loose change so that he can donate a little
at every temple he goes to. A vanik uses his intellect whenever an opportunity
presents to him to make a meaningful intent for his salvation.
What
is wealth? It is puran-galan (input-output). For every input, output is
inevitable. That is the law of accounts. People make matters worse by
interfering with their intellect. They waste their valuable energies in this
natural process of input-output. Money is your bank balance, it is your account
of merit karma and it is predetermined. When a person uses his intellect to make
money, he ruins his dhyan. Instead of dharma dhyan he is in raudra or arta dhyan.
This ruins his next life.
And
as if that is not enough, people have learned to use tricks and deception. By
this I mean they exploit those with lesser intellect by using their higher
intellect. Thus they deceive others of their wealth. Deceptive people are very
smart, and so are thieves. People who use deception bind for a birth in the
lower life forms world (adhogati).
Vaniks
create boundaries of defense around themselves with their intellect to protect
their own self-interest. They do not care for the welfare of others around them.
Why do they look good in their worldly interactions? It is because of this
‘fence’ of their intellect. Their focus is only on themselves and they are
constantly looking after their own self-interest. If a vanik were asked to
render judgment, he will first consider whether the person concerned will be
happy or unhappy. He would render judgment, which will not hurt the other
person. In order not to hurt the
other person, he would rather lie and render a wrong judgment. But the God
within takes notice that he is keeping both sides covered. Why not say it
exactly as it is. Tell the truth in
such a way that it is not hurtful. But instead they cover up the truth with a
wrong decision, and thereby take on a grave liability.
By proving a guilty man innocent, one takes on a grave liability. One
should say it as it is.
How
have all these problems arisen? It is because these people keep others in the
dark in order to maintain their own self-interest. They will do this coverup
until the point of discovery. The shameless hoarding they do for their own
worldly happiness will make them suffer intensely on their path of liberation.
It will torture them and create a lot of misery for them.
It will not allow them to attain liberation easily.
The
vanik’s intellect will not allow them to kill any insects, nor will they steal
from any one. They have stopped committing overt, visible violence (i.e.
practicing non-violence towards bugs, insects, animals etc) as well as overt
stealing. But they continue to
steal on a subtle level on a large scale. Those
who steal overtly will improve some day but those who steal on a subtle level
will never improve. The people, who deceive others, work with so much
sophistication and shrewdness, that they reap profits while sitting at home by
working the farmers to death. The Lord calls this subtle violence. The Lord has
said that there is a possibility of salvation for those who kill with a gun but
there is no hope for those who use deceit and tricks.
Those who kill with a gun will go to hell, turn around and come back and
search for a way to liberation. But those who kill through deceit fall deeper
and deeper in the quagmire of the world. They
will accumulate wealth and then turn around and donate some of it. This will sow
new seeds and perpetuate their worldly life. This is considered sophisticated
deceit and trickery.
There
is no trace of deceit or trick in a Gnani Purush. The vanik intellect functions
on deceit. It would have been far better not to know the art of deceit. Before
acquiring this Gnan I used to teach people how to use deception, but only out of
compassion for the person who became trapped in a situation. Eventually I
stopped that too. For me, there is no deceit anymore. Everything is exactly as
it should be. There should be one-ness of mind, body and speech, there should be
no division.
If
you paid ninety dollars for a watch and sell it for one hundred and ten dollars,
do not lie to the buyer that you paid one hundred and ten dollars for it.
Instead tell him you paid ninety dollars for it but you are selling it for one
hundred and ten dollars. If the buyer wants it, he will buy it for that amount.
Vyavasthit is such that if you were to receive a hundred and ten for it, you
will do so regardless of whether you deceive him or tell the truth. When
everything is so precise, why take on unnecessary liability by using deceit? You
take on tremendous liability by using deceit, the consequence for which is a
birth in the lower life form world.
What causes obstruction to inflow of wealth? It is the continuous use of deceit and tricks. The vaniks used to trade with honesty. They did not have to do jobs.
This has been taken from Aptavani One which is free on the web at
Jai Sat Chit Anand
The Awareness of the Eternal is Bliss