Aptavani-2 - Dada Bhagwan (good ebook reader .TXT) 📗

say, “ Nagga ae mokha magga”, but you have misunderstood this statement. The Lord said to de-clothe (unveil) the Self, not the body!”

All this is nothing but misunderstanding. The soul has three

layers of ‘clothings’: the cloth of the mind, the cloth of speech and the cloth of the body. These are the ‘clothes’ the Lord was referring to. A true Digambar is the one who takes off these clothing and completely exposes the Self. It is the clothing of the mind, the speech and the body that need to be shed; these represent the greatest acquisitions (parigraha). These need to be shed.

Shall ‘We’ tell you what all this taking-sides is like? Is it possible for a person to think that he is not good looking? If it were then people would not get along with the mirror at all, but the fact that they do, is because of their partiality. A truly beautiful face is that which keeps coming back to the mind within. Whereas here; one is partial and prejudiced. The aura of the one who is impartial will exude to all around him. People, who are partial and prejudiced, repel others wherever they go. They ‘smell horrible’ (not respected) even in their own homes!

So many people will ask me, “Are you a Jain?” or “Are you a Vaishnav?” You foolish people! What Jain or what Vaishnav? I am a vitarag. ‘We’ are in all religions. By calling me a Jain or a Vaishnav, people create an obstacle for themselves. They think of me as being partial towards a certain religion, but if they were to see me doing darshan of Lord Ramchandraji just once, all their beliefs would be broken. But alas, one needs merit karma for that too!

Nature of worldly life : nature of vairagya (dispassion)

Sansar (the worldly life) is nothing but a betrayal. In it, no one is related to you. If a person were to clearly understand the terrible misery of worldly life, he would have an intense desire for liberation. This terrible misery of the world is a counter weight for liberation. One feels the intense desire for liberation as misery increases.

Today, a person may find the world fearfully miserable and yet because of the illusion he continues to suffer its repeated blunt beating. He continues to put up with the beatings saying, ‘Things will improve tomorrow’, but does brass ever turn into gold? No, it will never turn to gold. That is why it is important to understand its horrible misery for once and for all. As it is, one is under a false belief that he can derive happiness from the world; ‘I will be happy if I do this’. Alas! Even here, one is subject to a beating.

If the Gnani Purush were to merely describe the terrible misery of this world, one will definitely begin to question, ‘Is the world so terrible? There is no way to escape from it. We must solve it once and for all.’ You can become free from the worldly entanglements through submission. ‘Yes sir. Yes, sir’ is what you have to do in order to disentangle yourself. This world is such that it calls for settling all matters with equanimity.

This is a very profound fact that ‘We’ are telling you. The world perpetuates and remains in existence because of all other superficial talks.

There is a pot of yogurt sitting on the floor, a cat gets a whiff of it and comes to eat it. She tips the pot over and eats the yogurt. There is still some yogurt left in the pot, so her greed drives her to push her whole face inside the pot, and she becomes trapped in it. There is nothing but total darkness inside and so she runs around trying to get free. Now how can she escape such a trap? In the same way, the entire world is caught in such a trap. How can a person escape from his own trap? The cat can only become free if someone frees her. In the same way, only a Gnani can free you from the trap of this world, no one else can. A person can never become free on his own; on the contrary, he will sink deeper.

I had studied and analyzed this scenario about the cat when I was young. I used to put a pot of yogurt as bait and watch it quietly. I did not care whether the yogurt would be wasted but at least I would be able to see and learn from it. If one gets a direct experience of this trap, then why would he be foolish enough to fall in it again? Despite getting her head stuck in the pot once, if a cat were to see a pot of milk again, she will forget her previous predicament and do the same thing over again. Then she will regret it but what can anyone do after the fact? Even if she has been trapped once, does she remember she should not repeat the mistake? No, she forgets even when she is punished. What hope is there for animals when even human beings forget? This body will never become yours. Despite this people say, “This is mine, he is mine, she is mine.” You miserable people, when your body is not your own, how can anyone else be yours?

You are coming home from Calcutta and on the way you buy some nice mangos; you have to handle them with care because you do not have a basket to carry them in. What is more you have to carry them yourself since you do not have your servant with you. After you bring them home, you eat them and you throw away the skin and its stone (seed). For heaven’s sake! You took so much care to bring the mangos home and now you throw them away? The answer is yes because only the sweet juicy pulp inside was useful. In the same way, when these human beings turn to skin and bones; when there is no ‘pulp’ left in them, even their children will kick them!

An old lady and her son lived next door to us. The old lady was blind but she worked all day long taking care of the home. One day her son’s boss came to their home. The son was the boss in the home and the other man was the boss at work! Both these ‘bosses’ came home. The son thought to himself, if my boss sees my blind mother, I will loose my reputation and so he tells her, “Hey you blind woman! Get up, my boss is here.” He kicks (insults) his mother to impress his boss! The fool! As if he is some big shot! The dope! Should he be thinking of protecting his mother or his boss?

Why do people buy mangos? They do so because of the pulp and its juice. Similarly, this whole world has selfish motives. That is why only the Lord within is real and so if we have attained something when we attain liberation, otherwise they will tell you, “Get up you blind woman!”

Some people complain, “We don’t have any children.” What are they going to do with children, put them on a pedestal? Of what use are children when they mistreat their parents? Instead, it is better not to have any; besides in which past life did you not have children? All these animals, dogs, cats, donkeys, cows, buffalo have carried their young around their necks in their past lives too, have they not? You have attained this human birth with great difficulty so why don’t you shape up now at least! Look for the instruments that will help you attain liberation and get your work done. An old lady will say, “Damn this worldly life, it is filled with misery”, when her son mistreats her. We can ask her, “Dear lady, was this worldly life not miserable before?” The worldly life has always been miserable but it appears sweet because of illusion (moha) and infatuation (murchha). When her son mistreats her, she comes out of her illusion transiently and finds the worldly life bitter for that duration, but once again the illusion clouds her perception and she forgets everything. Those who have no Self-realization (agnanis) will forget everything all at once, at that time. Whereas the Gnani, is constantly aware of the reality of the world, at a glance. The Gnani can constantly see this world exactly as it is, so where is the scope of any infatuation setting in? It is because people do not have such awareness that they suffer.

If the mother-in-law is not able to do any work, the daughter-in-law will tell her to go sit far away; otherwise she will give the mother-in-law chores that will keep her out of her way. All along the old lady thought her son would take care of her in her old age. It is only later that she discovers just how well he takes care of her! There is no escape if you are bound and there is no bondage if you are free. Only after you attain knowledge of the Self, can you escape the worldly bondage.

‘We’ will tell you about an incident that ‘We’ personally witnessed as a young boy. There

was a blind old man. When he ate his meals, little children around him would put pebbles in his plate. The old man used to get very frustrated and yell at them. The children found this very amusing and they would put even more pebbles in his plate. Alas, this is what the world is like! There is no telling how many more lifetimes will have to be suffered this way. If you get the ‘visa’ for Moksha (liberation), then you will get your work done in at least two or three more lifetimes. But sadly people do not even have this visa and yet just look at the amount of attachment (moha) they have for this world!

The cat forces her face in the pot because of greed and then gets stuck inside. Why does she force her face into the pot? She does so because of insatiable greed and selfishness. Greed and selfishness verily are ignorance. So here is what we need to learn:

Who am I?

· What connection do I have with this person here?

· Will these people ever become mine?

These teeth do not become clean even after brushing them for sixty-five years. Should we then not understand what is true and what is false? All your life you have scraped your tongue clean but even then, it

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Text: Dada Bhagwan Aradhana Trust
Images: Dada