________________
Aptavani-2
197
198
Aptavani-2
is going to continue (like the wife who now is oblivious of her husband's nightlong snoring and therefore 'happiness' arises.
It is a wonder that the Emperors could not find happiness living in palaces, whereas a poor man finds happiness living in a shack! Happiness should be everlasting: once attained it should not leave. That is bliss. Bliss should be like that which this 'Dada' is experiencing; it does not leave for even a second. Dada is constantly in inner bliss.
Questioner : Why do human beings (jiva) look for happiness elsewhere, outside?
Dadashri : Teenagers would not go to restaurants and fast food places if they received wonderful meals at home. They go out to eat because they are not satisfied with the meals at home. Similarly, people look for happiness elsewhere because they are not satisfied with the happiness they have. Every living being is wandering around looking for happiness beyond the senses (ati-indriya sookha, eternal happiness). One has not experienced the bliss of the Self. How long can temporary happiness, projected happiness (kalpit sookha) last? One can attain bliss; happiness that is beyond the senses, when he meets the Gnani Purush. Projected happiness, worldly pleasures can give one satisfaction (santosh) but it will not make him content to the point where there is no further demand (trupta) for it. Until one attains Gnan, one lacks the awareness of what is right and what is wrong for liberation. The intellect (buddhi) will show one what is right and what is wrong in worldly affairs. It simply will not be able to know what is right and what is wrong in matters of liberation. In this regard the intellect will fear its own death.
This world exists in an orderly manner. It is meticulously regulated. No living being, except man, experiences mental anguish. Of all beings that depend on breath to live (prani), man is the only being who suffers mentally. Other animals, when they
get hungry, they experience the pain of hunger, but that pain is quelled as soon as they get something to eat. They do not have any greed. Only humans have greed. They not only consume what is in their own pasture, but they raid the neighbor's pastures too. Miseries arise out of greed.
A human being runs to the doctor when his leg is hurting. Do birds and fish have doctors? They just have to suffer. Do they indulge in any sensual pleasures (Vishay)? They eat because of the instinct to eat, but they do not indulge in the pleasures of the tongue. If they had pleasures of eating and drinking, they too would have toothaches or would have to wear glasses. Animals too have problems with old age, but they have to suffer them silently.
Farmers make their bullocks work all day long but they put a muzzle around the bullocks' mouths so that they would not graze on their farms. A bullock understands that he is not allowed to eat. One farmer in his eagerness to watch a movie at night put down some nice grass for his bullock to eat but forgot to take the muzzle off. What can the poor bullock do? He felt the hunger pangs but what could he do? Whom could he tell? The farmer returned from the movies late at night and went straight to bed without checking on his bullock. The bullock kept stomping his feet on the ground all night long. In the morning when the farmer woke up, he realized that he had forgotten to remove the muzzle! Life is like that of a bull working in an oil mill
For countless lives, man has worked like a bull in an oil mill and what has been his reward? A slice of oil cake! After a grueling day at work, the man gets to eat some handvo (heavy dry spicy bread) at night, and the bull in the oil mill gets a slice of an oil cake! One has suffered a lot of misery. He has suffered endlessly just like the bull. They invite all kinds of imaginary miseries again. This is like people who send out wedding