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Aptavani-2
Aptavani-2
This worldly life is filled with sheer danger, it is full of horror and disgust and what is more, it is constantly this way. Is it not a wonder that people have attachment for it?
Attachment and its consequences What will you have attachment (moha) for? Fake gold?! You can afford to have attachment if it were real but truly all worldly relationships are like the relationship between a seller and a buyer. Customers will pay only if the goods are of good quality. If you were to fight just one hour with your husband, your relationship will break down, how can you have attachment for such relationships?
A wealthy businessman says he will work to make money because he wants to pass his inheritance on to his sons. He resorts to corrupt and devious means in order to make money and that too in foreign lands, which he will pass on to his children. The son has a relation with you which is temporary and he has a big ego. If his relationship with you were real then it would be beneficial for you to pass on your inheritance but really that relationship is sustained because of societal pressure. If a father and son were to get into an argument, they may even end up in a court! Many sons say they will place their father in the homes for the elderly. Don't they put away aging bullocks in those special places? Similarly they want to send their fathers off to the homes for the elderly. What a nice name they have given to such establishments! 'We' fail to understand why one is so stuck in a relationship such as this. If such relationships were gentle and congenial, one could afford to let things be. Are you also not aware of incidents where sons have imprisoned their fathers in order to take over the kingdom?
This world is like an oil mill: the men are like the bullocks that turn the wheel that works the rig that crushes the seeds for oil and the women are like the masters of the bullocks. In the oil rig the bullock master 'sings' and here the women 'sing. The
bullock has blinders on his eyes and therefore he remains engrossed in his own world, as he toils walking round and round, he thinks 'we must have reached our destination, but when the blinders are removed he realizes he is in the same place as before. The oil maker then feeds the bullock some oil cake and the bullock is happy, and here the wife feeds the husband some handvo (baked spicy dish) and he sleeps peacefully.
When one enters a hospital for an illness and sees the suffering there, his moha (attachment) would leave. Alas this does not remain in his awareness. If it did he would lose his attachment for this worldly life. When the wife gets a large pimple on her face, the husband does not like to look at her. Both wonder what others will think if they see her. Aren't people like mangos? They don't like mangos when their skin becomes wrinkled. 'We' view human beings as mangos because they become rotten and decay like mangos do. It would be a different matter if the mangos were never to wrinkle and rot, but the moment you bring them home, they begin to wrinkle. This uncle and aunt looked beautiful the day they got married and now that they have become old, they do not like it. But what can anyone do? This is India! When mangos are fresh, they look beautiful all over but what happens when the skin shrivels? The one who is not able to discern the difference will make do with it but what happens to the discriminating one? There are nothing but traps everywhere! He liked her when he married her but now that her skin is shriveled, he does not. However, this is India; he has to put up with her even though he does not like it.
Let me tell you what this body is like. Whatever pleasure it gave in youth, it will give an equivalent amount of pain in one's old age. He says, "This is my body", but it produces suffering even when he pampers it as his own. The teeth are brushed and polished every day, and yet they bring pain and suffering. The eyes hurt, the ears hurt and everything torments. That, which is