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Aptavani-6
[27] Atkan: Major Blockade in the Path of Liberation
Dadashri: Do you ever experience excitement with the temptation of pleasure (galgalia)?
Questioner: When Sunday comes and it is time for betting on the horses, galgalia occur inside me.
Dadashri: Yes, why does that happen on a Sunday and not on a Saturday? Only when matter (dravya), place (kshetra), time (kaad) and intent (bhaav) come together do you experience this excitement (galgalia).
Each person has been left dangling and stranded from infinite past lives, each has been stranded in his own major inner obstruction (arkan) which inevitably blocks spiritual progress. One gets stuck in it. Why has one been stranded since time immemorial? Why is there still no solution for it? It is because one has some kind of atkan. Everyone has a different atkan.
Do you understand this atkan? A smart, care-free horse pulling a carriage comes across a grave of a Muslim person covered with a green cloth. The horse will stop as soon as it sees the green cloth. Why is that? It sees the green cloth on the grave and sees it as something new and gets startled. Then, no matter how much the owner strikes it, it will not move forward. Then he may have to strike, coax or put blinders on him and take him across. But the next day, the horse will get stuck at the same place. That is because there is an atkan (major blockade of inner obstruction) within him. At that time he forgets everything: he forgets who he is; he forgets his knowledge (gnan). If the
owner hits the horse, it will even roll the carriage over.
Likewise, if a human being becomes deluded (murchhit) with what he sees, an arkan (major blockade of inner obstruction) is formed there. That atkan will not go away: he may be someone who is not likely to become deluded anywhere else, but when he comes to that particular place' of his inner blockade (arkan), he will become deluded again. He will forget the Gnan, his awareness and everything, and he will make mistakes. That is why Kaviraj says: *One dangles because of the inner blockade, the dangling
leads to wandering On the problem of wandering, spray the liberating medicine
from the feet-grace of the Gnani Purush'
*Atkan thi latkan, latkan thi bhatkan. Bhatkan ni khatkan par, chhaton charan-rajkan'
Now if one wants to escape from the life after life wanderings, then surrender at the feet of the Gnani and bring about a solution so that the fear of atkan no longer remains.
The Gnani Purush Removes Atkan
So there is a major blockade of inner obstruction (atkan) in everyone and that is why he is stuck here. One has to look for that atkan and find out its nature. It causes wandering for endless lifetimes. That is the only thing, nothing else. Atkan means to become deluded (murchhit). It means to lose the awareness of the Self. Atkan does not apply to every situation in life. When one leaves home, he does not get into quarrels everywhere; he does not do attachment-abhomence (raag-dwesh) everywhere. I give this analogy of the horse for your understanding, One can find one's atkan if one looks for it; he will discover where he becomes deluded, he will discover in which instances or places he loses the awareness of who he is.