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Aptavani-6
charge of them. Then, sit comfortably in the chariot and say, 'Dada (anything you tell Dada, bounces back to the Soul within), make them run the way you desire. I am going to sit here in peace!' Then you will see that your chariot will not go into a ditch. The problem is that you do not know how to guide it, yet you try to steer it. When it is going down the slope, you relax the reins, and when you have to go uphill, you keep pulling on them. So all this is contradictory. However, in the Self that I have given You, you have definitely come out of the cocoon!
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But now you will have to set the upayog - focus the awareness. You have been given the Self, but the awareness of the self (old upayog of 'I am Chandubhai') is such a thing that by nature it slips in and you automatically become the self. Therefore, You have to set this upayog, the focus of the awareness, as the Self. You have to maintain the awareness; You have to 'do' the purusharth, being the Self, because now You have become the Soul, or the Self (purush).
Now what is the 'slipping' of the upayog? There was a wealthy mill owner. He sat down with me to have a meal. His wife came and sat across from us. I asked her, 'Why are you sitting in front of us?" So the lady says, 'He never eats in peace, only today he is eating peacefully just because you are here. That is why I am sitting here.'
So the man told his wife, 'Get up from here, you have no sense at all.' I understood what the mill owner was like. I told him, 'Your wife is saying that for your own good. Your health will be much better if you ate your meals peacefully. Instead, why are you scolding her by calling her senseless?' He admitted that she was right and said, 'Whenever I sit down to eat; my chit would be at the office. I would talk on the phone with my secretary while this physical bundle would be eating here.'
This is called slipping of upayog. I then told the mill owner,
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*Your awareness slips, and do you know what will happen because of that? When you eat without the presence of your chit, you give rise to all the conditions for a heart attack. One should never have the chit absent while eating. The mill owner then told me, 'My chit is always absent. Show me a way to improve this.' So then I showed him the way as to how his chit can remain present in whatever he is doing. What would happen if I were to give that man some money to count?
Questioner: He would even forget to eat.
Dadashri: In that case, his upayog would remain only in counting the money.
There was a young baniya (business community) man whose salary was six hundred rupees. I asked him, 'What would you do if they paid your wages in one rupee notes?' and he told me, 'I would count them!' I told him, 'Hey! When would you finish counting six hundred notes? It would take so long! In that time if someone is looking to make a quick buck, he can quickly grab the goods and be on his way while you are busy counting. How much time you would waste in counting the money! At the most you may be short by five rupees, what else can you lose? Besides, these people will not give you less money; they know that everyone will count their wages.' Rare are those with merit karma (punyashadi) like 'us' who will take the money without counting. So our task is easy. Who would waste time in such matters? Then the young man tells me, 'If they paid me in five paisa (penny) coins, even then I would count before accepting the salary!' Blessed is this man! This is how upayog is wasted away; it slips away.
If there is focus of awareness of the pure Self (upayog), then it will help you everywhere. It will help you while you are eating and drinking, in your business, etc., because the worldly self (atma), does not do anything except interfere (dakhal) in all this.