________________
Aptavani-1
251
252
Aptavani-1
say that one has truly renounced all attachment? Only when one renounces maya while enjoying the luxuries and comforts of worldly life can it be said that he has truly renounced. How can one be considered free of all illusion when he renounces his wife and children but at the same carries baggage of nothing but illusion? How can you say that he has become free from maya, illusion?
Wherever he goes, as long as he identifies with feelings such as mine', 'yours' or 'I did this', his maya and attachment will remain with him too.
Questioner : What can one do to be free from the bondage of maya?
Dadashri : Ignorance is maya itself. Ignorance of the real Self is maya and this maya gives such a beating that no one can see the wounds it causes. There is no superior above you in this world. It is only because of maya that you feel a sense of oppression.
What is maya? Maya is the relative manifestation of God (the Self). What does it mean when people say, 'It is maya that entraps us'? Who runs this world? Because people have no knowledge of who runs the world, they believe themselves to be the doers. That itself is maya and they become trapped in it.
God is the only one who does not succumb to maya. The weak continue to suffer and that is the rule of maya. One cannot say whether the suffering caused by maya is mild or intense, but it is the suffering itself that will inspire one to seek liberation.
The great curse of maya is the oblivion of one's own Self. Once this ignorance is removed, maya is gone.
Projection of anything where it is not, is maya.
In my presence, your maya cannot remain; it will remain at a distance, but as soon as you leave from here it will shroud over you again. However, if you acquire the knowledge of your Self (Swaroop Gnan) from me, you will remain untouched by maya wherever you go.
The Lord says that everything is a drama (not real). You should not become one with it. People blame the mind but it is not the mind but the maya behind it that creates all the problems. Let maya go and the mind will be a beautiful endless film. Many have renounced their attachment of worldly life and become ascetics, but does that mean they have become free from their maya? No; on the contrary their maya doubles. When can one
A man came to me crying profusely. He told me that it had become very difficult for him to continue living and that he felt like committing suicide. I knew that his wife had passed away about fifteen days ago leaving behind four children. I asked him how long he had been married and he told me ten years. I asked him whether he would still cry for her if she had died more than ten years ago, before he had seen her. His reply was how could he cry when he did not even know her? I went on to explain : 'Let me tell you why you cry for her now. When you went to marry her, you went in grandeur with a procession of brass band and music. During the ceremonial walk around the fire, you began to wind the feeling of 'This is my wife... this is my wife...'. Everytime you looked at her you kept thinking "This is my wife', and thus began to wind and twist within you. the feelings of attachment. If the wife turns out to be good, then you become bound with a silk thread, and if she turns out to be difficult, then you become bound with a cotton thread. Now if you want to be free, you will have to unwind your attachment by saying 'She is not mine...She is not mine', just as many times as you had wound with 'She is mine', only then will you become free from your attachment.
He understood exactly what I told him and started to
