Aptavani 01

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Dada Bhagwan Foundation

Page 26

Aptavani-1
Aptavani-1
25 and seer but instead with your wrong belief of 'I am Chandulal', you have become what you are not. You have become the owner of something that is not yours and you have been deriving pleasure and pain from it. That is why you are constantly experiencing worries, affliction and agitation. You continue to struggle hopelessly like a fish out of water. The wealthy people have all the material comforts but have sleepless nights because of worries.
The World And The Self Dadashri : Is this world real or is it an illusion?
Questioner: An illusion.
Dadashri : No, it is not so. I will explain what an illusion is. It is an illusion when you pull your pants up believing you are standing in water but nothing gets wet. It is an illusion if you touch what looks like fire but it does not burn you. People say that the Self (Atma) is real and the world is an illusion. If that is the case, then put your hand in a fire and find out whether it is an illusion or not.
One can tell whether it is an illusion or not by looking at the effects. For example, if you throw a brick on a wall, you will not see any effect on the brick or the wall if the world were an illusion. But it is not an illusion because you will see a red mark on the wall and the brick too will be broken. Another example is that if someone tells you, "You have no sense' and his or her statement has no effect on you, then it would prove that the world is an illusion. But instead what happens is that the effect of such a statement will be there even when you wake up in the middle of the night and remember what was said to you. This proves that the world is not an illusion.
I am saying that the world and the Soul (the Self) are both true. The world is a relative truth and the Self is the real
truth. My words are eternal truth. There is no telling when the relative truth of this world would become untrue. All these relatives are temporary adjustments and the Self is the real truth, it is eternal, it is permanent.
Possession by the Mind, Body and Speech
Three things possess every human being : mind, body and speech and that is why one claims, 'I am Chandulal, I am a collector, I am her husband, I am his father. If you ask, 'Are you going to be a collector forever? No, he will reply, 'I will retire one day.' This is another form of possession. If a drunk, lying in the street claims to be a king, would we not know that it is the intoxication of the alcohol saying so and not him. Similarly the intoxication, the possessive influence of the mind, body and speech makes people say 'I am Chandubhai, I am a conductor, I am a father...'
I will tell you a true story. There was a lady by the name of Kashi who was a gossipmonger. She was gossiping with some of the women when suddenly she began to shake her head incessantly and roll her eyes round and round. This scared all the women. One of the women felt that she was possessed and asked her husband to fetch an exorcist. When the exorcist came, he took one look at Kashi and immediately confirmed that she was indeed possessed. The exorcist started to whip Kashi and she began to scream. The exorcist asked her who she was and why she had come. Kashi replied in English, "I am Chanchal, and this Kashi has seduced my husband with her looks." The exorcist knew for a fact that Kashi did not know even a letter of the English alphabet and upon further investigation they were able to confirm that Chanchal spoke fluent English. The exorcist continued with the exorcism and through coaxing and convincing, managed to release Kashi from being possessed by Chanchal's ghost. This is how ghosts are. Chanchal left but