________________
Aptavani-2
135
136
Aptavani-2
dharmadhyan as defined by the Lord. When someone causes you pain and suffering, or steals from you, if you accept the fact that it is all due to the fruition of your own past karma, then liberation is yours. Liberation is yours if you do not see others at fault. But instead people do exactly what they are not supposed to, they accuse others by saying: 'He did this to me; he stole from me, etc.'
To bite the nimit When a mother-in-law makes her miserable, the daughterin-law does not look at her own faults but keeps blaming the mother-in-law and finding faults with her. But if she had an understanding of dharmadhyan, she would tell herself, "I am the one at fault. It is because of my own karmas from my past life that I have a mother-in-law like this. How come my friend's mother-in-law is so nice?" When other mothers-in-laws are so nice, can she not understand that the fault lies with her? Why else would she encounter a mother-in-law such as this one?
Questioner: Such problems occur because one has the wrong vision (drashti).
Dadashri : No, it is not wrong vision but the fact is that she has no awareness (bhan) at all. She does not know that these are consequences of her own past karmas. She is only seeing what is directly in front of her. She is accusing the nimit; she should not accuse the mother-in-law because the mother-inlaw is just a nimit (the instrument, the vehicle through which her karma is giving the effect). On the contrary, she should thank the mother-in-law for releasing her from her karmas. How can you become free from your karmas? It is when you do not see the mother-in-law, the pickpocket, or someone who imposes suffering upon you as being at fault at all; it is when you do not fault them for their actions but accept and maintain the awareness that you are being released from your own karma through them. Otherwise that karma is not over, it has not been
discharged. Here, seeing the mother-in-law at fault the daughterin-law will bind more karma even before the old ones discharge. This is how people become more entangled as they increase their karma, life after life. How can they become free from such entanglements? There is nothing but entanglements all day long.
Animals do not have such entanglements. Only the humans do and it is because they continue to create new ones. Animals will run away if someone were to hurt them. They do not stay and complain or accuse people that hurt them. They do not have such intellect (buddhi). The humans have attained intellect (buddhi) and they abuse it. On the contrary they become more entangled. People create entanglements in the very situation they are supposed to become free from. One should become free from every karma. You should become free from the entanglement of each of your karma. Every time the mother-in-law abuses the daughter-in-law, the daughter-in-law should seize the opportunity and become free from karma. What should she do for that? She should not see the mother-in-law as being at fault. If she sees her as the nimit and accepts that she has come to her as a consequence of her past karma, she will be freed from her karmas. But she will bind even more karma if she sees her at fault, so what can God or anyone else do?
The Lord says, "Even if you bow down to my idol everyday, until you attain 'this' understanding, it is like drinking poison and therefore 'we' cannot tell you that you will get better if you keep on drinking. Follow my agnas. Instead of worshipping me, 'we' prefer that you follow our' agnas. You worship everyday but you do not abide by a single word of 'ours' and that is tantamount to stepping on my tongue. Are you not ashamed of that?" One would reply, "Sir, I did not realize that I was stepping on your tongue." And that is true. How is the poor man to know that? He does what others do and no one has ever explained things to him. How can he then turn himself around? He can only do so if someone gives him the right understanding.
