Aptavani 06

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Mahavideh Foundation

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What does interference (dakhal) mean? If someone tells me to teach him to make yogurt, I would show him how to heat the milk, let it cool down, then add a spoonful of yogurt in it and stir it, then cover up the pot and just leave it alone. He can go to sleep. Now if he gets up at two in the morning to go to the bathroom, and he goes to the kitchen and sticks his finger in the pot to check if the yogurt has formed; that is called interference (dakhal). And so in the morning you will see the 'muddle of mush' (dakho) which is the result of the interference. The yogurt will not have jelled properly. This is how people make a mess (dakho) of their worldly life and that is how they live. Therefore, do not let the upayog, awareness as the Self, slip astray; that is called focused awareness (upayog jagruti).
What do 'we' (the Gnani and the fully enlightened Lord within) refer to as focusing the awareness (upayog)? Say there is a narrow bridge a mile and a half long. Only one person can walk on it at a time. This bridge goes through the sea with water on both sides. And you are told to walk on that bridge. The focused awareness, the undivided attention that you keep at that time, is called upayog. Now if while walking you happen to get a thought about your bank and how much you have paid and how much is still pending, you will immediately push it away and focus and concentrate on walking on the bridge.
Scripture writers have said to maintain focused awareness (upayog) while eating, drinking and in doing any kind of work. Upayog means that there is nothing else going on while eating. Having the chit present in all you do is called upayog. Does one keep his chit present when there is sea on either side? Even children will stop playing and become aware. Even they are
smart.
There is no living being that cannot have focused awareness (upayog). Go and see anyone counting money. If his wife or daughter comes in while he is counting, he will look up but not
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see them. His wife will tell him, 'We came in while you were counting money but you did not see us?' He will tell her, 'No, I wasn't aware (laksha).' The eyes will look but not see; that is called upayog.
Even at this moment, 'our' upayog is in Shuddhatma-the Self. I may be talking to you or doing something else, but 'our' upayog remains in the upayog, 'our' awareness remains in the awareness. It is possible to have focused awareness on the focused awareness (upayog on the upayog) even while this mind-speech-body carry out their activities.
However much you can remain in upayog, it is good. If You cannot, does that mean you have to drown yourself? This path of ours is not one for suicide.
Atma, the Self, and prakruti, the non-Self, are both separate; separate by their intrinsic nature (swabhav). They are different in every way. The Self is not used in the worldly life at all; only the light of the Self is used. If that light were not there, the non-Self (prakruti) would not function at all. Because that light is there, everything in the prakruti works, otherwise the Self does not do anything in all this.
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