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late night movie and stopped by your house on my way home, you might say, 'He has never done this before, he must want something and that is why he is here. On the contrary, thinking this way about me is the same as you looking lustfully at a chaste woman. I do not need anything and others look at me negatively and get worried that I may ask them for something. Therefore, I told everyone, 'These hands are not for taking, they are for giving, you can ask me for anything you need.' And this is how everyone stopped having anykind of fear from me.
Everyday there used to be several cars parked in front of my home in Mamani Poda in Baroda. I used to pay fifteen rupees rent for that house in a well-respected area. How many people lived in bungalows some forty-four years ago? Mamani Pada was considered a very good location. People normally lived in homes paying seven rupees for rent and I was paying fifteen rupees for our home. I was looked upon as a very successful contractor. So those who lived in that area would drive their cars to my home whenever they had any difficulties. They would come to me after doing something illegal and yet I would help them escape through a 'backdoor (find an underhanded solution or a loop-hole for them) solution for them. I would show them the back door and tell them to leave from there. Now they were the ones who committed the crime and I would find a way for them to escape. So I took the responsibility (karmic) of their crime upon myself. Why is that? It was to feed my pride maan! Is it not a crime to find a 'back-door' for others? I would use my good judgment to show them the way out and help them escape. So they would treat me with respect, but I was the one left to face the consequences; I took on the liability of facing the consequences. Later I realized that it was sheer unawareness on my part that led me to take on the liability of such consequences and all because of maan the pride. That was when I recognized the maan pride. What worries it had caused me!! What anxieties I had just for wanting maan!
Questioner: How did you destroy that maan once you 'caught it?
Dadashri: Pride maan cannot be destroyed; it can be covered upsham so that it does not hurt so much, but it cannot be destroyed. How can it be destroyed when the one who is destroying it will be destroyed? How can one kill one's own self? Do you understand that? So I covered that pride maan and dealt with it as much as I could, and let the days pass by.
Frightful heat of anger in reaction to obstruction of pride
