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believe those weights to be your own weight is abhimaan. A person may believe the weight of his bungalow to be his weight. People consider it an ego when some one brags about his home, they will call him ahamkari, but it is not ego. It is abhimaan. The material possessions are there, but to claim them as his and to enjoy the taste that results from displaying them, is abhimaan. The taste of abhimaan can be very sweet. Pleasure arises within, the moment he says, "These are my homes.' Then it becomes a habit for him, like going to the Havmor ice cream parlor.
Questioner: You had said once that the whole world is trapped in 'Havmor' (brand name for ice-cream).
Dadashri: In 'Havmor'! I don't need 'Havmor', that is why I am not trapped in this, no? If the ice-cream arrives I will eat it. That—the pursuit of pleasure, is the aim of worldly people, and for me such aim is meaningless. My goal is different.
People get habituated to 'Havmor—pursuit of pleasure' later on. The reason for this is ajagruti unawareness. One gets habituated because of not having awareness of that which is beneficial and that which is not. When can one become habituated? When one is not aware of what is right and what is wrong. If someone feeds me ice-cream everyday, I would not even remember it the next day. And even if someone feeds me ice cream everyday for months and months and then stops suddenly, I would not miss it for a second. I would appreciate it and say, 'the ice-cream is very good' I would say this, but superfluously! If it were to give you the sweet taste after it has been consumed then you can say that it is good. Having eaten it, if you want to resume tasting its sweetness will it come to you? Then what is the use of that kind of taste? That is why some people get caught up in going after prolonging the taste of the pleasure by, ‘now I don't have anything else to eat so let me try to prolong its taste as much as possible by keeping it in the mouth.' What will I do with this last scoop? Yes, after it has gone in the stomach it will not taste like this.
Do you now understand what abhimaan is and what ego ahamkar is?
Questioner: And when one attains saiyam, will one's abhimaan not increase too?
