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maan left in him because he is not affected by the respect people give him; he does not accept it from within. Furthermore, he behaves in such a way that he does not offend anyone. He knows in his mind that his 'level' does not rise and therefore he has no pride left. Otherwise would his level not rise, if someone were to give him a lot of importance? If people give him importance and he accepts it (swells up with pride) is that not considered an increase in the level?
So the level will not rise if he do not internally accept the respect people give him. So then I ask them, 'You do not have any maan left, have you? Now check with that thermometer to see whether the fever goes up or down?' He asks me 'What thermometer?' I tell them, 'If there are fifteen or twenty relatives of yours sitting here and someone tells you, you do not have a trace of sense', that comment will affect you, so where did it all go? I thought you said you do not have any maan left! There is no maan like that of an insult upmaan. All other forms of pride have no significance but there is no pride like the effect of an insult. He who cannot bear an insult is a very proud person maani. A person can accept respect people give him but he cannot bear an insult. Such a person is considered the biggest maani. I have all kinds of thermometers. I employ these thermometers whenever someone comes along. A thermometer is such a thing that you will know immediately.
People build castles in the air like Shekchalli: 'I will get married, I will do this, I will do that.' A mere cooking pot gave rise to his entire worldly life, did it not? 'I will bring a lamb. I will bring this. I will bring that and I will get married. Then I will have a son. Then he will come to call me, 'Dad, come and have dinner'. But what I do is I topple over people's pots, I bring them down to earth so that everything will vanish in the air. Once the pot topples over nothing will remain, right? Hence, I would quickly topple over his pot and so his marriage, wife, son, lamb etc.,' will have no basis. But what can I do? And they are not at fault here either.
Therefore, people have come to merely believe and accept certain things in this way. The ascetics too have come to believe certain things without any reason. Not all ascetics are bad; there are many good ones. By good I mean, if you keep calling them 'Bapji...bapji...(call them with respect), they will be happy. They do not care for money; they do not care about sex or any worldly pleasures. If you call them 'Bapji', they are happy, but in their mind they believe, 'I do not have any duality in me anymore. I
