________________
Aptavani-9
175
as harmful. Opinion creates a new mind. The harm is entirely in making intense mental notes.
Questioner: Please explain the difference between opinions and intense mental note, in detail.
Dadashri: There is no problem if a little of an opinion remains but there should not be even a fraction of a nondha. Nondha means the non-Self (pudgal); nondha is exclusively biased towards the non-Self. When a person makes a nondha, he reverts to the way he was before. When one who has taken Gnan makes a nondha, he is no different from a person who has not taken Gnan.
Questioner: But is opinion not formed only when one makes a nondha of something?
Dadashri: There is always an opinion behind it. We can accept an opinion but there should not be any nondha. When one gives an opinion, that opinion creates a new mind. When you give an opinion like 'the soup is salty' then you give rise to the mind. But when you make an intense mental note, then the one who made the soup is made to be the guilty party.
Questioner: What kind of an intense mental note is made at that time?
Dadashri: Many notes such as, 'He said this to me...he said that to me...he spoke in this manner...he spoke in that manner etc.' When I make an intense mental note that Chandulal went to a hotel, whose side am I on? On the side of the pudgal. There is grave danger in making a nondha.
Questioner: How is an intense mental note of, 'This soup is very salty' made?
Dadashri: Such an intense mental note, 'the soup is salty', immediately places the blame on the doer, the person who made it. The nondha sees the other person as a doer and opinion sees only the item.
176
Aptavani-9
You need awareness, not an intense mental note
Questioner: In short, the machinery of intense mental note will not remain if there is awareness (jagruti).
Dadashri: It will not remain. The problem lies in the awareness becoming dim. You have to bring on the awareness, and not keep any intense mental note. If one does this, then he becomes that much aware. Or you can increase awareness by watching 'us'. A person may say anything to this 'Dadaji' and yet he will not see a single change in expression on 'our' face. Why is that so? Hey you! What kind of results are you looking for here? 'We' have not written an assay on it, an essay starts from a note, and for a note you need a notebook, and we never even keep a notebook! Many such people come and go. Regardless of what 'we' tell them on their face, that is not what 'we' believe. He is a Shuddhatma. He is not at all at fault! He is completely faultless (nirdosh) on the outside and he is a Shuddhatma within. That is 'our' vision when 'we' speak. As it is, this is 'our' colloquial Patidar language and language cannot go away, can it? However, 'we' do not keep a note.
So all this has to be understood. Making intense mental notes (nondha) is what causes more damage. Especially these vaniks (those who make a living through their speech and intellect, mostly businessman in India), they keep a notebook of intense mental notes. Women also keep large notebooks. 'Dad said this and mom was saying this.' So everyone keeps notes; they do not let go of these notebooks. They have still kept the notebooks, just the way they were before attaining this Gnan. They have let go of the rest of the things.
Where there is an intense mental note there is the sting
Some human beings do not keep opinions about others but they keep more intense mental notes. They keep only the
