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Aptavani-9
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Aptavani-9
- a nest of a sparrow and pigeon. But here even if a person has a one-room kitchen, they call it 'diwan khanu' (prime minister's living room).
The thermometer to measure pride
Questioner: Do people not have pride for things other than material possessions Saints and ascetics do not have any material possessions and yet they have tremendous pride. What kind of pride is that?
Dadashri: They have pride about knowing the scriptures. But this too is a kind of a wealth, is it not? 'I know all the scriptures, is that not wealth too? These are all considered materials. It is all maan.
Questioner: It is also possible for a person to have pride (maan) even when he knows nothing?
Dadashri: Yes, that happens because that is what he believes. If a person does not accept the respect people give him, even in his mind, he starts believing that he has overcome his pride. He may think to himself that he has no maan left in him because he is not affected by the respect people give him; he does not accept it from within either. Furthermore, he behaves in such a way that he does not offend anyone. He knows in his mind that the level of the 'mercury' of the gauge that measures his pride does not rise (i.e. he does not become flattered from within) and therefore he has no pride left. Otherwise would the level not rise, if someone were to give him 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 does not internally accept the respect people give him. So then I ask him, 'You do not have any maan left, have you? Now check with that thermometer' (gauge) to see whether the fever goes up or
down?' He asks me 'What thermometer?' I tell him, 'If there are fifteen or twenty relatives of yours sitting here and someone tells you, you have no 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 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 Shekhchalli. He started day dreaming because of a cooking pot: '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' and 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. What else can I do? However, people 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 call 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 am beyond all duality.' But just a single word
