________________
354
Aptavani-4
error. What I am telling You, is that You should experience the present that is before You. The past is gone. Even intellectuals would not stir up the past. And to think about the future is to worry.
Therefore, remain in the present. While the satsang is going on now, listen to it with concentration (ekagra) of chit. When you are balancing your books, do it with such concentration (ekagra) of chit. And when you are swearing at someone, do it with the same concentration (ekagra) of chit. He who perpetually remains in the present, is a Gnani. People cannot enjoy the present, because they worry about the future and the past. They even make errors in their accounting. The Gnani Purush will never ruin the present.
Questioner: Do we have to forget about the past and the future?
Dadashri: No, you do not have to forget, you just have to remain in the present. Forgetting is a burden. You cannot forget even if you want to, and besides, the more you try to forget something, the more you will remember it. One man was telling me, “When I sit down to do a samayik (meditative introspection) I think to myself, 'Today I am not going to be reminded about the shop'. And on that very day, the first thing I see in my samayik is the shop!” Why does that happen? It is because, when he said he did not want to be reminded of it, essentially he showed contempt towards it! You should not be contemptuous of anything.
There is only one thing, and that is to remain in the present. You have nothing whatsoever to do with the past or the future. Remaining in the present is immortal state (amarpad). 'We'remain exactly as 'we' are in the present. If you wake 'us' up at night 'we' will be the same, and if you wake 'us' up in the day, 'we' will be the same. Whenever you see 'us' 'we' will be just the same as 'we' are now.
