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Aptavani-8
157
and it is also with ego. The one with the belief, 'I am this body (dehadhyas)', is considered jivatma and the one who has no ego and does not live or die, that it the Atma.
Questioner: So, where is the stage of the Absolute Soul (Parmatma)?
Dadashri: The Absolute Soul is when one attains the awareness of one's own Self (swaroop), and therefore one becomes the form of the Atma (Atmaroop). Then, the state of the Absolute Soul (Parmatma) continues to manifest. And once it has manifested fully, that is when he has become the Absolute Soul. Therefore, when the thirteenth gunthanu (or gunasthanak described as a set of fourteen steps in the spiritual development of the Self) ends, then Absolute Knowledge (Keval Gnan) happens, and one has become complete Parmatma (Absolute Soul).
So this embodied soul (jiva) is the Atma's own state (avastha), but it is an illusory state, and why is it called jiva? Whatever undergoes the states (avastha) of living and dying, is referred to as jiva. And the Atma is by nature pure Self (shuddha chetan), it is the Absolute Soul (Parmatma) itself. But that awareness should happen. As long as one does not have this awareness, one does not even know that 'I am Atma'. One still has the awareness of, 'I am jiva'. It is in the illusory state of the self (jiva, atma), that there is the belief of 'I am’, that 'I am living, I will die.'
Do you understand this? The jiva and the Atma, are neither one and nor are they separate. When you say 'separate', then it becomes a separate part, it is not like that. When you say they are one, it creates impurity in the Atma, and it would mean that the Atma is tainted with illusion (bhranti); however even that has not happened. That is because one has never become the Atma. This is just an illusory state of the Atma that has arisen, and that is the jiva.
