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Aptavani-8
Soul beginning with the conviction of 'I am pure Soul ending with absolute experience). And here, to become this inner awakened Soul (antaratma; interim state of the Self), even a Self-realized person (sat purush) will not do. A Self-realized person can help you move forward. Once he has become the interim state Soul (antaratma), his desire for worldly happiness and material pleasure (bhautik sukh) dissipates, and his desire turns toward attaining the happiness (sukh) of his Atma; the eternal happiness. And when the Gnani Purush lets him taste a little bit of this happiness, he no longer relishes the other happiness. Just like the tea you drink in the morning. But while drinking this tea, if someone puts a plate of jalebi (crispy fritters soaked in sweet syrup) in front of you, what would you choose? What would you take first? Would you eat the jalebi, or would you drink the tea?
Questioner: Tea.
Dadashri: You drink the tea first. Why? This is because if you eat the jalebi, the tea will taste bland. You will blame your wife for that; why does the tea have no sugar in it? It is because of the jalebi that it tastes bland. That is what happens when you taste the Atma's happiness (sukh); all the worldly happiness and pleasures (bhautik sukh), become insipid, so that you lose interest in it, you do not enjoy it; nevertheless you have to endure it, although you dislike it. That is when you attain the interim state between the embodied soul (jivatma) and the pure Soul (Shuddhatma) – the antaratma.
So, as long as he wants worldly pleasures, one is a soul whose vision is directed externally (bahirmukhi atma). And when he realizes his own Self (swaroop) that, 'I am not this; I am the pure Soul (Shuddhatma), I am immortal and I do not want anything in the worldly life (sansar)', is when his state becomes the interim state of the Soul (antaratma). The state of antaratma does two things: one is for worldly (bhautik) happiness; one has to do work for worldly interaction (vyavahar).
