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Aptavani-8
217
you go to temples? Why do you read the scriptures (shastras)? Why do you have worries? Would all that not be contradictory then? The Atma does not have any bondage; that much is a hundred percent true. This is an independent (nirpeksha) statement. From the aspect of Knowledge (Gnan bhaav), the Atma is not bound, and from the aspect of ignorance (agnan bhaav), it is bound. When you have the aspect of Knowledge that is, 'I am the pure Soul (Shuddhatma)', then You do not have bondage (bandhan). However, as long as you have the inner intent (bhaav), 'I am truly Chandubhai', then there is bondage for certain.
Anything that seems painful to you, you can call bondage. Otherwise, people in this world, do not even have the awareness of being bound; they do not have the awareness that 'I am bound'.
No living entity (jiva) likes its own bondage (bandhan). Do you like being bound?
Questioner: No. Dadashri: Nevertheless, what is it that you have to live
in?
Questioner: In bondage (bandhan).
Dadashri: The entire day, you have to live in bondage (bandhan). Each and every living being (jiva) is stuck in bondage. Gnani Purush like 'us' is free, but rarely in any era of the time cycle One such Gnani Purush is around. Otherwise Gnanis can never be found in the world. Gnani Purush is free and so he is not bound by anything. Therefore he does not feel a burden of any kind, he has no fear; nothing can touch him. And that is what you, yourself have to become. But you can only become that in the presence of a Gnani Purush. For thousands of years, Gnani Purush is not around. You can become free when rarely a Gnani Purush is around.
