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Aptavani-8
scriptures, rituals) have become a bondage (bandhan). Who has bound you? The sadhano themselves have bound you. All the sadhano that people have created, are the sadhano that have bound them.
Questioner: So to move forward, what sort of thoughts should we have? And how can we get out of this mess?
Dadashri: This is how it is: if someone says, 'Did you see the flower in the sky?' Then what would you say?
Questioner: 'That is an illusion', is what I would say. Dadashri: Then this here is the Atma, how can you find it? It is not a thing of the imagination.
Therefore, how will you know the Atma? The Atma itself is science (vignan). And all the sadhano (means; tools; instruments, i.e. scriptures, rituals) that you come up with, the instruments of knowledge that you resort to; even that knowledge has dried up and it does not give results (shushka gnan). So, there you have to do everything in it. Whereas, science itself works on its own and produces results (kriyakari), and it does all the work; you do not have to do anything. And through science, it is possible to find the Atma. There is no other way (sadhan) through which you can find the Atma. I have shown you the way (sadhan). Now will you do this science?
Questioner: I did not understand. What science?
Dadashri: The science of Self-realization (Atmavignan). Atmavignan means the science (vignan) of attaining the Atma. You can only attain the Atma, if you have this science. Otherwise, there is always the knowledge about how to attain the Atma in the scriptures; however, with that knowledge it is not possible for you to attain the Atma. That is because the Atma is not in the form of words, that it can be recorded in the scriptures. It is wordless (nihshabda), inexpressible (avaktavya), and indescribable (avarniya). It is nothing like the way people have
