Autobiograpy of Gyani Purush A M Patel

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Dada Bhagwan Foundation

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Autobiography of Gnani Purursh
when I lived in. Mamani Poda had a reputation of being a residential area for many prestigious and cultured people. Not many people lived in bungalows fifty years ago. And Mamani Poda was the place to be. When ordinarily the rent was seven rupees, we paid fifteen! I used to live in Mamani Poda and I was a reputable contractor. To my home in Mamani Poda, would come men who lived in bungalows! They would come in their fancy cars. Why? Because they were in a lot of trouble and they would come to me for help. They would indulge in distortion and unethical business practices and when they got caught and became trapped, they would drive to Mamani Poda. Somehow or other I would help them find 'back door' solutions. Just look at this! They are the ones who would break the law and I would be the one to help them escape; hence I took the liability upon myself. Why would I do all this? I used to do it to gain false self-importance and pride. I would use my cleverness and they in turn would escape. They gave me a lot of importance but the liability of their actions fell on my shoulders. Later I realized what liabilities I had taken on in my state of ignorance; I did all that just for feeding my false pride.
Questioner: You discovered all that was to gain importance. How did you destroy this false pride?
Dadashri: False pride cannot be destroyed. You can lessen it but you cannot destroy it. How can one destroy it, if he is the one who wants it in the first place? I somehow managed to pass my days by reducing it.
That Ego Bothered Me Day My And Night
My intellect and my ego used to be very heavy. My older brother was extremely egoistic but he had an impressive personality. His personality was so powerful that people would
Autobiography of Gnani Purursh
move out of his way the moment they saw him. His eyes were very commanding and he had an imposing face. Even I feared him. In spite of that he used to tell me, 'I have never seen an egoistic person like you.' And yet he was the one I was afraid of. Nevertheless he would tell me confidentially that he had not met anyone with an ego like mine. Later on I truly saw that ego. It was when that ego troubled me and made me suffer that I realized what my brother was saying about my ego. I used to say, 'I don't need anything'; I even had an ego about not having any greed within me. I had no greed of any kind whatsoever. So just imagine the kind of pride I had. If pride and greed were evenly distributed within a person, his pride would be considerably lesser...
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The Falsehood of False Pride
I used to think very highly about myself; I felt there was no one better than me in this world. I thought so much of myself! I was not wealthy; all I had was a home and a small piece of land, only about two acres! But my mind was as if I was the king of Charotar, Central Gujarat. This was worsened because the people of the surrounding villages goaded me on and fed into my conceit. They would tell me that I was a man who could demand whatever dowry I pleased. This filled my mind with arrogance. That coupled with something I had brought forward from my past life, filled my mind with a lot of false pride and arrogance.
My brother Manibhai, exuded a lot of aura of pride too. I used to call him a proud man, and he accused me of being the same. One day he told me, 'I have not seen a more proud man than you in my life.' I asked him where he detected my pride. He told me it was evident in everything I did.