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I am the Soul
Going along with the same story, if the tiny sprout remains a sprout, then the very sprouting becomes meaningless. But after sprouting, if it continues to grow, it reaches a height of 50 - 60 feet or more. The vitality within it gives it a life of 180 - 200 years. Even today we get to see age old trees which had begun their life as tiny sprouts. Their growth along with the passage of time is there for us to see.
Now, if we want the thought of Atma to sprout within us, what do we do? First of all like the seed that is immersed in the soil, absorb the benevolence of the Gurudev through every pore. Be indebted for his benevolence, forget your own self, abandon the l' altogether. Then allow the Gurudev's air-water-nutrient like advice and words to be absorbed into you. This will happen slowly, not at once, and only if the process is incessant.
Accepting the words of the Guru, if you keep churning them in your self, only then will the inner-self remain steady. If the thought of the Atma arises like a momentary ripple and then subsides, it will not yield any fruit. Ripples rising in lake water, rise and subside; there can be no count nor do they serve any purpose. Likewise, if during our association with the virtuous, a fleeting thought about the Atma arises in our mind and later either we are ensnared in the worldly affairs or it simply subsides, then it has no value. But if that thought manages to reach the depths of the inner self and settles down there, then it becomes capable of making the inner-self split.
Only when the natural disposition (Fahra) and the affected disposition (Fayra) which appear to have merged within the Soul are split, when saira and fauna are separated, when the inner-self is split, does the seed of the true knowledge sprout and emerge, splitting the hard earth of the worldly feelings. That is to say, he who has experienced the inner-self split, to whom the science of the detachment has become evident, his external activity also undergoes a change. This becomes perceptible in his feelings of equanimity, restraint and compassion.
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