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I am the Soul
251 was causing the aberrations in you. We had analysed this gatha in the earlier chapter too. Without identifying the affected attitudes lying within, we accepted vratas merely to feed our pride. But nothing came out of it! Vratas are very capable of breaking down the affected attitudes. There is strength in the vratus. But we have made them infirm. We have forgotten how vratas are to be observed.
Simply by going to the sages and getting avowed through pratyakhyana does not make a vrata. It is an internal development, and pratyakhyana is the boundary. In the farms, why do we find boundaries all around? For the safety of the crops. So that the cattle do not enter and ruin the crop. The boundaries manage to prevent the cattle from entering. But the birds that fly in the sky above notice the ripe crop and descend on the farms in flocks. How can they be stopped? The farmers place scarecrows in the middle of the farms. But the birds are wise, they recognise the scarecrow for what it is and ignore it. Why! Sometimes they rest on the scarecrow itself. So the scarecrow cannot save the crop from the birds. The next thing they do is to appoint a guard. Either from the household or a hired person. The guard has only one thing to do. All through the day he has to scare the birds away. He has to be very alert. He cannot settle down even for a chat.
Brothers! Acceptance of a vow to perform a vrata is like putting up a boundary to keep any enticement from entering the inner self. So, when a person is fasting with a vow, whatever be the tasty food that is placed before him, he will refuse saying, “I am on fast today, I shall not eat'. Had it not been for the vow, the mind would have been immediately tempted and he would eat the stuff. Now when he is avowed, he will certainly not eat, but the mind would perhaps be drawn towards it. It is then that the reasoning awakens. In order to ensure that the bird-like craving for taste does not settle down within and lap up the grain-like
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