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470
I am the Soul
from extraneous substances is paradharma. Affection for inanimate things and attachment with senses is paradharma. Similarly, the feelings of attachment etc. are all inanimate. We not only indulge in those feelings but also are very much attached to them. The belief that the feelings of attachment and aversion are the natural disposition of the self and that they are worthy of harbouring, is fearsome. That is why Lord Krishna says that if we continue to perform paradharma thinking it is the Dharma of the self, it is like a mine of great misfortune.
The jiva has struggled until now. The reason that the jiva continued to do karma and suffer it is also that it has found the feelings of attachment etc., which are the Dharma of the inanimate, as very dear. Jiva has never disunited itself from those feelings nor thought that this is not my Dharma but quite apart from this 'I am the atma'. So the characteristics of atma are my Dharma and the tremendous effort to make them manifest is the activity of Dharma. One who understands this Dharma of the self, stabilises in its awareness.
Srimadji has said - चेतन जो निज भानमां, कर्ता आप स्वभाव 'if chetan were to be aware of the self, it would perform only in the natural disposition'. If atma were not dwelling in the feelings of attachment etc., and dwelling within the self, then there would be a stability in it. Where there is a performance of the feelings of attachment etc., there is instability. This instability creates a vibration in the area of atma and due to these vibrations the karma paramanus get attached. This is the bondage of karma. If there were stability in the atma, then however many karma paramanus there may be in the external akasha-pradesh, they cannot advance on to the atma. There can be no karmic bondage. In such a situation, the atma transits only in its natural disposition i.e. in the states of knowledge etc. It remains engrossed in the experience of the natural disposition of the self. Therefore it may be said that it is the doer of its own natural disposition.
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