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I am the Soul
777
fasting of six days or eight days, and on the day they broke their fast, would eat just one handful of tasteless food. Yet, their body and minds were filled with equanimity. No subject relating to the senses could be of their interest. Such great men would truly have attained the state of atma.
Others would be neck-deep into the passions of the senses and merely talk of pure atma. Their activity in the material world would not have improved in any way. Their intrigue and involvement with the material world would not be altered at all. Why! We can also find persons talking about niscaya naya while believing just that all this talk should be for deriding other faiths in the fields of dharma, knowledge and satsang. There they put forth niscaya naya, while in their own fields of activity, business and relations they live just like the others. There they do not like anything to change.
In their activities, just like the others, if there is anything amiss between them and others, they immediately develop animosity. They resort to guile and lament. 'So and so celebrated an occasion, but did not call me, did not invite me, or did not respect me. Not just that! I had presented a gift worth Rs. 500/to his son, yet, when occasion arose at my place, he has brought something worth only Rs. 100/-.' Many such occasions arrive in life and we always respond with feelings of attachment and aversion. So can we call these people as knowledgable? They certainly do study the scriptures everyday; they have learnt some catchwords by heart, which they go around dropping everywhere, and if they get a chance to do so in the presence of people from other faiths, their mad love for dharma seems to rise and get mixed up with animosity.
What difference is there in the conduct of an ignorant jiva, which does not know anything about the atma, and the conduct of such niscayavadis?
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