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I am the Soul
With the arrival of peace, equanimity also comes in. The intensity of passions creates an imbalance in feelings. When the passions are overpowered, peace is the first to arrive followed by equanimity. Once the endlessly rising passions within are contained, they can never again harm the jiva. Like the milk placed on the stove for boiling. Its nature is to boil over. But the ladies have a knack for not letting the milk boil over. When the milk is about to boil over, they remove if from the stove or if they do not have the means at hand to do so, they sprinkle a handful of water on it. Once the boil-over has subsided, they find the means to bring down the vessel and set is aside and then the milk cools down on its own.
Brothers! If you want to bring equanimity within, then this is what you do. If the passions are boiling over inside, they can be contained by understanding, but that will be momentary. But the concentration - chitta has to be drawn away from the passions. The chitta has to be on something - it has to be drawn away from passions and stabilised in the humility of the original form of atma, in meditation. Then the chitta separates from the passions and involuntarily the passions subside. And then, just as milk cools down once the boil-over has subsided and returns to its original disposition, the atma too involuntarily returns to the state of equanimity which is its original disposition.
Once equanimity arises within, the nimittas of anger etc., cannot bother the jiva for long. Sometimes, on account of some earlier karmas, such nimittas arise and try to bother the jiva. But the jiva adopts forgiveness. It believes that anger is a fire and one who jumps into that fire will not remain without getting burnt. Therefore, it seeks refuge in the calm and peaceful waters of forgiveness and experiences peace.
The feeling of forgiveness becomes so developed that even when some human, animal or god comes to inflict torture upon the jiva, it develops not animosity but compassion towards them.
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