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64. Focus On Self
hrimad's daughter, Kashiben was very playful and affectionate and was thus everyone's favourite. Once she jumped into Shrimad's lap. He asked her : "What is your name ?"
Kashiben laughed : “Papa, don't you know? My name is Kashi.” Shrimad said : "Your name is not Kashi, it is Conscious, Blissful, Eternal soul.""
Kashiben did not understand what he had said, and so went crying to her mother complaining that her father had said her real name was not Kashi but something else. Shrimad had, in this indirect way, planted a small seed of Truth, in Kashiben's mind. The seeds were to mature later.
Kashiben was afflicted with a serious illness and died at a young age and yet, because of the thought-seeds planted by Shrimad, she focused constantly on That, which her father had said she was, till the very end. Shrimad, as always had a deep concern for the spiritual well being of every soul that came into contact with him.
One Padamshibhai had stayed with Shrimad for a short while in Mumbai and had tremendous faith in him. Once Shrimad asked him what he feared most. He replied that it was death. Shrimad explained to him that death occurs only at the maturity of certain Karma and not before that. He suggested that the Soul's main concern ought not to be the physical death but spiritual death from karmic bondage which arises from non-spiritual inclinations, and which lead to the cycle of death and rebirth. The solution is to keep one's thoughts focused on one's own true nature, on the Soul.
Once Shrimad, Maneklalbhai Ghelabhai, and others were invited to dinner. At dinner, Maneklalbhai refused a serving of vegetables, as on certain religious days, he could not eat them. Next, a yoghurt dish was served, which also he declined. Several other items were also served, and he accepted some, and declined others. Then a sweet was served, and he did not decline it, but Shrimad stopped it from being served to Maneklalbhai saying: "He has increased his self-importance by rejecting routine food items, but does not want to deny himself the most tasty dish." Shrimad then explained the real nature of one's attachment to material pleasures, which draw the Soul away from its own true nature.
