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[13] Liberation from Artadhyan and Raudradhyan
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252
Pratikraman
would like some tea. Your friend says that, instead of tea, they would prefer a simple, hot meal. You now think to yourself, 'Just wait until my wife hears this. She's going to go ballistic! What will happen in the kitchen?
Now what are you supposed to do here? What is the Lord's Agna? What should the one who wants liberation do? The pressures of the current time cycle are such that they influence our bhaav negatively, so in such circumstances it is natural to have a bhaav like, 'Why are they here at this hour?' All prevailing circumstances, in such a time cycle, lead even the most noble of men to have such a bhaav. Even a saiyami (person in control of his kashays) will have such intent.
So why have negativity? Instead, let's just welcome them for a nice meal.
So you have to solve it this way. If you do not, they are already here uninvited and they are not likely to leave until their time is up.
Questioner: We do not feed anyone at night, because we practice no food intake after sunset (chovihar).
Dadashri: So what do you tell them? Do you tell them that they will not get anything to eat?
Questioner: We tell them, no. Dadashri: What if they ask for tea?
Questioner: We will say no to that as well, even if they asked for it.
Dadashri: Is that so? Then what do people do? They take them out to eat.
Questioner: It is one and the same thing if you take them out to eat at night.
However, the one who is in control of his kashay will internally say, 'Why are you creating such a negative cause from within, when on the outside you are so gracious?
Your welcoming them nicely is an effect of causes laid in the past life. Through your bhaav (your current inner intent), however, you are sowing new seeds, which will give their effect in the next life. With your negative bhaav, you are creating a new account.
Dadashri: Then what else can you do? Should you send them to bed hungry? Our people of India will never do that. That is our cultural values (sanskar).
When faced with such a situation, you should ask God (within) for forgiveness by saying, 'Dear Lord, I have made a mistake due to the pressures of circumstances. I said these words, but it is not my desire to speak thus. Let them stay." Thus, if you wipe it off, that is your purusharth. (238)
These strange times will indeed pressure you to have such bhaav. Even the highly elevated beings who have control over their kashays will be prone to such pressures which create negative bhaav. If you erase the negative bhaav with pratikraman, then you will attain its benefits. Even the wife will erase it from within, knowing full well that although they have come unannounced, they won't go without eating or drinking.
The guests have come, and that is an unfolding of their karma as well as your karma. And so, they are not likely to leave until that karma is over.
Now what does the wife tell 'Chandubhai'? 'When are your relatives going to leave?' So he will say, 'They are not my relatives. They could have come from anywhere!' Then she will not mention the relatives.
People today are developed,' are they not? So the wife will say 'Your relatives,' and when her relatives come, he will
