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UNDERSTANDING SAMAYIK
541
the nature of the current time cycle.
Seeker: How can we know that the samayik we are doing is wrong? We do it with the assurance and hope that we are doing the right thing.
Dadashri: You can do the right samayik after knowing the Self, not until then. Until then, it is a good tool to still the mind and the body.
They are all worldly (laukik) samayiks, whereas this is beyond the worldly, of the Self (alaukik). It is to still the 'vyavahar atma' (relative self, non-Self complex). After attaining Gnan, You can still the relative self, can You not? How is it possible to do so without knowing the Self? The Gnan that is attained will keep making the relative self still. There is great awareness (jagruti) here, whereas over there, there is no awareness at all.
Who is the Doer of Samayik?
If a person does samayik, he will tell people, 'I do four samayiks every day. That man does only one.' So you will understand that he has the egoism of doing samayik, and that is why he sees the mistake of the other person by saying. 'He does only one samayik, whereas I do four.' Then, if you were to visit him after a few days and ask him, 'Why are you not doing samayik today?' He will tell you, 'My legs are hurting.' So 'we' ask him, 'Do your legs do the samayik, or do you? If your legs do the samayik, then you were lying before when you told me that you did the samayik.' Therefore, one needs his legs to be healthy, his mind to be healthy, and his intellect and ego must be accommodating in order to do samayik. All the circumstances have to be right for a samayik to occur. (512)
Even the ego has to be straight at that time; otherwise, the samayik will not occur. Therefore, when all these circumstances
542
Pratikraman
come together, then the work gets done. So in all this, why do you take the credit for doing it? What is your contribution in what external circumstances accomplish? Do people not take credit for doing such things? It is just the egoism people have of doing something. Scientific circumstantial evidences do everything and yet a person claims, 'I am doing it.' That is all to taste 'the sweet juice of doership' (garvaras). And as long as one has the habit of tasting this sweet juice (ras) one gives rise to the worldly life (sansar). You will have to understand the facts, won't you? Will such falsehood work?
That is why we have the expression of a 'noose around the neck. When a person takes credit for doing samayik, pratikraman; it is the same as having a noose around the neck, because they enjoyed the taste of doership.
Samayik of Puniyaa Shravak
Questioner: What was the samayik of Puniyaa Shravak
like?
Dadashri: It was just like the one we do here in Akram Vignan. He took it to that level in the Kramic path.
When King Shrenik was doomed to spend a life in hell, he asked Lord Mahavir to show him ways to prevent this. He said to the Lord, Lord, I have just met you and I have to go to hell?' the Lord said, 'What can anyone do now? No one can do anything about it. Once the karma for the next life is bound, it is bound, and nothing can be done about it.' But even then, he pleaded with the Lord to give him a solution, so the Lord showed him a way. The Lord told him to accomplish one of four tasks and, if he were successful, he would avoid a life in hell. Three of the solutions failed. That left the samayik of Puniyaa Shravak. So the King said he would go to Puniyaa Shravak and get the samayik from him.
King Shrenik goes to Puniyaa Shravak and tells him, 'Give
