________________
Spiritual Enlightenment
And the last fault is that when all the beings are asleep at night, he is awake; and when the world is awake, he sleeps. (46*1) He neither speaks nor opens a discussion; he neither raises nor blames anybody; but he realizes equanimous attitude which leads one to liberation. The saint, realized as he has that paraphernalia, pleasures, body, etc., are foreign to his self, has neither attachment nor aversion for (internal and external) paraphernalia, pleasures and body, etc. The great saint feels no attachment and aversion for vratti and nivratti, because he knows them to be the cause of bondage. (34-52)
62
Not knowing the causes of bondage and liberation and not realizing Atman as Right Faith, Knowledge and Conduct, one incurs through delusion both merit and demerit as though they lead one to liberation. The soul that does not treat merit and demerit alike suffers misery all along and wanders in the roundof-rebirths being deluded. The wise say that even demerits or sins (papa) are beneficial, when they immediately give pain and leave the soul free to attain liberation; and even the Punyas are not beneficial when they bestow kingdoms and consequently bring lots of misery. Better court death that leads to self-realization than merits that lead astray. Those that march towards self-relization attain infinite happiness, but others that have missed the same suffer infinite miseries in spite of meritorious deeds. Merits lead to prosperity, prosperity to vanity, and vanity to intellectual perversity which further leads to sin; therefore merits are not desirable. (60) Devotion to Gods, scriptures and saints leads one to merit, but never to the destruction of Karman: so says venerable Sant. Contempt of the same however necessarily leads to sin whereby one wanders in Samsara. Papa leads the soul to hell and sub-human world, Punya to heaven, and the admixture of both to the human world; but when both are destroyed, there results Nirvana or liberation. Worship, self-reprobation and repentance with correction: all these bring merit or Punya; so a man of knowledge will not devote himself to these by leaving meditation on the pure and holy Atman, the embodiment of knowledge. (53-65)
