Who Am I

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Dada Bhagwan Foundation

Page 42

Who Am I?
Who Am I?
anything without awareness. In the same way, when people say, "I am Shuddhatma", without acquiring Self-Realization, it is as though they are talking in their sleep. They achieve nothing by speaking this way. In fact such talk is liable to cause errors in life for them. One is only entitled to say, "I am Pure Soul" after realizing the Self.
Questioner: So the awareness has to occur?
Dadashri: Yes, only after Self-Realization, can you say, "I am Shuddhatma". Then it is appropriate, because you are saying it after realizing your true identity, after becoming Shuddhatma. Now if after becoming Shuddhatma, you ask for proof, then we can ask you who you are and you would say "Shuddhatma". Next we would ask you if you have lost attachment to Chandulal, and he would say that you have. This confirms that you have become a Pure Soul. THE GNANI AWAKENS YOUR
AWARENESS After this Gnan, you recognize that your home is your Real Self and everything external to it, is foreign. That means your work is completed. This is like the man who is now alert and wide awake after someone wakes him up from sleep. He responds to his real name.
Once made aware of your real identity as the Pure Self, you become awake. But as long as one has the belief, 'I am Chandulal', one is considered to be sleeping. A Gnani is able to destroy this wrong belief and awaken you to the right belief that you are Shuddhatma. Once this awareness becomes established within you, you become separated from Chandulal, forever.
AWARENESS NEVER BEFORE
EXPERIENCED Srimad Rajchandra referred to this as:
Through the Supreme teaching of the Highest Guru (Sadguru) Came the awareness, never before realized. Self remains in the Self. Ignorance is gone forever.
Prior to this Gnan, one is only aware of the body. The one who acted as Chandulal now reverts to the state of the Self. That, which was the original abode, becomes the original abode, and the false abode of 'I am Chandulal' is gone.
BECOMING NIRVIKALP After this Gnan, 'I am Chandulal', is used only for identification in worldly matters. 'I am Shuddhatma', and 'This is mine' fall into in their correct and separate places. After Gnan the sankalp ('I am Chandulal') and the vikalp ("This is mine) no longer exist. This is the nirvikalp state. (Nirvikalp state is the absence of the illusion, from 'I' being in the wrong place). The nirvikalp state can only exist in the absence of sankalp and vikalp. Initially you experience a taste of this nirvikalp samadhi, which augments with time. But Gnan does not remain 'exact' for you, because for endless lives you have not experienced this Real state.
The experience of the Soul is not easy to attain. One can keep on repeating, "I am Shuddhatma, I am Shuddhatma...", but the experience does not come. There is no other method to acquire the experience of the Pure Soul other than through the Gnan and the Gnani's grace. The acquisition of Gnan, leads to pratiti (conviction), laksh (awareness) and anubhuv (experience). Furthermore, the conviction (pratiti) never leaves.