90
Aptavani-1
To do your duty means to make preparation for liberation.
It is the narrow mind that creates an obstacle to wealth. Why
else would wealth be obstructed? The intellect of the Vanik is
wise but it is very obstructive in the path of liberation.
Mind : Expansive Or Narrow
If the mind were to calculate and balance accounts every
day, the next day you would not be able to cook. Suppose you
don’t earn even a dime in your business, does that mean you
should not eat the next day? What is this mind like? Let me
explain. Suppose there is path five feet wide, you will catch
burs on your clothes from the bushes that grow in the path. The
same thing will happen on a two feet wide path and the same
will happen if a path is so narrow that only one person can pass
through at a time. The burs will sick to his clothes, but he will
still manage to squeeze through. The mind knows which holes
it has to escape through and it will squeeze its way through, no
matter what the situation. It can even pass through two wires.
That is why we say Oh fool! Do not turn a royal mind into that
of a beggar. If you do not have a flower to give, give even a
petal but do not let your mind become a beggar. Depending
upon circumstances, even a king may have to beg but does that
mean that his mind has become beggarly? It will still remain
noble and generous. The broader the mind, the greater is the
freedom. The narrower the mind, the greater is the confinement.
It is like this, the direction the mind drags a person to,
depends upon the kind of tubers his mind is made of. A miser
has a tuber of greed; a benevolent person will have a tuber of
benevolence. An ascetic will have a tuber of asceticism. A
person who renounces will have a tuber of renunciation; it is this
tuber that makes him renounce and yet he says, ‘I renounced’.
You unfortunate man! You just made your tuber larger! When
will this tuber ever dissolve? How will you get liberation? These