132
Aptavani-1
respect. Someone once asked me, “Why do you accept the
garlands of flowers people give you?” I replied, ‘Here, let me
put a garland around your neck also. But you will not be able
to endure the honor.’ People will be awed to see so many
garlands. If you bow down to someone, he or she will quickly
get up – they cannot bear the respect being given to them.
Account Of Respect-Insult
The rule is : ‘No one will insult you when you no longer
fear insults’. As long as there is fear, the ‘transactions’ will keep
coming but they will cease when your fear is gone. Keep both,
respect and insult in your account. Whatever respect or insult
people offer you, credit them to your account. Do not create a
new account by reacting to the insults. However large or small
the dose of bitterness people serve you, credit it into your
account. Decide that you want to credit about a hundred insults
a month in your account and the more the insults, the greater the
profit. Now if you get seventy instead of hundred, you are in a
loss by thirty and therefore you have to credit one hundred and
thirty the following month. Those who have a credit of three
hundred or so insults to their account will not experience any
fear of being insulted. After that there is smooth sailing to the
other shore (liberation). So you have to start keeping a record
from the first day of the month. Can you do that much or not?
When you bow down to a Gnani Purush by putting your
hands together, it means you purify your ego of worldly
interactions and when you touch your forehead to the Gnani’s
toe and do real darshan, you are surrendering your ego at his
feet. The benefit you gain is in proportion to the degree of your
surrender of your ego.
Pity is not an attribute found in the Gnani, the Gnani has
boundless compassion. Pity is a dangerous attribute of the ego
as far as liberation is concerned. In what way is it an egotistical