Aptavani-1 Aptavani-1 | Page 250

Aptavani-1 225 non-partiality, only there, there is God and only there, there is liberation. The one who is blind to the viewpoint of others can never know the Self. If you are dogmatic and insist upon only your own viewpoint, how can you accept the truth of others? And is your insistence over a permanent or a temporary thing? That which is needed is a permanent thing and yet you continue to be dogmatic about temporary things. Then how can you attain the Self? Become completely free from insistence of all kinds, except that for the Self. Only then will you realize the Self. Leave all other desires and become desirous of only knowing the ‘truth’. Only then will you attain the ultimate truth. Fanaticism (Drashti Raag) (Exclusive attachment to a particular viewpoint) More harmful than dogma (matandha–blindness for other viewpoints) is the disease of drashti-raag (fanatic attachment to a viewpoint). This type of fanaticism prevails life after life, and only leaves after one meets a Gnani Purush. Until one acquires the right belief, blind faith prevails. It is said that the Lord is not so much against blind faith and beliefs, as he is against fanatic insistence on a faith. What is fanaticism? There are 360 degrees and for each degree there are infinite viewpoints. Exclusive attachment and insistence to any one particular viewpoint is drashti-raag. This drashti-raag is impossible to get rid of. Only after wandering for infinite life cycles when you meet a Gnani Purush, does this disease of drashti-raag becomes cured. One’s spiritual awareness is veiled because of one’s fanaticism. Worldly attachment and abhorrence can be rid of but not fanaticism. There is no solution for it. Neither in the present life, nor in the lives to come will this disease disappear. It is incurable.