80
Aptavani-2
you say, “I don’t like it.” The questions you ask and the
knowledge you attain is all relative knowledge, but what is the
reality of this world? People generally say, “I do not have that
knowledge.” What is the reality? The Self is verily that reality.
Everyone knows the relative viewpoints but will you not have to
know the real viewpoint? Knowing both the real and the relative
is knowledge through pragnya i.e. the direct light of the Self,
and to know just one viewpoint is knowledge through the
intellect or buddhi, which is the indirect light of the Self mediated
through the ego.
When a man abandons his wife and children and becomes
an ascetic, he is not the one who is renouncing, but his prakruti
forces him to do so. It is the prakruti that makes a person
renounce worldly things or undergo penance, but the ego claims,
‘I renounced’ or ‘I am doing penance’ or ‘I am doing samayik’.
Prakruti controls and runs everything until one becomes a
Purush (the Self). Reading scriptures, meditation, doing samayik
etc., is prakrutgnan i.e. it is relative knowledge; it is not
Atmagnan; it is not real knowledge. Prakrutgnan prevails
everywhere in the world. Even the prominent preceptors,
ascetics, sages, are in prakrutgnan; they do not have the
knowledge of the Self. Whatever they know is all prakrutgnan.
They do not have knowledge of Atmagnan. Go to Gnani Purush
if you want Atmagnan. Gnan can only be found with a Gnani,
nowhere else.
Elsewhere they make you leave or change attributes of the
prakruti and its habits. Alas! When will you achieve that?
Whereas here we say that the Soul is eternally free and separate
from the good habits and the bad habits of the prakruti. In the
Akram path we simply walk away from this ‘shop’ of the
relative self by saying, “This shop is not mine”, whereas in other
paths they make you empty the shop one item at a time. How
long would that take? Instead, if you just step down by saying,
“This is not mine”, that would be the end of that!