become one.’
- Dadashri
To be the Self, is to be in the ‘home department’ and to
be in a place other than the Self is to be in the ‘foreign
department’. The penance that one does to not become the
relative self, is inner penance. The external penance that one
does and the doer-ship that is required in order to do that
penance, is the ego. The Lord has said to settle the penance that
comes across, with equanimity. Penance is not to be carried out
with the doer-ship of the ego! All external penance that is done
nowadays is done by the prakruti (non-Self); where is the Self-
oriented effort (purusharth) in that? Self-oriented effort starts
with inner penance and only after one becomes Self-realized.
The relative self i.e. the prakruti makes a person do penance
and yet his ego claims, “I did the penance!” Whatever penance
is done, it is dependent on the prakruti. If one has the constant
awareness that ‘the real Self is not a doer of anything’, then the
ego would not arise in reaction to penance, otherwise the
reaction to penance is anger, pride and ego.
What is the true definition of renunciation (tyaga)? It
is renunciation that naturally manifests in one’s behavior or
conduct. All other renunciation is done through the ego. ‘That
which has been renounced, will have to be dealt with, later.’
That which is renounced egoistically, will be multiplied a hundred
fold, and will return with hundred times the force. ‘There is no
requirement of renouncing or acquiring in the path of liberation.’
The scriptures themselves have said that for a Gnani the question
of renouncing or acquisition does not even arise. Those
engrossed in their prakruti; whatever they do, whether they
renounce or acquire, they do so according to the dictates of
their prakruti. They merely have the ego of, ‘I renounced!’ And
for those who always remain as the Self, it is not possible for
them to renounce or acquire. It is not the property or the
attribute of the Self to renounce or to acquire. If that were true,
the liberated Souls in the Siddha Kshetra (location where all
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