302
Aptavani-2
The ego increases in proportion to the amount of
renunciation a person undergoes and his anger too increases
accordingly. A self-indulgent person is better than the one that
goes around saying, ‘I renounced this.’ At least the former will
say, ‘I don’t understand anything.’ It is natural for people to
make distinction and compare. A family man may feel, ‘that man
is a renunciant; he can do everything, but I am a family man.’
This is ling bheda (distinctional divisions amongst people). How
is an ordinary family man to accomplish anything when such
distinctions remain? Nevertheless, ‘we’ are a prime example for
these family men. ‘We’ too have a family. ‘We’ too pay income
tax. Knowing this will break down the perceived distinctions and
give people encouragement.
The Lord has said there is no moksha for either the
renunciant or the family man. The family man renounces nothing
and so he has the ego of acquisitiveness (grahan), whereas the
renunciant has ego of renouncing (tyaga). Both have ego of what
they do and as long as there is egoism, there is no liberation.
Nevertheless, on the Kramic path which does call for renunciation,
one has to have the ego of doer-ship in order to purify his ego.
The soap that cleanses leaves behind its own residue on the
cloth. That residue has to be cleaned with Tinopal bleach.
Tinopal will remove the soap’s residue but leave behind its own
residue; things continue in this manner to the end. The guru
leaves behind his ‘dirt’ on the disciple. The disciple, through his
own dirt will have to cleanse the dirt of his guru, because the
guru is not pure himself. The Gnani purush however is absolutely
pure and taints no one. The gurus of the Kramic path will
inevitably leave their ‘dirt’ on their disciples, whereas on this
Akram path, you are made to attain only the pure Self.
Whatever company one associates with, the influence of that
company is inevitable. The Gnani Purush alone is pure and
therefore you can rest assured you will not be tainted with any
‘dirt’.