Aptavani-2
459
have never attained the vitarag religion.
Vitarags were completely different. People are not aware
and have no knowledge of what the vitarags had to do on the
vitarag path and today they are doing what the vitarags did not
like. What did the vitarags not like? They said, “Do not become
one-sided. When you do penance, do not become adamant
about penance (tapogachha).” Vitarags say, “Do not get
involved in one specific activity (gachha) in the quest for
liberation”. Penance or austerities is just one corner of a home;
if you clean just one corner of your house, does that mean that
whole house is clean? Will it get clean? No it will not. The Lord
has said, “Clean all the corners of the home.” The Lord is not
going to clean them for you. People get stuck in doing only
penance or only renunciation or only reading scriptures.
Kabir says:
‘Pustak padha padha jag mooah, pandit bhaya naa koi.’
‘The worldly beings have died reading scriptures life after life,
and yet no one has become a true scholar (the knower).’
Kabir did not see any learned person. By reading only
books, people become inanimate like the books. You become
that which you worship; that is the nature of the Self. By
worshipping the vitarags, you become like them, so worship
them so you too can attain moksha. Of all the countless paths
there are, this narrow path of the vitarags is the only path that
will liberate you. Once in a while, a person can go through this
path, but it is very rare indeed. Otherwise, there are always
countless different paths and they are paths which lead to
endless wandering between and in the four life forms (human,
animal, hell and celestial). People become content to take
comfort from these paths and claim, “We have attained a lot.”
Follow the Gnani
Vitarags have said, “For liberation you do not have to do