Aptavani-2
513
quarrel outside but do you have to do it even amongst
yourselves?
Intoxication of ego blocks moksha
‘We’ had gone to Ahmedabad where ‘we’ met one
Acharya Maharaj. It was during the time of Paryushan, so
thousands of people were coming to greet and bow to him. I
was introduced to him, by someone who said, “This is a Gnani
Purush.” He immediately did my darshan and got up from his
high seat and then sat down on the floor. ‘We’ told him, “This
gesture will take you a long way.” Such wonderful humility can
take one a long way, so he said, “I sat down because I felt it
from within.” Then ‘we’ asked him, “Do you read scriptures?”
He said he has read many scriptures and so ‘we’ asked him,
“You have read a lot of scriptures but did you read them as per
Lord’s instructions or otherwise?” The Lord has said, “Do not
read the scriptures that increase your intoxication of ‘I know
something’ (keyf) and if it reduces your intoxication, then read
them.” Throw away those books if they increase intoxication. Is
it an attribute of the books to increase intoxication? No,
intoxication is an attribute of the seed within you. Does a tree
with thorns have to design its thorns? No, it is an inherent
attribute of the tree that it will have thorns on every branch. Then
I asked the Acharya Maharaj, “How will you reduce that
intoxication?” he replied, “We perform our rituals,” I told him,
“Any ritual that increases intoxication, is a ritual of ignorance, it
is not a ritual prescribed by the Lord. The rituals He prescribed
reduce intoxication, not increase it.” One can never accomplish
anything by doing all these rituals. He remains where he is. He
merely reaps what he sows.
The path of the vitarags is simple, easy and natural but
these people have made it difficult through insistence on self
punishment (kasht sadhya). In the current paths of the vitarag
dharma, if there were any truth in them, the world would have