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Aptavani-4
considered your purusharth. You can say that such a person is
awake. You can only do purusharth when you have the
awareness, right? It is because one is ‘asleep’ that one is unable
to do purusharth. That is what is called bhaavnindra.
This is all prarabdha. It is the prakruti that forces you to
dance. It makes the actively restless one, dance faster and the
lazy one, dance slower. The active one says, ‘This prarabdhavadi
(lazy) is lazy and I am purusharthvadi (industrious).’ Really
speaking, you have bound energetic prarabdha; whereas, the
other person has bound lazy prarabdha. They are both
dependent on circumstance. If a person’s business is running
well, he is considered purusharthi (industrious), and if it is not,
people will say he is prarabdhavadi (lazy)! In fact, it is not like
that. Prarabdha (effect) means that it is “free of cost”.
Purusharth (cause) means that it is something that takes you
further; it is something that is earned.
So, not only did he lose saiyam (self-control over
passions like anger, pride, deceit and greed), but you lost yours
as well. Therefore, you will both go on to a lower life-form
(adhogati). Now if you maintain self-control (saiyam), you will
not acquire a lower life-form, as here you will not slip up. The
other person may have slipped, but where is your purusharth
when you slip along with him?
It is very important to understand this prarabdha-
purusharth. How can you call it purusharth, if today you are
in the same rut as you were in yesterday? Still it is not as if that
there is no purusharth at all. At the most, perhaps just two to
five people in a thousand may have purusharth. It is a very low
percentage and they too do not even know that it is purusharth.
They just believe that the one hurrying around is the only one
doing the purusharth. People think of purusharth as running
around from place to place, working frantically, and not sitting
idle. They will say things like, ‘He is a very purusharthi (hard