Aptavani-5
75
Penance Is the Fourth Pillar of Moksha
The Lord has shown us the wonderful penance of
‘unodari tapa’ (the penance of eating less). Divide your meal
as follows: two parts food, one part water, one part air; this is
how you should eat.
The Lord has not spoken of only the three component of
gnan-darshan-charitra (knowledge-vision-conduct respectively).
He has also mentioned the fourth component, which is that of
tapa (penance). There are four pillars of moksha. These four
pillars are in the Kramic path as well as in the Akram path.
Which penance? It is the penance that takes place during the
suffering of pain (vedana). Headache is a pain that has to be
suffered. In reality though, it is not considered suffering. One just
has to continue to ‘know’ the pain. Then there is another kind
of suffering, for example when one is faced with a situation
where his hand is being cut very slowly and sadistically. That is
suffering. That is when penance is to be done. What does the
Lord consider as penance? It is when You are in the ‘home
department’; in awareness as the Self (swa-parinati). It is the
penance of not allowing the state of the Self to mix with the state
of the non-Self (par-parinati). To remain steadfast in, ‘these are
circumstances of the non-Self; they are not ‘Mine”, is penance.
Such penance was done by Gajsukumar when he was in
meditation of the pure Self. His father-in-law built a clay fire pit
on his head and filled it with hot burning coals (the father-in-law
was avenging Gajsukumar’s abandonment of his daughter in
order to follow his spiritual call). He realized then, ‘O ho ho!
This father-in-law is helping me by tying a turban of moksha.’
In such penance, with the meditation of the pure Self, he went
higher and higher, attained kevalgnan (absolute knowledge)
and went to moksha.
The Pain Pleasure Experiencing Karmas
You should tell this body, ‘Hey body, hey mind, hey