Aptavani-5 Aptavani-05 | Page 119

80 Aptavani-5 going to be burnt, is it not? You only have to study this a little. How is an ascetic able to walk bare foot? How are the farmers able to walk bare foot? You too would get used to it after you get burnt once or twice. How can you call suffering that which can be cured by taking just one pill? Suffering of pain is that which cannot be reduced, even after you take hundreds of pills. Now nothing is yours. You have surrendered your all to the Gnani Purush. You have surrendered your mind-body- speech and all illusion, bhaavkarma (charge karma), dravyakarma (subtle discharge karma), nokarma (gross discharge karma); all have been surrendered, nothing is left with You. The Suffering of the Gnani Purush and the Lord Questioner: A Gnani suffers with dhairya (stoicism, non-reactive patience) and an agnani suffers with crying, but a Gnani still suffers, does he not? Dadashri: Suffering will not go away, but the Gnani suffers that pain with dhairya (stoicism, non-reactive patience). Dhairya is according to each individual’s capacity. However, Lord Mahavir was absolutely a Knower. He would ‘know’ of even a bite from a bed bug but He would not suffer it. The degree of suffering is in proportion with the portion of ignorance. You have become the pure Self (Shuddhatma) through conviction (shraddha, pratiti). When You become the Self through Gnan (experience), then all that will remain, will simply be the ‘knowing’. Until then there is suffering (vedan). And during the suffering, I tell You to remain detached, remain in the ‘home department’, as the Self. Do not leave Your home department, no matter how much the external circumstances call for You to do so. Let them call You twelve hundred times. Why should You leave Your ‘office’? Even the Tirthankars have pain-pleasure experiences (shata-ashata vedaniya) but they remain as Knower through