102
Aptavani-5
Spiritual Environment
Questioner: Is spiritual progress possible only when one
is born in a wealthy or royal family?
Dadashri: Yes. He would get respect wherever he goes
if he were born in a royal family or in a noble family. If he goes
to his in-law’s place, he would be welcomed with respect. The
one who experiences insults from a young age will make a
decision to try to gain respect from others in any way that he
can. So his goal changes and he becomes engrossed in trying to
procure respect. He can afford to have the inner ‘baggage’ of
maan (pride). He cannot afford any other desires.
A birth in India is based on infinite previous lives. In
spirituality, on the other hand, foreigners do not understand
rebirth (life after life passage of the Self).
Proliferation of the Worldly Life Through Vikalp
If you stand in a room full of mirrors you will see a
hundred and fifty images of yourself. That is exactly what this
world is like. You see according to your vikalp (belief of the
relative self being the real Self); the belief that ‘I am Chandubhai’.
This world is nothing but echoes of your ‘I-ness’; echoes of
your wrong belief of ‘I-ness’.
Questioner: If it is vikalp that creates echoes, then what
is the result of sankalp (‘my-ness’)?
Dadashri: Sankalp has nothing to do with it. Only
vikalp (‘I-ness’, ‘I am Chandubhai’) creates echoes. ‘My’ or
‘mine’ is sankalp. First comes ‘I am Chandubhai’ (vikalp), then
comes ‘my-ness’ (sankalp). That ‘this is my body…’ is
sankalp. Everything arises from vikalp. Therefore, it is vikalp,
and not sankalp, that is the obstacle. Nirvikalp is what cures
all this. Sankalp arises because of vikalp. There is no vikalp or
sankalp when You become nirvikalp.