Aptavani-5
23
Indians) have a natural and spontaneous ego. There (outside
India) a thief will continue to steal, a cheater will continue to
cheat and a nobleman will continue to be noble, whereas here
a noble person will steal and a thief will show nobility! So this
is an amazing country. It is an ‘Indian puzzle’, which no one can
solve. The foreigners will exhaust their intellect but they will not
find a solution for it. Here a nephew will make up excuses
because he does not want his uncle to borrow his car. The entire
ego is verily deceitful.
Whatever actions one carry out is fine. It increases his ego
and through this process he undergoes all different experiences;
then ultimately his experiences lead him to the experience of the
Self.
Questioner: Then does the ego leave at the final stage?
Dadashri: Then he will meet a Gnani. It is a rule that
whatever the ‘standard’ of the student, there will be an
appropriate teacher.
The moment one becomes the doer one is subject to
karmic bondage. Whether he becomes the doer of action with
expectation of its rewards (sakaam karmas) or without
expectation of rewards (nishkaam karmas); the moment he
becomes the ‘doer’ there is bondage. Doing karmas without
expectation of their rewards brings happiness and peace,
whereas doing karmas with expectation of their rewards brings
pain.
Who Is Possessed? The Ego or the Self?
Questioner: Does the Self have to wander life after life
because it has been possessed by the body complex (pudgal)?
Dadashri: Nothing possesses the Self. This is all the
problem of the ego (ahamkar). If the ego is there, the Self is
not, and if the Self is there, the ego is not.