118
Aptavani-6
[14]
Seeing the Circumstances as They Are
Questioner: Why is it that everyone wants favorable
circumstances?
Dadashri: Favorable circumstances (anukud) means
pleasure (sukh); favorable is that in which one experiences comfort
and pleasure (shata). When it becomes uncomfortable and painful
(dukh, ashata), that is unfavorable circumstances (pratikud).
The Self is blissful by nature; therefore, it does not want
unfavorable circumstances. That is why even the smallest living
organism will move away from unfavorable circumstances
(pratikud).
Therefore, understand the ultimate point: make favorable
and unfavorable as one and the same. As such, there is no worth
in anything. Everything is like those old coins with a picture of
the Queen on one side and writing on the other. Similarly, there
is nothing to this; favorable and unfavorable are nothing but a
figment of the imagination.
Now that You are pure Soul (Shuddhatma), there is no
such thing as favorable and unfavorable. This worldly life is here
as long as there is false attribution (aropit bhaav) of the belief
‘I am Chandulal,’ and until then, there is interference of favorable
and unfavorable circumstances. Now whatever appears as
unfavorable to the world is favorable to ‘us.’ It is only during
unfavorable circumstances that we can tell whether the inner
‘temperature’ of the thermometer has decreased or increased;
unfavorable circumstances gives us an opportunity to check how
we have advanced in Gnan.