Aptavani-6
37
The other person is not at fault in any instance; how can
he be at fault? He believes that happiness is verily in the worldly
life and for him that is the fact. Now if we try to convince him
that his belief is wrong, then it is our mistake. There is some
mistake and deficiency within us somewhere. I have seen this
through my own experience. As long as I was experiencing
those results within, those effects were experienced by others
too. When it stopped being there in the mind, when all doubts
(shanka) left, then everything else, the reaction in others, left
too.
I have climbed those ‘steps,’ I have experienced all that.
Whatever you say, I have seen all those steps. I have seen all
that and, therefore, I can show you the path. The Gnan-
knowledge that I give to you is the knowledge that is based from
my own experience of the ‘steps’ that I have taken. I am showing
you the same path from which I have gained experience. There
is no other way, is there?
Before, prior to Self-realization, whenever an unhappy
(dukh) thought arose, ‘we’ would somehow manage to find,
even to our detriment, a way of replacing it with a ‘happy’
(sukh) thought or a happy idea. When worries arise, one goes
off to watch a movie or do something else. One allays, or
temporarily holds in abeyance, the suffering (dukh) even at the
expense of another person. He will try and push away that
misery. After Gnan, however, he does not push away that misery
at the expense of anyone else. Therefore, he has to endure a lot
of suffering (internal penance); that has been my experience. I
too have experienced this because I would not show the mind
any new thing (paryaya) for my own happiness at the expense
of another’s misery.
And what does the world do? They get involved in other
things in order to get rid of their pain. Any misery and they cash
in on it. How big a stock is there within? ‘We’ are saying that
you should go ahead and endure the suffering; do not spend