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Aptavani-8
Soul beginning with the conviction of ‘I am pure Soul’ ending
with absolute experience). And here, to become this inner
awakened Soul (antaratma; interim state of the Self), even a
Self-realized person (sat purush) will not do. A Self-realized
person can help you move forward. Once he has become the
interim state Soul (antaratma), his desire for worldly happiness
and material pleasure (bhautik sukh) dissipates, and his desire
turns toward attaining the happiness (sukh) of his Atma; the
eternal happiness. And when the Gnani Purush lets him taste a
little bit of this happiness, he no longer relishes the other happiness.
Just like the tea you drink in the morning. But while drinking this
tea, if someone puts a plate of jalebi (crispy fritters soaked in
sweet syrup) in front of you, what would you choose? What
would you take first? Would you eat the jalebi, or would you
drink the tea?
Questioner: Tea.
Dadashri: You drink the tea first. Why? This is because
if you eat the jalebi, the tea will taste bland. You will blame your
wife for that; why does the tea have no sugar in it? It is because
of the jalebi that it tastes bland. That is what happens when you
taste the Atma’s happiness (sukh); all the worldly happiness and
pleasures (bhautik sukh), become insipid, so that you lose
interest in it, you do not enjoy it; nevertheless you have to
endure it, although you dislike it. That is when you attain the
interim state between the embodied soul (jivatma) and the pure
Soul (Shuddhatma) – the antaratma.
So, as long as he wants worldly pleasures, one is a soul
whose vision is directed externally (bahirmukhi atma). And
when he realizes his own Self (swaroop) that, ‘I am not this; I
am the pure Soul (Shuddhatma), I am immortal and I do not
want anything in the worldly life (sansar)’, is when his state
becomes the interim state of the Soul (antaratma). The state of
antaratma does two things: one is for worldly (bhautik)
happiness; one has to do work for worldly interaction (vyavahar).