264
Aptavani-8
Forgetting the Self in Relation
So this Chandubhai is only meant to be employed for
worldly interaction (vyavahar). ‘You’ yourself have always been
real, but you became relative. Because so many relations came
about, illusion (bhranti) has set in for you. And then you say, ‘I
am Chandubhai’, and that is called egoism.
The Belief About Atma Changed
Questioner: What is real and relative? How are they related?
Dadashri: Everything that is relative (sapeksha), is
temporary (vinashi). In English, sapeksha is translated as relative.
And all these relatives are temporary adjustments, and the real
is the permanent. They call the absolute and independent
(nirpeksha), permanent. Relative (sapeksha) means that it relies
on something else; it lives with the support of other things.
There is light because there is darkness. Otherwise, who
calls the light, light? If there was always light, then who would
call it light? Therefore, it is in relation to darkness that we have
light. And why do we have darkness? It is in relation to light that
we have darkness. And that is called relative (sapeksha).
Anything that has expectation (apeksha), is called relative
(sapeksha). And that relative is temporary; always changing. A
real is a permanent thing.
In this world, there are six eternal elements that are
permanent. Out of the six eternal elements, the pure Self, the
Atma (chetan), is permanent, and the rest of them do not have
the Self (chetan). Nevertheless, those five are still permanent,
and they possess infinite kinds of intrinsic properties
(gunadharma). Only this relative intent (bhaav) has come about
due to the intrinsic properties of all of them. The Atma always
remains as the Atma; it always remains in the form of Atma
(chetan). It has never changed, not even for a moment has it
ever changed. Only the belief is wrong.