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Aptavani-8
part is sanctioned, the plan (yojana) is then submitted to
materialize (rupak); that is when it is considered as being ‘born’
and from then on, the planning continues to take shape. In the
same way, this planning occurs first. So the planning takes place
in one avatar (lifetime), it takes shape in the next avatar, and
while it materializes, yet another plan (yojana) is being drawn up
– this is how we should do it, this is what we want to put into
it – so the construction continues in this way. Therefore this is
an absolute irrefutable principle (siddhantik).
Only the Living Gnani Can Illuminate the Truth
Now, this kind of information is not found in books. So
how can a person change? What you will find in books are
things like, ‘you should put chilies in the kadhee (yoghurt soup),
salt, turmeric, jaggery. But they do not tell you anything else, or
how you are supposed to measure it. So one cannot really
understand this from within, can he? Therefore, the entire world
considers the relative non-Self; the atma that has been instilled
with life (pratishthit atma) as the Atma, and they are trying to
make it still. However, even that is not wrong; of course you
have to make it still. Besides, by stilling it, one does experience
some happiness (anand). However long the life-instilled atma
(pratishthit atma) is made still (sthir); it becomes still at night
in one’s sleep anyway, but for as long as he is able to make it
still during the daytime, he will feel contentment for that duration
of time. But what is that contentment like? That when the stillness
is broken, the person reverts to the way he was. Now if he
could remember, at the same time, that the main (muda) Atma
is itself steady and still (sthir), then, he himself can make the
adjustment. But people do not know about the muda Atma at
all. It is this life-instilled atma (pratishthit atma) that has come
to be accepted as the real Atma, and that is really not the Atma.
The life-instilled atma (pratishthit atma) is the non-Self body
complex (pudgal), and there is no Atma (chetan) in it
whatsoever.