Aptavani-8
365
The Gnani Illuminates the Siddhant Naturally
Questioner: When people talk about the Atma, are they
referring to the life-instilled atma (pratishthit atma)?
Dadashri: Yes, they believe that the atma that has been
instilled with life (pratishthit atma) is the Atma. However, that
is a wrong belief. Now they do not know that, do they? They
are carrying on, believing that the pratishthit atma, ‘is itself my
own Atma’. They move ahead, with this belief. To plod along
by decreasing the subatomic particles (parmanu) of illusory
attachment (moha) one by one, is the step-by-step path to
liberation (the Kramic marg). In the step-by-step path to
liberation, they call the, pratishthit atma (the atma which has
been instilled with life) as the Atma, and here, in the Akram
path (step-less marg), we call the fundamental (muda) Atma,
the Atma. So, there is a difference in the vision (drashti) between
the Kramic path and the Akram path. In the step-by-step path
(Kramic marg), they are right in saying that the Atma is prone
to suffering. ‘This suffering, and all these are the qualities and
traits (gunas) of the atma’, which is what the step-by-step path
(Kramic marg) says; whereas here in the Akram path (step-
less marg), we say that suffering and all that, lies in the life-
instilled atma (pratishthit atma). In the step-by-step path
(Kramic marg), that which we refer to as the life-instilled atma
(pratishthit atma); they refer to as the worldly interactive atma
(vyavahar atma), and it is this atma that interacts in the world,
they believe as being the fundamental (muda) Atma. And this is
what they believe they have to make still and steady (sthir), this
is what they believe they have to make free of karma. So they
believe that this is the atma that has been bound by karma, and
it is this atma that needs to be freed of karma. But the
fundamental (muda) Atma is not like that. The real (muda)
Atma is free of karma. Except you are not aware of this; you
need to attain this awareness.
What we are trying to tell you is that you do not have this