10
Aptavani-8
jiva (soul) then pleasure and pain would be the same. Why
would that be? Have you ever thought about this? What have
you thought?
No living being (jiva) likes pain, is that not a fact? Does
any living being like pain? If you put a lump of sugar out here,
the ants will scurry around with excitement and take it away, but
what if you put some gravel there instead? They would run off.
Why is that? What do they like? Pleasure. Therefore, that which
does not like pain and looks for pleasure, is the jiva. The one
that moves around, walks about is not jiva.
Where There Is Feeling, There Is Chetan
(Life)
Then that which feels, does it have feelings or not? That
which has feelings is a jiva (living being). And the jiva (living
entity) itself is Atma; it is chetan itself, and it can also become
the Absolute Soul (Parmatma)! When it becomes full and
perfect, it becomes Parmatma (Absolute Soul).
Do you understand? That, wherever there are any feelings
of any kind, therein lies the Atma, and decidedly there is chetan
(life) present. Therefore, you should know that where there are
feelings, there is life (chetan) present. And if something does not
show feelings, then it has no life and therefore, it is anatma
(without Atma). Even trees and leaves have feelings.
Questioner: But a tree is a one-sensed organism
(ekendriya).
Dadashri: One-sensed (ekendriya) means it only has the
feeling of touch (sparsha), and it can display the feeling of touch.
Every living entity (jiva) has feelings. Those that have feelings,
clearly show the presence of Atma. It is not that the entity in
which the feelings arise is itself the Atma, but that wherever
there are feelings, there is Atma. And where no feelings arise;
there is no Atma.