Aptavani-9
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one like me in the entire world.’ Behold! What he thought about
himself! He had nothing to speak of; no wealth, only ten-vigha
land (four acres) and a home. Besides these, he had nothing but
he went around in arrogance thinking he was the king of the
Charotar villages (northern Gujarat). This is because people of
the surrounding six villages had put me on a pedestal as a
‘bachelor-with-dowry’. Pay the dowry and the bachelor would
agree to marry! A bachelor from these six villages could demand
any amount of dowry before he would agree to marry. These
kinds of comments had fed much arrogance in this mind. And
something in addition, was brought forth from the past life, which
supported such arrogance in the mind.
My elder brother was a very proud man. I used to call my
elder brother a maani (one laden with heavy self importance
and pride) and he accused me of the same. So one day do you
know what he told me? ‘I have never seen a maani like you.’
I asked him, ‘Where do you see the maan (self-importance) in
me?’ and he replied, ‘in everything you do.’
So then I investigated within and I could see that my
maan surfaced everywhere and that was the very thing that had
gnawed away at me. Let me tell you what I did to gain respect.
Everyone used to address me as, ‘Amba-lal-bhai’ (the term
‘bhai’ is a form of respect, similar to Mr. or sir); no one
would call me just ‘Ambalal’. And so I became accustomed to
being addressed as ‘Ambalal-bhai’. Now because I had a lot of
pride, I protected that pride. If someone was in a hurry and
failed to call me by my full name, was it such a terrible thing to
do? How can a person say such a long name in a hurry?
Questioner: But you have that expectation, don’t you?
Dadashri: Then I weighed the incident in my mind. ‘He
called me Ambalal? Who does he think he is? Could he not say
Ambalal-bhai?’ Now he (Ambalal) had some land in the village
and nothing else but what did he think of himself? ‘I am an