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Aptavani-9
Questioner: The body is the non-Self (anatma), what
effects do respect-insults have on the non-Self?
Dadashri: What happens when you touch a block of ice
with a flame? Will the flame scorch the ice?
Questioner: It will not scorch it, but it will melt the ice.
Dadashri: On the contrary, its cooling attribute cools that
flame. Similarly, pain and misery do not touch the Self. They do
not affect even the body or the Self.
Questioner: Then what does it affect?
Dadashri: Who is the one that endures the suffering? It
is the ego! It is the ego that suffers. Nothing touches the Self.
The Self does not accept anything that is not of its own.
How can anyone insult You when he does
not even know You?
What happens if someone were to insult Chandulal? He
will not be able to sleep at night, will he? It will keep bothering
him from within. The person who insulted him sleeps peacefully
while Chandulal feels the hurt and will not be able to sleep.
What kind of weakness is it that does not let you sleep when
someone insults you? Why should You not sleep just because
someone insulted you? And besides, it is not You that was
insulted, it is someone else. If they insulted You, you should not
tolerate it, but he did not insult ‘You’, so why fret over it?
Someone else is being insulted and You take it personally. You
should not take it as ‘I am being insulted’, should You? Yes,
nobody should insult You, but no one will insult You either. How
can they when they do not even know You? They know
Chandulal but not You.
When you regard the person insulting you as someone
who obliges you; then your desire for respect (maan) will end.
Who is to be insulted? ‘Ambalal Muljibhai’ (reader to insert