316 Aptavani-9
down?’ He asks me‘ What thermometer?’ I tell him,‘ If there are fifteen or twenty relatives of yours sitting here and someone tells you,‘ you have no sense’, that comment will affect you, so where did it all go? I thought you said you do not have any maan left! There is no maan like that of an insult( upmaan). All other forms of pride have no significance but there is no pride like the effect of an insult. He who cannot bear an insult is a proud person( maani). A person can accept respect people give him but he cannot bear an insult. Such a person is considered the biggest maani. I have all kinds of‘ thermometers’. I employ these thermometers whenever someone comes along. A‘ thermometer’ is such a thing that you will know immediately.
People build castles in the air like Shekhchalli. He started day dreaming because of a cooking pot;‘ I will get married, I will do this, I will do that.’ A mere cooking pot gave rise to his entire worldly life, did it not?‘ I will bring a lamb. I will bring this. I will bring that and I will get married. Then I will have a son. Then he will come to call me,‘ Dad, come and have dinner.’ But what I do is I topple over people’ s‘ pots’ and bring them down to earth so that everything will vanish in the air. Once the pot topples over nothing will remain, right? Hence, I would quickly topple over his pot and so his‘ marriage, wife, son, lamb etc.,’ will have no basis. What else can I do? However, people are not at fault here either.
Therefore, people have come to merely believe and accept certain things in this way. The ascetics too have come to believe certain things without any reason. Not all ascetics are bad; there are many good ones. By good I mean, if you call them‘ Bapji … bapji …( call them with respect), they will be happy. They do not care for money; they do not care about sex or any worldly pleasures. If you call them‘ Bapji’, they are happy, but in their mind they believe,‘ I do not have any duality in me anymore. I am beyond all duality.’ But just a single word