130 The Guru and the Disciple
use of ashrams in India. When a person gets tired at home, he will go and live there and eat and drink happily. That is how they use the ashrams. Therefore, anyone who wants to reduce his shram( mental and physical fatigue) and wants to eat, drink and sleep; can have ashram( free from fatigue). There, in the ashrams, he will not have a wife or anyone to bother him. At home, his children quarrel. In the ashram, there is no wife or children to bother him. There is solitude there and so a person can enjoy the nice cool breeze and snore away without any bedbugs to bother him. The exhaustion of the worldly life is reduced there.
Now it is good if one eats, drinks and sleeps. But he( the guru) misuses it and, therefore, binds a birth in the lower life form. He harms no one but himself only. There may be one or two good gurus, but generally, the ashrams are tools for exploitation.
Questioner: Is there a need for ashrams and temples in the path you are showing?
Dadashri: Here there is no ashram or any such thing. Can there be any ashrams here? From the very beginning, I have opposed ashrams. What have I been saying from the beginning? I have said that I do not need any ashrams. People had approached me to build an ashram but I told them no. What do I need an ashram for? I do not need any ashram.
So I have said from the beginning that the one who is a Gnani does not make the effort to construct an ashram. I will do satsang even under a tree, if there is no place else to do it. I do not have any objections. Everything is dependant upon unfolding karma. Even Lord Mahavir used to do satsang sitting under a tree; he did not go looking for any ashrams. I do not need even a little room or anything like that. I do not have a need for anything.
Questioner: The words‘ Apratibaddha vihari’( unbound by anything) have been used for a Gnani.
Dadashri: Yes, I am a Gnani who moves about unrestricted