Understanding The Knower

Are You The Self? Do You Know The Self?

Dadashri: What is your name?

Questioner: Chandubhai.

Dadashri: Are you really ‘Chandubhai’, or do you doubt it?

Questioner: It is a name given to this body.

Dadashri: Then who are you?

Questioner: Atma.

Dadashri: What is Atma? What do you mean by Atma? Are you referring to this body, these bangles or the brain, when you say Atma? What can we call Atma? Will you not have to realise what the Atma is? You will have to know the Atma (Self; Soul), will you not? You will have to attain knowledge about the Self, will you not?

Questioner: The antaratma (the one within).

Dadashri: Yes. The antaratma is fine, but do you not also have to know about its attributes and nature (gunadharma)? Whether it eats and drinks, or not? Or would it burn, if someone were to set it on fire?

Is It The Mistake Of The Soul?

Dadashri: What are the attributes of the Soul? Is worrying one of its attributes? Or is doing kashay (anger, pride, deceit or greed), one of its attributes?

Questioner: That is not the Atma’s attribute. It does kashays only by mistake.

Dadashri: If the Atma (Soul) makes mistakes, how can you even call it Atma? The Atma (the Self) itself is Parmatma (the Absolute Self). How can it ever make a mistake? Would that not make us superior to the Atma, if we pointed out its mistakes? The statement that “the soul makes a mistake” in itself means that the Soul makes mistakes, and you are pure without any mistake. The Soul itself is the absolute Soul; it is vitarag (absolutely free from all attachment and abhorrence). It is because you have not been awakened to your own swaroop (the Self) that you believe, ‘I am Chandubhai’. I am Chandubhai is an aropit bhaav (falsely-projected belief); it is an imagining (kalpit); it is a ‘relative’ bhaav.

So, in reality, who would You be? Then who are You really? This ‘Chandubhai’ is ‘relative’. In the ‘relative’, there are all sorts of wrong beliefs (vikalp): ‘I am his daughter, I am her masi (aunt; mother’s sister), and I am her kaki (aunt; paternal uncle’s wife), etc...’ There are many such ‘wrong beliefs’. Whereas in the ‘real’, there is no vikalp. If You come to ‘realise the real’, then You will know that you have become aware of Your own swaroop (the Self), and You are ready for liberation (moksha). You have never attained the awareness of the ‘real’ (Self). To attain the awareness of the Self (Atma) is considered as having the right belief (samkit) or the right vision (samyak darshan). You have never attained the right belief (samkit), because if you had, you would not still be sitting here! Without samkit, you would not have even a moment of inner peace, and you would remain in illusion all the time.

For more information on Dadashri’s spiritual science, visit dadabhagwan.org