(with links to all chapters,
incl. links to German chapters)
AMARVANI
Chapter 3: SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
3.2 Faith
3.3 Devotion
3.4 Knowledge
3.5 Detachment
3.6 Feelings
3.7 Self-Purification
3.8 Inner Vision
3.1 March Forward
March Forward
I don’t know how many gods and goddesses I have propitiated until today, how many bricks and stones I have worshipped, and in how many rivers like Ganges and in seas I have bathed! But what did I gain? Not a single binding of the soul broke, not a single sorrow decreased, not a single stain was washed clean. Why are you wandering in vain? Bring out the inner aspects of your soul. March bravely forward on the path of truth. Do not stumble, do not fall, and do not look back. Attaining Supreme Brahman is your birthright. There is no power in this world that can take away that sacrosanct right.
Spiritual Path
Oh Seeker! Look, don’t abandon your spiritual path halfway in the middle. Success is not something that you can get here and there in the bye lanes. It is a trial of the mind. Its path is to die and be reborn. Can you not see that until you reach the light of dawn you have to fight with darkness throughout the night?
Who is a spiritual seeker?
The spiritual path a seeker has to tread is not the royal path that is covered and decorated with fragrant flowers. It is a very difficult path, covered with thorns and sharp stones that bleed the feet. On that road lies a chain of calamities, each more horrible then the next, that will frighten even the most hard-hearted persons. Before venturing on that path you must, in the words of Kabir – carry your head on your palms. A seeker is one who crushes the thorns under his feet and rules over the storms across the ocean, walks on the highest of the mountains. Calamity is his friend and pleasure his enemy.
Spiritual Practice
Meditator, object of meditation and meditation are the triad of spiritual practice. Meditator is the devotee, object of meditation is the God and meditation is devotion. When the meditator continues to meditate on the object of meditation he takes its form and transforms himself into it. By breaking the bondage of temptation and illusion he dissolves himself into its form and then he is able to gain the fruits of his spiritual practice. The dawn of the realisation that the soul and the Supreme God are one is the real meditation, the real devotion. To become Supreme God from the soul, to become God from devotion is the attainment of God’s form. More the absorption towards the object of meditation, more is the unity with that object. The seeker cannot be said to be successful unless he has enjoyed the experience of this unity.
Fear of death
Oh seeker! Afraid of death? Is it a very fearful thing? Good man! This mistake of yours is what is troubling you. Death is nothing but a transformation. Only a person engaged in sinful activity, who does not do any righteous activities, in whom the divine light of humanity has extinguished and in front of whose eyes only darkness of injustice and atrocity has set, is the one that would be afraid of this transformation. On the other hand, one who is on the road to transformation and development, and is opening the doors of more progress should be welcomed with open heart. If the sacred ambition of your life could not be completed in this life it will be completed after death in the next life. The light of your spiritual practice will shine over several lifetimes.
When the well known learned Aryasamaji Pundit Gurudutt from Punjab was in the final moments of life, on the threshold of death, people asked him, “Why do you look so cheerful at such a time? He smiled and said, ”Because, I could not become Dayanand in this life; I shall get a better body now in the next birth and become Dayanand.” People were transfixed by this reply.
Keeping somewhat similar feelings in mind, Jainacharya said one day, “Death is a festival”. Mahadevi Verma is also humming in the same mystic tone,
“Take the boat across the river, you will drown and reach the other shore.”
Does death appear to you as an enemy and not as a friend? If in your eyes it is an enemy then go forward, fight it and be victorious. Why are you afraid? Do you think that it will let a frightened person go free? Never! Fear never liberates.
3.2 FAITH
Faith
Call it faith or call it devotion, it is all the same. The life force of the spiritual practice of a seeker is faith. If there is no faith then the spiritual practice is like a corpse.
What is the difference between Shiva (purity) and Shava (corpse)? Only of the letters “i” and “a”. Where there is faith and devotion there is purity and God, and where they are absent the soul is nothing but a corpse.
Become trustworthy first
You are the living soul, not a brick or stone. Tell me, what do you want to be? You can be whatever you want to be, but for that you have to become trustworthy and capable first. A flower blooms only when it is ready to give out its fragrance, and then hundreds of swarms of bees come without being called and sing its praises.
Confidence
Confidence is the greatest force in human life. The power of confidence enables man to win over difficulties and takes him to the goal. A very confident person never loses, never tires, never fails, never dies. Confidence by itself is a timeless medicine. Confidence is life while lack of confidence is death. A man who has no confidence in himself, no confidence in his own people, no confidence in the high ideals of life, can never be worthy of confidence from anybody or be a companion to anybody.
Dedication
The soul of brave people need have the glimpse of truth just once. Then they will get forever dedicated to it. Let the body get destroyed, let the life depart, but they will never dare to deviate from truth. For those who have permanently forgotten how to deviate from the principles, there is no word like “deviationist” is their dictionary.
Self-confidence
To keep confidence in oneself is to keep confidence in God. One who lacks self-confidence is weak, a coward and does not find refuge anywhere. Even the innumerable gods in heaven cannot make a weak minded person stand on his feet.
Our worthiness
Sun gives light equally to all without partiality or restraint. A mirror receives light from the sun and produces only its image; it can do nothing else. But the gem called Suryakant receives light from the sun and can burn other objects with it. It is not the sun that can be blamed for this difference, it is the worth of the individual receiving object. Those who have no faith or love in their hearts are like a mirror. They do not benefit much from the company of great people while those who have faith, love and devotion benefit more like the gem Suryakant.
Steadiness of the Goal
Oh Man! Fix your goal before doing anything. You will be able to do nothing—become nothing until and unless you can give a definite answer to the question “Where do you want to go and where you don’t want to go; what do you want to do and what you don’t want to do; what you want to become and what you don’t want to become.” When an artist takes the brush into his hands to paint a beautiful picture he first imagines in his mind “I have to shape the picture in such and such way.” When a sculptor takes his chisel and hammer to chip away the stone he already sees in it the already formed an image in his mind of the idol he would be making. Even the uneducated village potter decides in his mind before making a pot how he is going to give the lump of clay the shape of the pot. Life is also an art. Therefore it also expects to know what shape you are going to give to it. Shoot the arrow only after fixing the target. If you shoot the arrow inattentively without target, you will not shoot anything and you will not be able to become an expert marksman.
Faith and logic
A seeker must draw a proper line between faith and logic. Where faith is without logic it pushes one into the dark well of ignorance while logic without faith makes one wander into the desert of meaningless doubts and counter doubts. Therefore limit of faith must be based on logic and limit of logic on faith.
Lack of trust
When even a village farmer, at the time of sowing has to have some faith and some confidence in an attractive future, then would it be out of place to expect some faith at least in the path of Dharma, the righteous way of life? It is unfortunate that today’s faithless man manages all worldly matters with the help of faith, progresses with confidence in the future, but in the matter of the path of Dharma, in the path of improvement of life, he wishes to obtain everything today, now, at this moment. What a love for the fruits of Dharma! Such a terrible lack of confidence in the infinite Divine power that is most important to religion.
Lack of faith
Lack of faith is unrighteous; falsehood is the foundation of faithlessness. And where there is falsehood how can there be a Dharma? The mind of a faithless, mistrustful person is like a dark well where snakes, scorpions and God knows how many poisonous insects continue to breed. Mistrustful mind is a fatal poison, one must guard against it.
Ideal and practical
Ideal person is he who descends into depths of life and behaves with tough determination. Neither can the hot breeze of sorrows wilt him nor the cool breeze of happiness excite. An ideal person is beyond the trivial boundary of fear and enticement. A really ideal saint is he whom even the most horrible storms cannot deflect from the ideal path.
3.3 DEVOTION
Worship of inner deity
Oh man! There is a deity inside you too, in whose temple no worship has been performed since time immemorial.
Never a bell tinkled nor has there been any sound of blowing conches. What a horrible frightening quiet occurs there.
Look! The temple has not even been swept. There is so much dirt! Poor deity is buried under a pile of dust. Sweep it at least once to make the deity is visible.
And there is such darkness! Can’t even think of anything. Why do you light the lamp but keep it outside? Light one inside too.
Fragrance! Where is fragrance here? There is a terrible bad odour around! Such dirt in a temple! There is not a single flower on the altar.
Yes! Apply some sandal paste on that inner deity, put on also a garland of flowers on that deity in your heart.
This inner worship is really the worship of God. Worshipping external deities is a trap of illusion. The traps are meant for bondage, not for liberation.
God and devotee
Nearer one goes towards fire more light he will get. Call that partiality or any other thing if you like. The point of contact between God and the devotee is of this type only. Here, the question of capability or incapability is not as relevant as the closeness or otherwise of the contact
Real worship
The worship of God lies neither in offering flowers and fruits nor in lighting a lamp. Real and the highest worship of God from a man is to bring into his behaviour divine ideals, good and benevolent thoughts, and spend the life as directed by God.
The path of action and the path of devotion.
We do actions and it is only we that enjoy or suffer their fruits. This is the principle of action (Karma) in the Jain religion.
God does actions and God only enjoys or suffers its fruits. This is the principle of devotion in Vaishnava religion.
The problems of life can be solved by means of both the principles if they are practiced honestly in life. Lack of non-duality is the essence of life and that essence can be obtained from both the principles.
The secret of devotion
Devotion does not mean servility or slavery. It means the experience of unity and inseparability with the deity of devotion.
3.4 KNOWLEDGE
Outlook of non-duality
Whatever differences there are between individuals in this world are all due to the effects of their past Karmas. If one examines the pure form of the soul with the eyes of truth then the feelings of differentiation go away and all individuals appear to be the same. A true seeker goes from difference to equality, considers all creatures to be the same as himself. And where is the temptation, sorrow, anger or hate for the seeker who has gained this outlook of sameness?
The outlook of sameness establishes an unbroken regime of equality.
Light the inner flame
There can be some transformation within us only when an inspiration for our own welfare and improvement awakens by itself inside us. No higher power can forcibly cause welfare. You can observe that moths die on the flame. Kind persons wish to save them by extinguishing the flame but the moths then go to other lamps and die there. When taking the help of outside emancipators let the inner discrimination develop within yourself first. If eyes are blind then what does it matter if thousands of suns rise in the sky?
Self-study
Do you know what self-study means? It does not mean just reading paper books. It means studying the book of life inside us. Studying ourselves from inside is self-study. Man’s primary duty is to know himself, examine himself. One who has knows the answers to the questions: “Who am I, wherefrom have I come, what am I doing?”, is the one who really knows everything. All studies other than the study of the self are not studies but merely a vain talk of fools. In popular parlance, self-study is the study of that book or shastra that is favourable to the soul and in which inner shastra is reflected. But that kind of study is unimportant while the study of ourselves from inside is what is the main important thing.
The path of progress
The human soul is surrounded by the illusion of name and form. After all, what is this world? It consists of names and forms. The path to the progress of humanity cannot be found unless the stalks that bind and hold back the pure life are uprooted along with the roots.
Happiness and peace
Where do real happiness and peace exist? Is it in the outside objects or in their use? No! They do not depend upon accumulation or the use of external means of pleasure. The store of real happiness and peace lies in the spiritual satisfaction from the inside.
Inner Knowledge.
Real knowledge is not discovering of the secrets of nature, but in analysing the secrets of own life, scrutinising and judging them. Nature is not as mysterious as the inner consciousness is.
Rituals and spiritual practice
The performance of rituals is only a means and not a goal. If the rituals do not make us humble and straight, do not help us in attaining Brahman, then they are a useless burden.
Active and inert
It is that which knows itself. Who else will know it? In this world, two brothers walk around. Out of these, one is able to see and the other is blind. Now, did you understand who these are? The active one has eyes, while the inert is blind. Now, that decides what overall truth is.
Friend and Foe
People say that Rama killed Ravana, but is it the truth? It was Ravana himself and not anyone else who killed Ravana. Progress or destruction of man is done by his own good and bad actions. We must understand this as an immortal truth. Why is it that man does not see the enemy inside himself?
Subtle thinking
Make your thinking subtle, so subtle that it can enter the depths of the mystery of the soul and non-soul. A small sharp iron nail can go in just by a small push but a big iron stud does not enter even by hammering
3.5 DETACHMENT
3.5 DETACHMENT
Detachment
When you climb high up on a mountain, everything below looks very small. Similarly, when a seeker climbs the heights of detachment and self-respect then all the wealth, honour, reputation, enjoyment and pleasure in the world appear to be trivial and ordinary. Importance of the world remains as long as you are inclined towards it, not when you rise high above.
Worldly wealth
Listen! Just rise a little above your desires. It is just a matter of rising up and getting away from them and then the desired objects themselves will come looking for you. The wealth of your desires is like the shadow of your body. You will not be able to catch it if you run after it – it will also run away from you. But just turn your back to it and it will quietly come running after you.
Man’s search
Many flowers must have bloomed on this earth, spread their fragrance, and faded away until today! But was the life history of any of them written and read? Has any of them claimed that the coming age will take inspiration from them? Then why does only man wish that way? Just a little work he does and he is eager to hear praises for doing it! He wants his name to be written in golden letters on the pages of history. He thinks that the future generation will take inspiration from it. He does not realise that others are also as capable as he is and can even go couple of steps further than him.
Our goal
We rise higher when our attention goes towards the soul. And when our attention goes towards the body and only body then we fall and bounce downwards. Well, decide from this whether you want to fall down or climb up.
Secret of life
I am watching bubbles float on water, move around in style and stop. They rise up, come out from inside the water, swim for a while and suddenly merge in water. What a short life they have? Is the secret of human life hidden in this short-lived play of the bubbles?
Love of Existence
Watch the middle of a river stream. The small mound of earth in the middle ends its play of life by dissolving bit by bit into the water current on its either side.
Are we not like that small mound, weakening every second in the non-stop flow of the great time? Is our existence safer than that mound? I think not.
How trivial man is!
Man erects huge mansions, writes big inscriptions of self-praise on marble stones and swells by pride on the strength of those stones thinking himself to be ever young and immortal.
But what is the value of that pride? He himself is a tiny speck of dust in this vast universe, and his life span is like a small short-lived droplet in this vast ocean of time. Is this trivial existence meant for getting stiff with pride?
Wheel of life
I breathe out air from inside and breathe in air from outside. This process of inside and outside has been going on for years without stopping even for a second. I don’t know what all this is about, but it appears as if a sharp edged wheel is rotating on the throat of life chopping it away every second. People say that breath is the sign of life and I say that it is the sign of death.
Desirelessness
Don’t become a honeybee. If you sit down to enjoy something then you will get caught in it and may not be able to escape from it. Become a fly sitting on a piece of sweet so that you can enjoy it and fly away whenever you want.
A bird is sitting on the branch of a tree. The bird is not worried if the branch breaks. It will immediately fly off and reach the sky! Yes, the monkey will have problems because it will come down with the branch to the ground. It cannot fly and reach the sky. In a similar way there are two kinds of persons on the branches of this tree of the world. A person with desires is a monkey. He falls down when the backing of his position is lost, he cries and repents. A dersireless person is a bird. If he loses the backing of his position, he flies high, and goes around with detachment. He considers worldly losses and gains to be just a play. As a result he is never unhappy.
Centre of Happiness
Where does happiness lie? Not in the various beautiful objects in the world but in not having any desire for them. The short-lived pleasure from fulfilment of this desire is not real happiness but happiness mixed with sorrow, only an illusion of happiness. Real happiness lies not in the fulfilment of desires but in giving up the desires. Is getting well after a disease health? Health is not getting the disease at all in the first place. Therefore, a really happy person is one whose heart is at peace. And the person whose heart is at peace is the one whose mind is not fickle. And the person whose mind is not fickle is the one who does not have attraction for pleasure giving objects. And the person who does not have any attraction is the one who does not have desire for anything. And he who does not have desire is the one who does not have temptation, anger and hate in his mind. He is the one who is great, a great soul, a supreme soul residing in the body. He is the real bliss of the Self i.e. the form of truth, consciousness and bliss.
3.6 FEELINGS
“I”
I am the soul, full of the infinite brightness of the Divine principle. I am myself the maker of my own destiny. Can I ever be a puppet in the hands of others? Never! Never!! Never!!!
Thoughts and life
Your future lies in your present thoughts. Whatever you think and ponder about yourselves today, you will become exactly the same thing tomorrow. He who thinks himself to be inferior, wicked and a sinner becomes inferior, wicked and a sinner, and he who thinks himself to be a superior, good and a righteous person becomes superior, good and a righteous person. Man’s life is a reflection of his thoughts. A philosopher rightly said – ‘thought is another name for destiny’.
Understand yourself
Why do you think of yourself as unimportant, destitute and a sinner? You are basically the pure, intelligent, holy, supreme soul. Just wipe off the dirt of bad thoughts from yourself and then see in what respect you are unimportant and inferior.
There is no wealth higher than the wealth of the soul and there is no brightness better than brightness of the soul.
A person of stable insight
I am eternally young, immortal and infinite. I am Ishwar, Khuda, God. I have neither birth nor death. I am outside the reach of death. My light goes beyond the boundaries of time and space. I am the great light - boundless and infinite.
I am a saint, real saint. I laugh the same way when I play with the toys of pain as when I play with the toys of pleasure. Neither honour can bend me nor insult; neither happiness nor sorrow; neither loss nor gain; neither life nor death. I have learnt the magic of seeing beauty equally in life or in death. I am the person of stable mind therefore remain in the same state in every kind of situation.
Purity of Mind
Man’s mind is a field and thoughts, good and bad, are seeds being sown in it. The fruit will be according to the seed you plant. It cannot happen that you plant babhul seeds and get mango fruits. If you desire to get good fruits then you have to plant the seeds of goodness. Bhagwan Mahavir said – “You get good fruits from good seeds and bad fruits from bad seeds.”
You ask the person who is filling water, what kind of water is there in the bucket – the answer you get is, same kind as it is in the well. It cannot happen that there is one kind of water in the well and another kind in the bucket. Mind is a well. Thoughts are water in it. The thoughts in the mind descend into the speech and then turn into actions. If speech has to be pure then the mind has to be made pure first. The source of behaviour is thought and the birthplace of thought is mind. If you want to spread the fragrance of good behaviour in the world outside then fill the mind with the fragrance of good thoughts inside.
Thought waves
That will be a great day when we shall break the grip of happiness and sorrow, rise above the level of life and death and attain the infinite beauty of the never-weakening soul.
Feelings
Man’s heart is a battleground for the fight between good and evil. We wait for that great day when man will conquer good and evil and become man in the real sense of the word.
3.7 SELF-PURIFICATION
Soul is God
The soul remains beyond the pleasure and pains of the world. It does not come within the ambit of sin and merit, nor is it bound by the limits of time. Its beauty is eternally young, immortal, constant, and indestructible. No temptation of the world can taint it.
External, internal and supreme soul
Feelings of ego and affection for the visible objects are the external aspect of the Soul. The aspect that purifies the Self is the inner aspect of the Soul. And complete detachment, complete knowledge of the Self is the aspect of the Supreme Soul. External Soul is extrovert, internal Self is introvert but imperfect and the Supreme Soul is always introvert, perfectly pure, clean and serene.
Become supreme soul yourself
A subjective philosopher says, “We want to taste the sugar, not make sweetmeat from it.” What he means is we wish to enjoy the vision of the supreme soul, not become supreme soul.” But I do not at all believe in this thinking of the philosopher. I will say, “I want to taste sugar as well as become sugar also.” Sugar means infinite sweetness of infinite qualities of the soul. I am myself the taster of my sweetness. How long can I look at the sweetness of others with wistful eyes? Is becoming a king more pleasing or looking at a king.”
God or Supreme Soul is inside us, not anywhere else outside. When this is the case, whom will you worship, what will you meditate on? The answer is not new, not just of today but millions of years old - ourselves. This is the reason that inward retrospection (Pratikraman) of Shraman culture does not go towards prayers to God but towards introspection and self-contemplation.
The nature of soul is to rise
‘Falling is natural and easy while rising is difficult for a man. Going downgrade is natural but going upwards is difficult. The conclusion in short is that falling is according to nature and rising is against it.’ The preachers, philosophers or thinkers who use this kind of language are wandering through the darkness of ignorance. They have nothing to inspire human race. If fall of man is natural and rise is against it then why is the preaching of religion, call for good behaviour and din for spiritual practice being done? Can anybody go against his own nature? Can he leave it? Never!
The philosophical language of Bhagwan Mahavir is totally different from this. He says that, to rise is to transform the self and is natural; fall has no natural cause, it has to be caused by others. To rise is easy but to fall is difficult. To come from the tendency towards anger, pride, affection and greed to forgiveness, humility, straightforwardness and generosity is to come into our own nature, reach our natural state. There is no need to get any external help for it. Yes, to go into the dirt of anger, pride etc. is going against the natural direction therefore that is very difficult. That requires help of upward and downward forces. A gourd floats on the surface of water. That is its nature. Therefore no outside means need be used. Does gourd take anybody’s help for floating? No. It floats because of its intrinsic nature. But for making it sink, it definitely needs external means. Tie a stone to it and it will sink. The gourd has not sunk by itself, the stone has made it sink forcibly.
The same principle applies to souls. Swimming in the sea of the world is its basic nature. And what about sinking in the sea of the world? That is the unnatural effect of actions and desires. Take away the desires and Oh! The souls of the universe! You are meant to float, not to sink.
Purification of Soul
Soul is really pure, uncontaminated and great but because of its having fallen in the stream of desires since time immemorial, it is burdened by the weight of several shortcomings and mistakes. It has forgotten its real form like gold fallen in mud. Therefore, it is not surprising that whenever it tries to raise itself and take the path of the practice of non-violence and truth, it commits mistakes in the middle due to the bad impressions from time immemorial. The seeker should not lose hope and feel frustrated under these conditions. He should march ahead keeping faith in his natural purity, correcting his mistakes.
And yes! Correcting the mistakes does not mean crying and wailing. Correcting the mistakes means looking for the source of mistakes and to resolutely save yourself from them. The purpose of the practice of pratikraman (inward retrospection) in the Jain culture is to remove old faults and to be careful not to let similar faults occur again. This method of correcting results in making the soul gradually free of faults, removes the bad impressions from the time immemorial and opens the doors to the immortal bliss of the self by making the seeker steady in the form of the Self.
Internal cleaning
When the Deepavali festival comes, houses are cleaned in order to welcome Goddess Laxmi. All the waste and garbage are thrown out, and the signs of whitewash and colouring can be seen everywhere. But I ask - All right! Houses have become clean, but what is the situation in your own temple? How much filth, how much bad odour, how big the piles of dirt of desires are there in it? How can Goddess Laxmi enter as long as your mind is dirty? She will go back being nauseated by the bad odour. And even if she does come by mistake she will not become just filthy, dirty and destitute but turn into a haunting ghost. You know what kind of calamity a ghost occupying a house brings.
Victory of Soul
The path of victory over the soul passes far away from the conflicts of the body, organs, mind, pleasure-pain, honour-insult, gain-loss etc.
Soul
There is a driving force that is called the soul, life force or Brahman, which powers the mind, speech and all actions of the body. It is the centre of knowledge and bliss. How can there be sorrow if the soul is healthy without any kind of fault in it? Even raging flames will feel like the tickling of flowers.
Break the shell
Experience is not something that can be obtained from outside. It will be found inside and only inside. Break the outer shell of the desires of the body and mind. The light of the experience of the self will then shine automatically
The greatest ideal
What is the greatest ideal before man? It is to purify himself, clean himself carefully to become perfect and excellent, change the humanness into Godhood. The ideals for an eagle’s flight are the lofty snow peaks and the ideals for mosquitoes and flies are the piles of filth. While man is like a flying mosquito from outside, he is an eagle from inside. Man’s greatness lies in abandoning the external flights and taking the inner flight.
Soul and body
Soul is eternal and body is temporary. Soul is ever young, immortal and limitless. Body is short lived and perishable. Soul is pure while body is impure. Soul is beyond disease, sorrow, pain, and dispute while the body is surrounded by them.
Experience of Self and time limit
How much time is expected to pass until one experiences self? This question is unnecessary. Actually, limitless time has passed but no light has been seen so far. And when the light is seen, it is seen in a flash. When a thousand year old sleep breaks, it breaks in a minute. Does man require years to awaken himself?
Spiritual exercise of today
A man went to fill up nectar from the ocean of milk, taking with him a cracked pot. As long as the pot was immersed in the milk it appeared to be full but as soon as it was taken out, it was empty. It is similar with the pot of the spiritual exercise of the seekers. How can it be filled with the spiritual nectar until the cracks of doubts are sealed?
3.8 INNER VISION
You are all powerful
The powers of all the great people of the world like Mahavir, Buddha, Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Muhammad are within you too. Think with steady concentrated mind what you want to be. Then you will be whatever you want to be.
Remove the screen
Personal greed, temptation and selfishness are only a screen over the sacred power of knowledge of man and that makes him blind, deviate from his path and does not let him discriminate between proper and improper. Remove the screen of selfishness over the intellect, and then the bright light of truth will shine. Whatever decisions are taken in the light of truth will be with the aim of uplift of all. Therefore it will be beneficial to all.
Inner spark
Oh man! The lamp of knowledge is burning within you. You have only to remove the carbon of ignorance over it. The spark is burning. Blow hard on it with your spiritual practice to remove the haze from it.
Become introvert
Oh soul! What have you to do with quarrels in this world? Look not outside but within. Don’t observe others, observe yourself. One who looks outwards is a beggar and one who looks inwards is an emperor.
Stream of Happiness
Continuous stream of true happiness is in the soul within us only. It is not in the body, nor in the organs, nor in wealth, nor in people. What is more, it is nowhere else!
Know Yourself.
Oh man! Wake up, arise and stand up. If you are able to recognise the divine power within you then the smallest silent gesture from you can transform hell into heaven. Your powers cannot be counted in numbers. There is only one word for them, infinite, infinite, infinite.
You are the soul and even then you are afraid and begging! Yours is that light which is neither in the sun nor in the moon. Yours is that power which is nowhere else in the universe.
Who are you?
You are neither a woman nor a man, neither a Brahmin nor a Shudra, neither the master nor the slave! You are a soul, pure, intelligent, ever young, immortal, formless! Do you think that materialistic, impure thoughts belong to you? If it is so then there is none more foolish than you, more insane than you.
Contemplation of the self
If you are a human being, then ponder over the question, “Who am I? Wherefrom have I come? What did I do before coming? What am I doing now? Why am I doing it? Where have I to go? When have I to go? What did I gain? What did I lose? How far did I progress? How far did I retreat? How much beastliness have I got in me? How much humanness and how much godliness?”
Feelings
You are that soul whom eyes cannot see, ears cannot hear, nose cannot smell, tongue cannot taste and touch cannot feel. What more, mind, the biggest claimant in this world for being capable of observing minutely, cannot know you. You yourself can watch your form. Tell me when you will make efforts in this direction.
Recognise yourself
Experience infinite knowledge, infinite energy and infinite power within you. You are not meant to become a worm squirming in the mud of lustful enjoyment. You are an eagle, an eagle with infinite power. You fly, fly with your infinite qualities to infinite heights.
Soul is very powerful
A goatherd picked up a lion cub and let it among the sheep and goats. It began to think himself to be a goat. But one day he saw a lion roaring and the goats running away, and he immediately realised who he was. He too roared and the goats ran and stood far away. Oh soul! You are also a lion, why have you forgotten who you are in this materialistic riffraff. One roar from you is enough to make impure thoughts to run away.
See the one who sees
It is not the eye that sees. It is only a window through which somebody else sees. He sees when eyes are open as well as when they are closed; he sees even when you are asleep and even when you are awake. See the one who has eyes, one who sees, beyond the eyes.
Knower - seer
The truth about knowledge gained through the medium of the mind and the organs is this knowledge is the form of the soul, not of the organs etc. What is called the knowledge of the mind, knowledge of the organs etc.is really the knowledge of the soul operating in the organs etc. As long as the flame of the soul remains lighted in the body, organs etc. and as long as awareness is present, its actions are reflected through the medium of organs, mind etc. But in reality, they are not their actions but belong to the soul. Therefore the soul is the knower and seer.
He who is the soul is also the knower,
He who is the knower is also the soul.
-------Bhagwan Mahavir
Inner flame of the self in the form of the knowledge is Brahman.
--------Vedanta
The discrimination between I and they is philosophy.
The science of differentiating between living and non-living is philosophy.
--------Upadhyaya Amarmuni
ENGLISH: Portal Preface Introduction AMARVANI - Chapter No.: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Glossary
DEUTSCH: Portal Vorwort Einleitung AMARVANI - Kapitel: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Glossar