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as you are. His business is to see that you remain as you are -- sick, diseased.
I have heard. A doctor's son returned home after completing his education. The father had never been on a vacation so he told his son, "I want to go on a vacation for three months. In the meantime, you carry on my practice. I have spent my whole life earning money without a break. So now you look after the business for a while."
Having completed a world tour, he came back at the end of three months. He asked his son how things were going, the son replied., "Everything is going just fine. You will be surprised, but the patients you couldn't cure your whole life, I cured them in three months." The father couldn't believe his ears. He said, "You fool! They gave us the business. I could have cured them too but then how could I have paid for your education? Those patients made it possible. I could have helped the schooling of other children as well. You ruined the whole thing!"
The priest likes you to be the way you are -- sickly, unhealthy. That's what helps them run their business. Shiva is not a priest. He is a teerthankara. Shiva is an avatara. He is the seer, the paigambara. His words are like fire. Come near him only if you are ready to be burned; accept his invitation only if you are ready to disappear as you are. Because, the new will be born only when you would cease to be as you are. Not until you have turned yourself into ashes, will the new life emerge. So keeping these things in view, now try to understand each sutra.
The first sutra is:
THE CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE ATMAN, THE SOUL.
Although conscious we all are, yet we never come to know the soul. If consciousness is indeed the soul, then we should all have the knowledge of it. We all possess consciousness, but what is really the meaning of, "consciousness is the soul?"
The first meaning is: in this world, only consciousness is yours. The word atman means: that which is your own. Regardless of how much the rest may appear to you as your own, it is alien. All of that which you otherwise claim as yours -- friends, loved ones, family, wealth, fame, high position, a great empire -- it
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