The subject of discussion: Are the elements insentient or sentient? Key points: There are two divisions of elements. The causal element is sentient, the effectual element is insentient. Liberation is attained only by the jiva. In this Vachanamrut, Shriji Maharaj asked the paramhansas a question, that within this jiva, the products of maya, which are the senses, only the jiva attains it and the elements do not, so what is to be said about that, Maharaj? What? Only the jiva attains liberation, the elements do not, so what is the meaning of saying that? Huh? Making an excuse of the senses and the antahkaran, the jiva escapes. The effort has to be made by the jiva. All these will help you, if they are equally strong, they will help, otherwise they will obstruct. They will certainly behave according to their nature. When God comes to take him to His abode, the devotee of God cannot make an excuse that my tongue was very troublesome, so I could not do any work. He cannot make such an excuse. So, one must keep strength in the jiva. If one wants liberation and wants to be freed from birth and death, one must keep strength in the jiva. If this boy says, "Brother, my father held me back." So what? Brother, the father is not going to get liberated, liberation is for our jiva. So now, he will drag us and take advantage. Maharaj says that whoever wants liberation, that jiva should not blame anyone. One must keep strength in one's own jiva that, "I want to suppress all of them and go across." Maharaj says if one understands even the senses and antahkaran in this way, then neither internal bad company nor external bad company will obstruct him. Maharaj says one should thoroughly renounce weakness and keep courage. Keep courage. Huh? Effort. Keep effort. If one thoroughly renounces weakness and keeps effort, then he attains liberation. Otherwise, he does not. Effort is in the sentient. And birth and death are for the sentient. All those others are obstructors. So, one must keep effort, keep strength in one's jiva, and if one does not keep strength in one's jiva, then all those others are going to throw him into a pit. And if he keeps it in such a way, Maharaj says, that he blames his mind, blames his relatives, blames whoever, then that is the foolishness of the jiva. The fault lies with the one who went into birth and death. The jiva goes into birth and death, so the fault is its own. It blames the senses and antahkaran that, "I did not have this, I did not have this, I did not have this." So God says, "Alright, no problem, if it was not like that, then do this. Go. Go into birth and death." Therefore, only the jiva that takes a turn attains liberation. All these are only obstructors, they will not help you at all. If you become strong, then they will help. If this jiva separates from them and becomes strong, then they will help, otherwise all are like this. Maharaj says if one understands in this way and thoroughly renounces weakness, then neither external bad company nor internal bad company can obstruct him. If the jiva blames that, "This was done to me," Maharaj says that is its foolishness. If someone tells you to jump into a well, do you jump? So what if one's own father says so? That, "Jump into the well once. Then come out." Then would he jump? What if he does not know how to swim? So Maharaj says that is the fault of the jiva itself. All these are just excuses. Whoever wants to go to God for liberation must thoroughly renounce weakness. And one must take one's own responsibility. "This person made me do this, this person made me do this, this person made me do this, this person made me do this." Maharaj says the one who does weak things is at fault, not the one who makes him do it. One must take the responsibility oneself. In this Vachanamrut, Shriji Maharaj asked the paramhansas a question, He asked, "Within this jiva, the twenty-four elements such as the senses and antahkaran, which are the products of maya, are those elements insentient or sentient?" Then the paramhansas replied, "Those elements are indeed sentient." So, with what understanding did the saints say they are sentient? This eye, all of them run, like that. The mind, as if, runs. On that basis, they were called sentient. Because when the jiva is asleep, turning over, the effort to remove bugs or mosquitoes when they bite, etc., are independent movements of the limbs. Therefore, it appears that since they are controlled like independent sentient entities, the elements are sentient. If an ant bites when one is asleep, is the leg not moved from there? If a big rat comes and bites? If one is asleep, asleep in deep sleep? Does he wake up and move the leg, or does he move it just like that? So, he moves the leg without waking up, which means that it is sentient. Such an inference has been made. Moreover, even at the time of consecrating a deity's image, separate invocations are made in each limb like eyes, ears, heart, etc. But there is a story in the Upanishads, right, that all of them gathered and went to Brahmaji. There was a fight. All gathered, the senses and antahkaran all gathered and there was a fight. So there was a fight, and to resolve the fight they went to Brahmaji. It was a fight about who is great, who is the greatest? The eye said, "I am great," the ear said, "I am great," the nose said, "I am great." Thus, all fought. Then they went to Brahmaji, as there was no end to the fight, they went to Brahmaji. Brahmaji then said, "In this, if one has to resolve a dispute among family members, one has to be very careful, right, one has to maintain a lot of balance. This one's side is taken and that one's side is taken." So, a lot of balance has to be maintained, so Brahmaji maintained a lot of balance. "Do one thing, each one of you go out from here. The one without whom it cannot function is the greatest." So the eye went out first. So, just as blind people go to work, he started doing things. And in that, within one year, he became very well trained. So then, after one year, the eye came out and peeped, "How is it going inside?" So they said, "It is going very well. If you do not want to come, no problem." So it said, "I am coming now, I don't have any other issue, I was just checking." Then the ears went away. So, deaf people walk around by writing, right, all of them. Likewise, if the legs went away, they walk with crutches. Even if the hands went away, people still work. One person does not have hands, so he writes the whole paper with his feet. And draws pictures. This is how it was. Which means it functions well. Then the jiva went, the jiva was about to leave. "Now shall I go? Okay." So, as soon as the jiva took one step out of his heart, there was an earthquake everywhere. The nose became stiff, the eyeballs popped out, the ears became deaf, the teeth clenched, the legs became stiff, and all such things happened. And everyone ran, "Jivraj Bapa, Jivraj Bapa, please do not go, you are the greatest." Such a story used to be in our primary school lessons. AI translation of the Gujarati transcript above, produced in the same pass that transcribed the audio, one English segment per Gujarati segment. Devotional and technical terms with no precise English equivalent (kirtan, satsang, vasana, samskara, and similar) are kept as their plain transliteration rather than force-translated. Not human-proofread., AI-translated, unverified · Source details