What was the second point? Lemon, book, and clothing. In that manner, the aham-vritti remains. So is that good or bad? In that, did Swami call the aham-vritti good or bad? What did he say? Bad. Why? Where did he say that it is spread elsewhere? He has described the nature of aham-vritti. He did not say it is spread elsewhere. This is the procedure of aham-vritti. If you direct it towards the good, it becomes good. Aham-vritti is of three types: satvik, rajas, and tamas. Then, it is divided into two parts. That of this world and of the other world. Someone forms such an aham-vritti that 'I am a servant of God.' Actually, aham-vritti is like an internal ID. It is called an inner ID. How does one perceive oneself? That is aham-vritti. If one considers oneself a servant, then such an attitude is formed. Lion attitude, eagle attitude, ant attitude, the attitude of an ant. On what basis are all those attitudes formed? On the basis of aham-vritti. On the basis of aham. A lion's attitude is like, 'I am the king of the jungle.' So he roams around accordingly. He only goes out in the evening. Kings used to go out in the evening, right? In the old days, kings, rulers, would go out in the evening at five o'clock with their horse carriages to inspect everything. So the lion attitude is like that. Lion attitude, king of the jungle, so he goes out at five in the evening. Then he does a little work. But he does such work that is key. Then it lasts for a week. So he is called a king. So, attitude is formed based on aham. If a person changes their aham, then everything changes. Everything changes. Changing aham is very difficult. Then one does not have to perform spiritual endeavors; just by changing aham, everything else aligns accordingly. When a king walks this way, the army behind him follows in his direction, keeping watch. If the king changes his angle, everyone else automatically turns. Wherever the king goes, they follow behind him. Similarly, aham sits as the king. So if one wants to change it, if one changes it oneself, it can be changed. It is not that it cannot be changed. Shastriji Maharaj used to give many examples from the old days. Before a girl gets married, she considers everything at her father's house as 'mine' and associates her aham with it. Swami used to give an example from the old days that if there was cow dung lying in the market, she would pick it up and throw it into her father's compost pile. She would take it from the market and throw it there. And once she gets married and goes to her in-laws' house, then? She would take whatever she gathered from her father's house and carry it over to the other side. Why does she do that? The aham-vritti changed. The aham-vritti changed. Earlier she believed, 'I belong to my father.' Then now she believes, 'I belong to my in-laws.' Because the aham-vritti changed, her entire circle, her efforts, her hard work, everything changes. We do everything else, but we do not change our aham-vritti. We do not make an effort in that. Many develop a servant aham-vritti; Maharaj desires the servant aham-vritti. Maharaj said, 'Tatra brahmatmana krishnaseva muktishcha gamyatam.' Maharaj said this in the Shikshapatri. That this is fine, but even after death, I want to serve God. 'Tatra brahmatmana krishnaseva muktishcha gamyatam.' So, Maharaj desires the feeling of being a servant. Where does the feeling of being a servant arise? What is its dwelling place? Aham-vritti. The jiva, that is the jiva, is expressed through aham-vritti, right? It is expressed as 'I am, I am.' But who am I? When asked, one says, 'I am a sadhu,' or 'I am so-and-so,' 'I am intelligent,' 'I am very good, smart,' and so on. One has decided that for oneself. 'I am a servant of Maharaj,' such an aham-vritti is not developed, and therefore, action does not follow. One performs actions and also contemplates in the mind, so Maharaj said to associate with Brahma through contemplation. One performs actions, but if one only contemplates and does not act, then it does not turn out right. So, one should perform actions and also contemplate. I have seen people who have served for 35 years or even more, but still, they have not become servants. They have not become servants. They serve for 35 years, 30 years, 25 years. What is the reason for that? They did not change their aham from within. Then, we can say they just did the chore of seva. They do a lot of chores, some for 25 years, 35 years, 40 years, 50 years, but still, their aham does not change. They have not changed their aham. Can one serve for 35 years without changing the aham-vritti? If you want to speak, come over here. If the aham-vritti has not changed from within, can one serve faithfully for such a long time? It can happen for some purpose. They might have settled in, what else to do, some worldly purpose is being fulfilled, some worldly purpose is met, and they get what they want, or they get some basic sustenance, so their life goes on. And they do the chores. That is called doing chores. Your question is valid, but look at the historical examples, have they done it or not? We don't need to look elsewhere, just look in the Gurukul during Shastriji Maharaj's time. Some might have served for 25 years, some for 30 years, some for 40 years, but they did not become servants. They did not change their aham; they remained just as they were. And they received no benefit or result from it. For example, we often give examples that Mukund Swami used to serve Maharaj, meaning Shastriji Maharaj, a lot. So when Swami passed away, was his state entirely different? Kothari Swami was there, Hariprasad Swami was there; it wasn't that they were all perfect persons. But the service they performed, their devotion and everything was extraordinary. Nayan Bhagat was there. Don't we often say that a tea seller can become the PM? So Nayan Bhagat would say, 'Can a tea server become liberated?' Look at Nayan Bhagat's service. Serving tea, and that too of exemplary quality. Once someone drank his tea, they would surely remember it. And by serving tea, he attained liberation; his final state was that of a liberated soul. So by serving tea, and many might have performed even better quality service than that, higher service, yet they did not change; they remained the same. The state of liberation did not arise in them. Shouldn't the state of liberation arise while still alive? In the final state, he attained the state of liberation. The reason is that in his mind, he believed, 'I am a servant.' And the other one, even after doing chores his whole life, never felt in his mind, 'I am his servant.' So it is aham-vritti; aham is a vritti, it is described as the nature of aham. When aham-vritti changes, just as we said, if you add a lemon, if one lemon is added to a vegetable dish, every single piece gets the taste, and one can tell whether lemon has been added or not. Whether one's aham-vritti has changed or not becomes evident in their actions. By tasting just one piece, does one know or not? That lemon has been added to this. This has not been tempered. The vegetable dish is very good; you may add a lot of jaggery and everything else, add salt and proper spices, but if it is not tempered, then? Does the person eating know or not? That this has not been tempered. Everything else is good. It is not tempered. So, it becomes known. When one performs actions, it becomes known whether their aham-vritti has changed or not. It should be like tempering, shouldn't it? If the aham-vritti changes, then one's actions also change. And if the aham-vritti does not change, it is like, 'He did a lot of work, but did not temper it.' It feels completely bland and tasteless. As soon as you put it in your mouth, it doesn't taste right. So, tempering, lemon, book, and clothing. If you have memorized a book by heart, then your vritti is on every page of it. When students go to take an exam and a question comes up, they immediately see the page, 'This answer is written on this page in this chapter, let me write it.' The vritti is on every page. These students, especially those in science, have such huge volumes. And not just one. There are four or five such volumes. Still, when they go to take the exam, their vritti is on each and every page, 'This is written on this page, and this is written on this page, and this is written on this page.' In this way, the vritti is on every page, and if done properly, it becomes clear to them. A mumukshu mumukshu A person in search of moksh. Tap to open in glossary → It is just a belief; there is nothing else to it. The belief has to be changed. In that, personal effort involves performing some actions externally, but mostly cultivating the devotion. Maharaj said to associate with Brahma through contemplation. He did not say to do it through Chandrayana or other physical austerities. Change the belief of the mind. Contemplate on it, 'I am a servant, I am a servant, I am a servant,' contemplate in this way. 'Brahmaham krishnadasosmi' is the mantra mantra 1) A repeated word or phrase. 2) A sacred verbal phrase repeated in prayer, or meditation, such as ‘Swãminãrãyan’. Wicked people use mantras to cast evil curses. Tap to open in glossary → guru guru A teacher. He will guide you on the path of kalyãn. Tap to open in glossary → mantra mantra 1) A repeated word or phrase. 2) A sacred verbal phrase repeated in prayer, or meditation, such as ‘Swãminãrãyan’. Wicked people use mantras to cast evil curses. Tap to open in glossary → guru guru A teacher. He will guide you on the path of kalyãn. Tap to open in glossary → mantra mantra 1) A repeated word or phrase. 2) A sacred verbal phrase repeated in prayer, or meditation, such as ‘Swãminãrãyan’. Wicked people use mantras to cast evil curses. Tap to open in glossary → It is called the guru guru A teacher. He will guide you on the path of kalyãn. Tap to open in glossary → mantra mantra 1) A repeated word or phrase. 2) A sacred verbal phrase repeated in prayer, or meditation, such as ‘Swãminãrãyan’. Wicked people use mantras to cast evil curses. Tap to open in glossary → They chant on the rosary, but do not change the vritti. They might chant 'Brahmaham krishnadasosmi, Brahmaham krishnadasosmi.' But if they are provoked by someone, they cannot tolerate it. So, believe from the mind. Decide within the mind. Then believe. But in the Gita, God has warned against one thing, what? 'Bhogai-shvarya-prasaktanam tayapahruta-chetasam vyavasayatmika buddhih samadhau na vidhiyate.' There are so many obstacles to this. One who is like this cannot believe it. One whose jiva is drawn towards worldly pleasures, if they try to consider themselves a servant of God, how can they? First, when worldly pleasure appears before them, they immediately pounce on it like a monkey. So, the feeling of being a servant does not remain in them. 'Bhogai-shvarya-prasaktanam' - two things are mentioned. Which ones? Bhoga and aishwarya. If they hear about someone's wealth, their jiva gets drawn towards it, 'Oh, wow.' Brother, wasn't Puran Swami talking about this? There was a sadhu who used to pray to Maharaj, to Radharamandev, 'O Maharaj, O Radharamandev, if you are pleased with me,' 'then make me a son in the house of so-and-so Patel.' Even after becoming a sadhu! He must have seen their grand prosperity, so he felt, 'Make me a son in this Patel's house.' He must have wanted to do something after becoming a son. That must have been his inner plan. So, 'Bhogai-shvarya-prasaktanam tayapahruta-chetasam' - because of that, if their mind, their jiva, is drawn away, then 'vyavasayatmika buddhih samadhau na vidhiyate' - they cannot even make a decision. Vyavasayatmika buddhi buddhi 1) Intellect. Intelligence. 2) One of the four antah-karans, with the functions of consolidating thoughts, making decisions and resolutions, forming beliefs, or discriminating. It possesses the knowledge of all objects and is also the reason for the specific knowledge which all of the indriyas possess. Its inherent features are doubts, belief, sleep and memory. Tap to open in glossary → They cannot even decide, 'I am a servant of God.' They cannot resolve it in their mind. One whose jiva is drawn away cannot do it. One whose jiva is not drawn away much, even if they are partly drawn towards the world and partly towards God, if it is so, they can decide. That 'Alright, my jiva is drawn here, but let me become a servant of God.' With this body, I do not want to let a single breath go, that goes without performing service. Without serving Maharaj. Serving Maharaj means serving Maharaj's mission, Maharaj's satsang satsang 1) True company. The practice of associating with Bhagvãn’s sant, other satsangis, the ãtmã, and the sacred shãstras, and also observing vartmãns and niyams. 2) Also refers to the sampradãy, which is the presence of good company. Tap to open in glossary → Performing that service, so that is decided in the mind. It changes in the mind; otherwise, nothing changes externally. We gave the example of a girl who is at her father's house and then goes to her in-laws' house, what changes in that? Her mindset has to change. Her mindset has to be formed; a new mindset has to be adopted and the old mindset abandoned. If I am a servant, what should I do? Then, doesn't responsibility follow? If one considers oneself a servant, then one's way of thinking, one's mindset, changes. So when the mindset changes, it becomes like the lemon and the tempering. All of one's actions, thoughts, feelings, everything changes. One does not have to force the change. If one thing changes, it is like a key; this is the key. Aham is the key to it. So if aham changes, this changes. 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