Dadashri : What is your name?
Questioner : My name is ‘Chandulal’.
Dadashri : Are you really ‘Chandulal’?
Questioner : Yes.
Dadashri : ‘Chandulal’ is your name. Is ‘Chandulal’ not
your name? Are you yourself ‘Chandulal’ or is your name
‘Chandulal’?
Questioner : It is my name.
Dadashri : Then who are you? If ‘Chandulal’ is your
name, then who are you? Are you and your name not separate?
If you are separate from your name, then who are you? Do you
understand what I am trying to say? If you say, “These are my
eye-glasses,” then you and the glasses are separate, right?
Similarly, do you not feel that you are separate from your name?
In the same token there is nothing wrong with naming a
shop ‘General Traders’. However if we call out to the shop
owner “Hey General Traders, come here!” he would reply, “My
name is Jayantilal, General Traders is the name of my shop.”
The owner, the shop, and the merchandise inside the shop, are
all separate entities. What do you think?
Questioner : That makes sense.
Dadashri : People insist, “No, I am ‘Chandulal’.” That
means, “I am the owner of the shop and I am also the sign on
the shop.” ‘Chandulal’ is just a means of identification.
From your very childhood, people kept calling you
‘Chandu’ and you have come to believe, “I am Chandu.” You
believe this name to be you. In reality you are not that, but you
insist that you are ‘Chandulal’ because everyone tells you so.
Since you do not know who you really are, you believe yourself
to be the name that you have been given. This has had a very
powerful psychological effect on you. This effect is so deeply
ingrained within you, that you believe that you are ‘Chandulal’.
This belief is wrong, and because of this wrong belief, you have
spent countless lives ‘sleeping with your eyes open’ (oblivious
to your real identity).
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