THE DASBODHA BY: SADGURU SHREE SAMARTH RAMDAS ...

of the God with form and attributes and deep inside is involved in the experience of the self. With
this type of worship you come to know that the entire universe is highly untrue. I have hopefully
cleared your doubts about the worship of God with form and attributes; in the next samas I will
answer the query, “If this is untrue why we are able to see it?”
END OF THE SEVENTH SAMAS
THE EIGHTH SAMAS – DRUSHYANIRASAN (REMOVING THE VISIBLE)
What is seen or felt by the sensory organs is untrue and those who are
swayed by it are not knowledgeable. They behave contrary to the preaching of the Vedas, Saints
and Guru.
Shree Samarth gives many similes to exemplify his point. Does
mirage contain real water? A man gets lots of riches in dream; does he become rich in real life too?
Do the paintings behave according to their supposed and proposed images? From a distance if you
see a drama with the characters in beautiful make up you like them very much, but in real life are
most of them so much lovable? Do the greatest of sculptures talk, walk and behave like humans?
The artistic images on ancient treasures, temples and churches almost hypnotize you but by any
flight of imagination are they true? In India there is a type of drama where the men pose as women
and do look like most beautiful of them but will you marry them for their beauty? An actor portrays
many characters but does he behave in his life like those characters? If we look up we see the sky in
the prone position and if we see its image in water it seems in the supine position but does the sky
change its position ever? The mirror shows images of the things in front of it but will it show
anything when nothing is kept in front of it?
When the untrue seems true one should think very critically about it
and try to analyze if his vision and perception are at fault. This universe consisting of innumerable
things if evaluated critically will turn about to be untrue and hence non existent despite being seen.
It is our lack of knowledge which forces us to believe that it is true because it is visible. The only
truth is the Parbrahma.
The traditional lack of duality preached by the Vedas has been taken
as a basis by Shree Samarth here wherein he tells about the object and its mirror image and the
illusion. Mirror image can be seen of an object not only in the mirror but in anything which is
absolutely clear like the pure water of a lake. This image isn’t a newly created object. The object
isn’t disturbed when the image wasn’t there, when it appears and when it disappears. The constant
thing is the object and not the image which is an illusion. This object is obviously the Parbrahma
and the image is the Maya. Our mind is without the real knowledge. It tries to know about the
objects through the sense organs but as they and the mind are created through lack of knowledge
the object can’t be seen in its true form and we see it as it is sensed, in a wrong manner. Then we
feel that the untrue is the truth. Thus the whole life is wasted in illusions. Shree Samarth also tells
that the soul is the truth, the real state and full of bliss. The mind covering the soul always indulges
in imagining about things which should be shown the dust bin, resulting in forgetting the original
form of the soul and being engulfed in the body mind intellect conglomerate with the pride that I
am the doer. All this can be reversed by the companionship of and listening to the preaching of the
Saints and Guru. The main aim of Shree Samarth is to stress upon the postulation of lack of duality.