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Chapter 6
Appendix:—A common man sees the self in the body. He does not want pain in any organ, does not have aversion to any organ but regards all the organs as his own equally. Similarly a devotee beholds God in all beings and tries to alleviate their sufferings and to comfort them equally. He regards the objects, ability and power etc., not as his own but as God's. As the Ganges is worshipped with the water of the Ganges and the sun is worshipped with an earthen lamp, similarly a devotee offers the Lord's things in rendering service to Him—`tvadiyam vastu govinda tubhyameva samarpaye'.
As having proper dealings with different organs of the body, a common man regards them as the self and tries to alleviate their pain and to comfort them equally. Similarly according to the saying 'as a deity, so the worship', dealings with a Brahmana and a pariah, with a sage and a butcher, with a cow and a dog will be different according to the ordinance of the scriptures but the devotee beholds God in all of them and so he tries to alleviate their sufferings and to comfort them equally without any distinction.
As a devotee assumes the identity of God with the soul of all beings (Gita 6/31), similarly he assumes the identity of all bodies with his own body. Therefore he feels happy with the happiness of others and sad with the sadness of others—`pare dukha dukha, sukhasukha dekhe para' (Manasa, Uttara. 38/1).
He like the joys and sorrows of his own body, takes the joys and - sorrows of others as his own. `To feel sad with the sadness of others' means to make efforts to alleviate the sorrows of others, rather than to become sad seeing them sad, similarly in order to be happy himself, he has not to alleviate the sorrows of others, but being compassionate he has to make efforts to make others happy. It means that he has not to enjoy happiness himself but he has to feel happy by seeing that the other person has got rid of sorrows and has become happy.
There is so much difference between the eyes and the feet that we see with eyes and we walk with feet, the eye is the sense of perception while the foot is the organ of action. In spite of so much difference, there is so much identity that a thorn runs into the foot and the eyes are filled with tears; dust falls into the eyes and the feet totter. It means that we can't separate the body from the world and can't separate the world from the body. Therefore if we take care of own body, similarly we should take care of the world; and if we are indifferent to the world, we should be indifferent to our body. Accept anyone of these two—this is honesty.
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