The root cause of all suffering in human life is the wrong belief that, 'I am this body, I am doing this.' This belief is deeply entrenched for all, and can not be eradicated without the process of awakening to the right belief and experience of, 'who am I' in all this, and who is the doer'. This process of awakening to the Self that is absolutely separate form the self is the miracle of all miracles known to man. The Self is eternal, whereas the self is continuously changing and perishes. The ultimate essence of life as a human being is to attain the awareness and experience of the Self, and this is true freedom; freedom from all pain in life. Freedom from pain that happens in the mind, in the body or pain that is externally induced through words, like painful news etc.
Published in this book is the real vision about the original properties of the Self and other eternal elements. It is the vision that has opened up in the speech of the Gnani Purush of Akram Vignan who came to be known to the world as Dadashri. The compilation of the entire book is divided in two parts. In the first half, part I, the questioner asks many questions such as, what is the Self (Atma)? What is It like? And the seeker, gets complete answers leading to total satisfaction, from the Gnani Purush. In the second part, the reader-questioner now is eager for Self-realization, so he gets guidance by asking questions about ‘Who am I?’, ‘How do I get the knowledge of this?’, ‘How do I recognize the Self?’, ‘How to attain Self-realization?’ etc.
Gnani or Jnani is the One who has known, is in the experience of, the eternal Self. Purush means the Self. Akram Vignan means that which is attained without doing anything, and the science behind this. A gentleman by the name of Ambalal M. Patel became a Gnani Purush in June 1958. This happened spontaneously within him. The absolute light of the Self prevailed in him from that time. In that state of the absolute Self, he became the instrument for the salvation of the world. The words that came out through his medium have become words that are now liberating hundreds of thousands of human beings who were seeking meaningful solutions for their pains. These satsang sessions of the Gnani Purush happened in Gujarati, were carefully preserved and are presented as they are, in many different languages. They are all in the form of questions and answers from Gnani Purush Dadashri.
In this Aptavani 8, the answers to countless questions about the Soul and the nature of this universe are being asked by seekers from all walks of life, and answered by Gnani Purush Dadashri. These answers pierce the veil of the intellect of the questioner and reach his heart, his Self, and thus no questions remain. This can only happen when one is in front of the enlightened One. The book will help prepare the seeker, the human being who is suffering from lack of light within, for the glorious time that will turn on the Light that lets him see and thus be free. That Light is within him only, he is simply not awakened to it.
