Who is the One that experiences happiness and misery?

Many Ways of Suffering!

The Atma does not experience any kind of pain or misery. The Atma is a source of happiness (bliss). Pain and misery can never affect it. The one who enjoys happiness is the one that suffers pain. So who is the one that is enjoying happiness? It is the Ego. Who is suffering the pain? Ego. Who is the one doing greed? Ego. Who suffers losses? Ego. Who gets married? Ego does. Who becomes a widow? Ego does. Who becomes a widower? Ego does. The foolish ego, needlessly marries and widows! If without a reason, we tell a man living in Africa that his wife is dead, he will start crying. Hey, she is still living! And he would even go around telling everyone, 'I'm a widower'! 

Some men do the egoism (ahankar) of wanting to play a woman's role in a play. And they are not embarrassed or shy at all. That's because all he is doing is just egoism and nothing else. 'I enjoyed this and enjoyed that.'  

Ego does not experience anything at all, and yet what does it say? It only does the egoism that, 'I have enjoyed great grandeur in my life', that's all. Otherwise, if there was contentment from enjoyment, then after ruling a kingdom for twenty-five years, one would think to himself, 'I have been a ruler, so now if we deduct the misery from it, everything will be fine'. But no, he would not be able to tolerate even four days of misery. After four days, he will cry out! What is the reason for this? The answer is that he has simply done egoism. Nothing that he enjoyed is in stock. If there were something in the stock, we would deduct the four days of misery from the twenty-five years of enjoyment. He would be left with much of happiness. This is only egoism that he is doing; he has done madness, only 'madness'!  

A three year old child does not experience pain or suffering, but would a twenty two year old boy experience that when his mother  dies, or not? This is because the child has no egoism and the grown up has egoism. 

Ego is the only one that says, 'I enjoyed happiness and I suffered pain'. Such is the egoism one does.  Egoism means he speaks; that is called egoism.  He does nothing else besides this. And all the karmas are bound because of that. The kashays (component of inner non-Self complex) are enjoying. The doer is some other entity and yet one claims, 'I am doing it.  I did it'.  Karmas are bound because of this aropit bhav (the attribution of the false belief of 'I am Chandubhai*').  

Questioner: 'Prayek janma aham-rupak bhogaviyu, sarve avasthitey aad-bij ropiyu'

(In every birth, the ego has experienced the tangible; and in every situation an imperfect seed is sown). Please explain that.

Dadashri: The Ego itself is the one that experiences and enjoys everything that is in tangible form (it simply believes this), there is no other enjoyer. Indeed, never has a jiva (living being) indeed enjoyed sensual pleasure. It does not have the power or the capability (shakti) to enjoy sensual pleasures. Jiva means, that the jiva (life energy) within this body is separate from the Atma (soul), which is itself separate. But the jiva in this is the one that lives and dies - that is called jiva. It is a form of illusion. So it never experiences anything. It only says, 'I experienced it!' That is all. Experiencing-not experiencing is a different thing, but when one says, 'I experienced', he gets gratification.

Who enjoys sensual pleasure (vishay)? It is enjoyed by the senses.The Atma never experiences it. The Atma is most subtle, and the senses are gross (tangible); and the Atma has never enjoyed sensual pleasure. The Atma can never enjoy sensual pleasure. And ego cannot enjoy sensual pleasure. Ego is such a subtle thing, that it can never enjoy sensual pleasure. It only does the egoism of having enjoyed it by saying, 'I really enjoyed that'. Or else it says, 'I haven't enjoyed it'. It does the egoism of that, that is all.

One only says, 'I got married', that is all. He only does the egoism; nothing else. It is those kashayo (anger-pride-deceit-greed) that get married, and it is also the kashayo, that enjoy the experience, yet the ego says, 'I experienced it', that is all. There are two things in the world: to support the ego or to break it down. Everyone's ego in this world, is either being supported or being broken. Besides these two things, there is no third thing that happens. One does egoism of enduring pain. 'He has given me so much misery', one does egoism of that also. He does not suffer the pain. He keeps doing the egoism and thus effects have occurred. One is himself, the absolute Supreme Soul but just look at the state that has become of him! One has infinite energies, and that is why there are also infinite intents (bhaav).

*Chandubhai =  Whenever Dadashri uses the name 'Chandubhai' or the name of the person Dadashri is addressing, the reader should insert his or her name for exact understanding.