Passage 3

Anapekṣa, tārakam; apekṣa, mārakam

Here there are two kinds of sādhana. One is worldly, done with expectation. The second is nirapekṣa. That is, nirapekṣa does not mean going off without taking the results. This very thing is also called anapekṣa. ‘Anapekṣa: tārakam’, ‘apekṣa: mārakam’. Today man is travelling on two paths, called māraka and tāraka.

What is māraka? A principal is working in a college. Everything in that college is in that principal's charge. He holds authority over every one of the things. Not only furniture: there are many instruments and machines too. These valuable materials and objects too are under his control. But if he gets a transfer, he does not worry, “How am I to leave so many things, so many chairs, so many instruments?” “None of these is mine. All this belongs to the government alone. They have only given me a duty. I am a principal. My duty is only to look after their safety. My duty is to protect all this, so that nothing suffers loss and no one else steals it. Other than that, none of these is mine”: with that feeling, the moment his transfer comes, he goes. He does not worry at all. He suffers no pain of any kind. Why? “This is not mine. All this belongs only to the government”: and so he leaves that college happily. The same principal was living in that same village, in a rented house. When his transfer to another village comes, he packs everything that was in that house and puts it in a lorry. Not only the things. He packs even old sandals and old sticks and puts them in the lorry. What is the reason? Only out of the attachment that says all these are mine, mine, he loads all these old things, sticks and sandals into this lorry and takes them away.

Here, which is tāraka and which is māraka? What is bound up with attachment is itself māraka. To leave that college and go away without any expectation is itself tāraka.