When one can learn directly from life, why seek a Teacher? || Acharya Prashant, on Lao Tzu (2019)
Video Information: 31.05.2019, Shastra Kaumudi - Live, Greater Noida, India
Context:
~ How to understand a teacher?
~ How to develop understanding?
~ Why we afraid to ask our deepest question?
~ Who is a real Guru?
~ How to recognize real Guru?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ How to understand a teacher?
~ How to develop understanding?
~ Why we afraid to ask our deepest question?
~ Who is a real Guru?
~ How to recognize real Guru?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
ЁЯЫая╕П
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Dear Acharyaji, Pranam.
00:10 Yes, Parameshwari.
00:17 She is quoting me to me.
00:22 Book of Myths by Acharya Prashant, Chapter - Myth of Guru.
00:31 And now opens the quote.
00:34 Everything in life is Guru.
00:37 Some get it through dancing, some get it through singing, some get it through serving somebody
00:42 and some get it through listening to a man.
00:45 But that does not mean that the man is somebody special.
00:49 Acharyaji, I was discussing some knowledge with one of our friend who knows that I am
00:56 following you.
00:59 He was so stubborn that he does not need a Guru because he will learn from life directly
01:05 on his own.
01:07 Also he asked if he is able to get knowledge from many people, then why should he subscribe
01:12 to one person?
01:14 I could not convince my friend on how a Guru is essential in life even as there is a possibility
01:23 to learn ourselves from life.
01:26 Acharyaji, kindly guide.
01:28 What kind of friends do you keep, Parameshwari?
01:32 The guidance is to earn a decent circle of friends.
01:40 This is the guidance.
01:44 If you continue to maintain the same old environment that you have been living in, inner change
02:04 would remain impeded.
02:20 I am not saying this because your friend is disputing the need of a Guru.
02:29 In fact, factually speaking what your friend is saying is more correct than what you are saying.
02:48 The reason is different.
02:54 Listening to someone is not a matter of a fashion or trend or cult or craze.
03:04 It is a deep inner need and love.
03:12 Otherwise really what is the need to listen to somebody?
03:23 It happens when there is a real need.
03:27 Yes, obviously it is possible to learn from life.
03:32 The question is not whether it is principally possible to learn from life.
03:38 The question is are you among friends who have really learned from life?
03:46 So somebody says is it not possible to learn directly from life?
03:49 Yes, it is possible, but have you?
03:54 Sir, is it not possible that I may learn from life directly on my own?
04:00 Yes, obviously it is possible, but look at your face.
04:03 Have you?
04:06 Have you?
04:07 If you have, then why are we even talking about all this?
04:12 And if you haven't, why are we even talking about all this?
04:23 Obviously you have quoted me and I have been very assertive, eager and open in saying that
04:41 life itself is a great teacher.
04:47 That the one who is eager to learn will learn from this, that and the opposite of this and
04:55 the opposite of that.
04:58 But are you that person who would learn from this, that and the opposite of this and the
05:03 opposite of that?
05:04 Are you the one?
05:06 Have you done that?
05:08 Look at your life.
05:09 Look at your face.
05:11 If you are indeed the one who could learn from the mosquito and the pig and the pigeon
05:17 and the crow, wonderful, but are you that person?
05:27 Are your friends of that quality Parameswari who are able to learn from the mosquito and
05:33 the pig and from the wall and the stall and from the mountain and the river?
05:52 Now first of all, these aren't people of the kind who would learn anything from anybody.
06:05 Actually they do not even have the basic inclination to learn.
06:25 When that need, when that great love arises, only then do you approach somebody to learn.
06:35 If that need or that love is not there, you will have a thousand arguments against learning.
06:44 You will say I will be able to learn from here and there.
06:57 A fellow came and he said, you know I learn from the birds.
07:01 When they are chirping, I learn so much.
07:07 Now this fellow cannot learn even when somebody is speaking in Hindi or English, the languages
07:15 he knows, but the bugger says that he is able to learn when the bird is crowing.
07:30 The noise of the insects teaches him so much and he is the one who has never been able
07:36 to understand something when a man has offered advice or a kid has come up and said something.
07:55 But it's a great defense against learning.
08:00 It's a great defiance of truth.
08:05 It is a great way to remain secure in your ignorance.
08:19 When Ganga is flowing in front of you, you may say there is enough moisture in the air.
08:26 I will condense the moisture from the air, collect a few drops and drink.
08:35 Why do I need to go to the Ganga?
08:36 The air is all around me and the air has moisture.
08:41 So I drink directly from the air.
08:47 You drink through your throat, I drink through my lungs.
08:51 I breathe in and that is drinking.
08:58 This man is just afraid of water.
09:01 He has become so insensitive to his own parched throat that all he knows is to make stories.
09:11 Acharya ji, I was discussing some knowledge with one of our friend.
09:25 This is extremely mediocre, Parameshwari.
09:30 This is the typical middle class drawing room story.
09:37 Discussing some knowledge, where did you get it from?
09:40 I never doled out knowledge to you, Parameshwari.
09:47 What I have told you is something very sacred and more importantly very very intimate.
09:56 It is something between you and me.
09:59 You turned it into marketable knowledge and you started discussing it with all and sundry
10:04 in your drawing rooms and that too with unworthy people.
10:10 When I speak to you, it's a love affair and you exposed the affair to strangers.
10:21 Can there be a greater crime?
10:26 You will go around tom-tomming in the world, I am having an affair with Acharya ji.
10:35 This is what you have done and I never pardon this thing.
10:48 When it is between me and you, how did you reveal it?
10:57 I was discussing some knowledge with one of our friend.
11:01 Whenever these friends come in, then there is a big problem.
11:15 Who knows that I am following you?
11:19 Now what do you want to do?
11:21 You want to create a long tail?
11:27 A long tail of 40 people of which the first is Parameshwari and then the next one is Parameshwari's
11:33 friend and the next one is the friend of friend.
11:38 Basically you want to retain the old extended family and you just want to add Acharya ji
11:48 to that family.
11:49 Your old circle of friends should remain and Acharya ji should get added to it.
12:05 You know the tradition in your country Parameshwari.
12:10 The woman leaves her family when she finds the Lord.
12:21 Then she goes to his place or does she carry her brother and servant and dog along?
12:36 Would you go to the Lord with your entire village?
12:43 I am the bride and this is the dowry.
12:59 Why are you so insistent on retaining these friends?
13:04 And not only are you insistent on retaining these friends, you are also exposing me in
13:08 front of them.
13:09 Do I speak to everybody in MAG?
13:12 No, I speak only to those who pay up.
13:21 Am I talking to all and sundry on the road?
13:24 No, those are other occasions.
13:35 I was discussing some knowledge with one of our friends.
13:43 Who knows that I am following you?
13:53 Like girls, teenage girls gossiping about their latest affairs with each other.
14:00 She knows I am doing this these days.
14:03 She knows my things, I know her things and we share a little bit.
14:18 He was so stubborn that he does not need a Guru.
14:21 Why were you convincing him that he needs a Guru?
14:25 Am I running some kind of cult?
14:33 You are convincing him that he needs me.
14:36 Now you come and convince me as well that I need him.
14:40 How are you so sure that I will admit him?
14:47 Do I admit everybody who comes knocking?
14:51 Do I?
14:56 Because he will learn from life directly on his own.
14:59 Had he learnt from life directly on his own, would he have befriended you Parameshwari?
15:20 Now after this I know what you are going to do.
15:22 Anushka is already smiling.
15:24 You will write a long message and you will say, no Acharya ji, this is not what I meant
15:29 and you are unnecessarily scolding me all the time.
15:32 But what are you doing all the time behind my back?
15:37 I said these are intimate things Parameshwari.
15:40 They are not to be revealed to strangers.
15:53 At least they are not to be revealed to stubborn, indifferent and foolish strangers.
16:05 You know in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Krishna warns Arjun very very clearly.
16:10 He says if you utter even a word of this Gita to someone who does not have faith in me Arjun,
16:21 then a curse will fall upon you.
16:26 This is what Krishna says to Arjun.
16:31 In the final stages of Gita, this is the advice and the warning.
16:34 Arjun, if you utter even a word of this Gita to someone who does not have faith in me,
16:43 then you will stand cursed.
16:45 And here you say I was discussing some knowledge with one of our friend.
16:57 Also he asked that if he is able to get knowledge from many people, then why should he subscribe
17:01 to one person?
17:03 If is a big if, if he is indeed able to get it from here or there, without or within,
17:10 then obviously there is no need to listen to anybody.
17:17 But it's a huge if.
17:19 Has he been able to get it?
17:21 And if he indeed has been able to get it, then congratulate him and you too learn from
17:26 him.
17:34 I am fully in support of learning in all ways from everywhere and everybody.
17:43 But I am not at all in support of foolishness and hypocrisy.
17:48 Get the difference please.
17:51 I am absolutely in support of learning from wherever it is possible to learn.
17:57 But I am not at all in support of using the various avenues to learn to not to learn.
18:09 Picking up one book and saying you know, I would rather learn from the other book and
18:14 then picking up the other book and saying you know, I would rather learn from the other
18:18 book.
18:19 What are you using all the books for?
18:23 You are using each of the book to not to learn.
18:26 Now this is what I strongly dislike.
18:42 I could not convince him on how Guru is essential in life.
18:48 You could not convince him but you spilled the beans.
19:01 Even though there is a possibility to learn ourselves from life, Guru is essential in
19:06 life so that this possibility may materialize.
19:16 These are not contradictory statements.
19:20 You are saying how is Guru essential in life even as there is a possibility to learn ourselves
19:24 from life.
19:25 But have you learned yourself from life?
19:29 The possibility to learn by yourself remains merely a possibility for most people except
19:42 if you are one in a million.
19:48 The Guru is needed so that the possibility may gain fructification.
19:57 Otherwise at the level of possibility we all are perfect.
20:02 Potentially we are all truth.
20:04 Are we not?
20:07 Potentially we are all nothing short of the great Brahm.
20:12 Just potentially.
20:16 You won't live and eat and die in your potential, Parameshwari.
20:20 You live and eat and breathe and die in your practical reality.
20:23 So don't talk of possibilities and potentialities.
20:27 Talk of the fact of the practical life.
20:39 Not everybody is to come to the Guru.
20:42 Only those are to come to the Guru who first of all want liberation and therefore I am
20:48 asking you why are you friends with those who do not want liberation?
20:57 Liberation means flying away.
20:59 But if you are friends with those who do not want to fly away, they will arrest your flight.
21:07 Not only are they not liberated, they will prevent you too from being liberated.
21:15 And when their time will come, they will find some teacher on their own.
21:20 The teacher could be within, without.
21:21 The teacher could be a man, a woman.
21:23 The teacher could be living or dead.
21:25 The teacher could be a book or an audio or a video.
21:28 The teacher could be an insect or a bird.
21:32 There could be one teacher, there could be one million teachers.
21:36 Let them find on their own.
21:42 Teachers appear immediately, very easily.
21:49 It is the appearance of the student that is very very difficult.
21:54 And what is the point in parading the teacher to a non-student if the teacher is there and
22:06 the student is not there.
22:07 It is an insult to the teacher, is it not?
22:12 When I speak, I come in, I appear after all the students have assembled.
22:22 So the student has to appear first and then the teacher appears.
22:26 And it has never happened that the students have appeared and I have not appeared.
22:30 Has it ever happened?
22:35 So two things are there.
22:36 One, the student has to appear first and second, if the student has appeared, then the teacher
22:43 will compulsorily appear.
22:46 You are trying the opposite.
22:49 The student is not at all there and you are holding Acharya ji's hand and parading him
22:58 in front of an indifferent crowd.
23:03 By doing this, are you offering me respect, Parameshwari?
23:13 I would be glad to appear not only in front of one or two or five people but in front
23:19 of thousands of people when they are ready as students.
23:27 Then I will appear in front of all of them and address them.
23:30 So if you want me to appear in front of them, first of all, let them be ready as students
23:38 and not everybody would be a student.
23:40 It requires a very high qualification.
23:43 It requires a really loving mind to be a student.
23:50 Mind your friend circle.
24:01 And what I have said is not to be taken emotionally.
24:06 Are you getting it?
24:08 Thank you.