Video Information: ShabdYog Session, 16.1.16, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi, India
Context:
~ Who am I?
~ How to understand Narayana Upanishad?
~ How to reach timelessness?
Shlok: नाहं कालस्य | अहमेव कालम् |
Narayan Upanishad
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ Who am I?
~ How to understand Narayana Upanishad?
~ How to reach timelessness?
Shlok: नाहं कालस्य | अहमेव कालम् |
Narayan Upanishad
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00:00 So we are talking about the cell and time, which is obviously an interesting subject.
00:00:22 Isn't it amazing how our lives are in time, are governed, bounded and dictated by time?
00:00:51 Time seems to be the very stuff of living, so much so that we take it as a given, as a reality, even as a truth.
00:01:19 It appears so clearly obvious that there seems no point in enquiring about it, in questioning it.
00:01:40 Even in education, we express other quantities in terms of time.
00:02:04 We calculate time.
00:02:33 We express other things in terms of time.
00:02:40 But rarely do we ask what is time.
00:02:51 We do ask what is time, but rarely do we ask what is time.
00:03:08 Now is there anything that the mind does which is independent of time?
00:03:32 Let's take this very day, beginning today morning.
00:03:43 Look at all that the mind has done, subtly, closely, in terms of instincts, powers and actions.
00:03:53 Is there anything which is short of time? Is there anything that could have happened without time?
00:04:06 Is there anything that you have conceived which does not depend on time?
00:04:16 Is there any movement of the mind which cannot be expressed in terms of time?
00:04:34 We are talking about your mind, my mind, the mind of entire humanity.
00:04:49 Let me say the question again.
00:04:54 Mind is a continuous movement. My question is, is there anything in this movement which is untouched by time?
00:05:07 Is there anything in this movement which can happen without time?
00:05:19 You think of something. Is the thought not in time?
00:05:29 All thought is either of the past or of the future.
00:05:35 It is either a memory or an imagination.
00:05:40 Any ideation or conceptualization is always about objects.
00:05:53 Can there be objects without time?
00:06:00 It is simpler when we say that there can be no objects without space.
00:06:08 That seems intuitively easier to grasp.
00:06:13 That there can be no objects without space.
00:06:18 Can there be space without time?
00:06:24 Can there be space without change?
00:06:31 Don't just agree with me. Go into this.
00:06:36 Can there be space without change?
00:06:43 Yes. Is it possible to have space without change?
00:06:55 Because to realize space in your language, you require to be different from space and that itself is change.
00:07:15 If nothing changes at all, would there be time?
00:07:24 I ask you again. Nothing changes at all. Would there be time?
00:07:28 And nothing includes thoughts.
00:07:31 Nothing is not just gross material. Nothing includes thoughts.
00:07:35 So, if there is no movement in the mind, is there time?
00:07:40 So, all movement is time.
00:07:42 All activity of the mind is time.
00:07:46 Please understand. It is mathematical to an extent.
00:07:53 Mathematics is beautiful.
00:07:56 Everything that happens in the brain can be expressed as a function of time.
00:08:07 In fact, if you remove the time variable, it will be impossible to capture the activity of the mind and the brain, which these two we are using here interchangeably.
00:08:28 Are you getting this?
00:08:30 Alright. So, this mind, which is limited by time, this limitation, we can also call as facilitation because time seems also to be with the mover of mind.
00:08:53 So, in the usual sense of the word, it appears as if time enables the mind, but I am calling that as a limitation.
00:09:02 So, this time, this mind, which is limited by time, how can it proceed to understand time?
00:09:19 You see, I want to understand something and the very apparatus that I have to understand is dependent on what I want to understand.
00:09:33 Is that not our situation?
00:09:37 I want to understand time.
00:09:41 The Narayanak Nishad says, "Naham kalasya tameva kalam" I want to understand time.
00:09:51 But what do I use to understand time?
00:09:55 I use my mental faculty, my thinking process or whatever I call it, my analytical prowess, my intellectual capacities, I use them to understand what is time.
00:10:17 But whatever I will use, that too will be time.
00:10:23 I am thinking about time and the thought itself is time because there is no thinking without time.
00:10:30 So, instead of thinking about time, if we are sincere, would not it be better to go into thought itself?
00:10:49 Please.
00:10:54 Thought is time.
00:10:57 Thought is not separate from time.
00:11:02 To really know something, I must have a certain separation from it.
00:11:18 Is it not better to go into the mind itself, the process of thinking itself?
00:11:28 Is it or is it not?
00:11:33 So, here we are.
00:11:39 Mind beings.
00:11:43 Mind beings who do not exist in their own I, when they are deeply asleep, absent-minded or comatose.
00:12:10 This is.
00:12:13 Anybody here who can claim to exist even in his deep sleep?
00:12:23 Anybody here who claims to be even when he is deep, deep in his sleep?
00:12:36 So, such is the power of thought that our very existence in our own eyes and when I say our own eyes, I only mean in our own thoughts.
00:12:50 Our own existence in our own eyes depends on thinking.
00:12:59 If the thinking mode of consciousness ceases, then we cease to exist.
00:13:06 If the thinking mode of consciousness ceases, then we cease to exist.
00:13:14 So, the mind is thinking all the time and we think as if we are thinking.
00:13:21 But the fact is without thinking we do not exist. So, is it not true that thought is thinking us?
00:13:30 Let us go into it again.
00:13:33 We say we are thinking.
00:13:36 Now, had we as thinkers been separate from the thought, then we should have existed even without thinking.
00:13:49 Take a simple example. You say you are running.
00:13:55 But if you stop running, your common everyday experience is that you do not disappear.
00:14:05 You say you are running.
00:14:08 But if you stop running, you still find that you are grossly, materially, you do not disappear.
00:14:16 But does the same thing apply to thinking?
00:14:21 Do you exist even without thinking?
00:14:26 With thought gone, where are you?
00:14:33 With the cessation of mental activity, where are you?
00:14:38 So, you do not think. You do not think.
00:14:43 Thought builds you up.
00:14:48 Thought raises you up.
00:14:55 Thought thinks you.
00:14:58 You do not think. Nobody thinks.
00:15:01 It is a fallacy of language to say I am thinking.
00:15:05 For there is no thinker really separate from the thought.
00:15:16 So, whatever I am is happening in the mind.
00:15:25 That is our situation.
00:15:27 Whatever I am is happening in the mind.
00:15:33 No such happening, no me.
00:15:41 We want to understand time. We said it is impossible to understand time without understanding the mind that thinks.
00:15:54 Time really cannot be objectified.
00:16:01 So, we are going into the whole thing about thinking.
00:16:06 So, there is this mind which is always thinking and as a result of thinking,
00:16:13 we cannot even call it a result because it is happening along with the thinking.
00:16:24 The whole universe comes into being.
00:16:29 The I comes into being. The me is there.
00:16:38 What do we think of?
00:16:44 What do we think of?
00:16:56 We are here. You and me.
00:17:01 If you are really listening, can you think about what I am saying?
00:17:10 We are going to the question of the content of thought.
00:17:16 If you are really listening, can you think about what I am saying?
00:17:26 If you think about what I am saying, can you listen to me?
00:17:32 Because this speaking is so much like life.
00:17:39 A continuous flow.
00:17:42 If you start thinking, you miss the flow.
00:17:46 Is that not so?
00:17:48 If you start pondering on what I said five seconds back, would you be present to what I am saying right now?
00:17:58 So, thinking, even if it appears to be about something at hand, is actually always about, is always about, yes, the past or the future.
00:18:18 Thinking itself is dependent on time and raises time, creates time.
00:18:28 So, what then appears to be the whole business of movement of mind?
00:18:37 The whole business of movement of mind is to generate time.
00:18:47 Do not listen to the speaker.
00:18:49 If you do not listen to the speaker, then you are thinking.
00:18:52 And if you are thinking, then you have gone into the past or the future.
00:18:59 That is what the mind does. Is it not?
00:19:03 It may go into some object and where is that object? It is in space-time.
00:19:09 It is wondering about something and it always wonders, remember, about something.
00:19:15 That about is an object, that something is an object.
00:19:21 So, it has gone here and there.
00:19:23 So, whenever there would be mental activity, that mental activity would pertain to time.
00:19:36 And remember that time is never now.
00:19:46 In fact, time is never now.
00:19:51 Take this statement, time is never now, because time is always a little behind or a little ahead.
00:20:02 Is that not so?
00:20:04 So, time is never now.
00:20:08 Now, what is real?
00:20:14 What is happening?
00:20:18 Is that now?
00:20:25 As I am here in front of you, as you are, as you are, is that happening now?
00:20:36 Or is that too in the future?
00:20:42 It is happening now.
00:20:44 So, the truth is now.
00:20:51 The truth is now.
00:20:54 And time is never now.
00:20:57 And if we combine these two statements, what do we get?
00:21:03 Time is not the, time is not the, time is not the, alright, alright.
00:21:11 But what does the mind tell us all the time?
00:21:18 What does the mind tell us all the time that there is only time?
00:21:24 Can the mind tell you anything which does not involve time?
00:21:29 I am going back to the question that I have repeated five times today.
00:21:34 So, the mind keeps telling you that time is the, the mind keeps telling you that time
00:21:43 is the, the mind may tell you anything.
00:21:46 It could be talking about the tree, it could be talking about the traffic, it could be
00:21:50 talking about your parents, your family, your career.
00:21:54 But whatever the mind is talking, the essence of that object is always, always time.
00:22:08 So, the mind says A and A is a function of time.
00:22:13 Alright, the mind is in different mood.
00:22:16 So, mind says B and B too is a function of time.
00:22:23 So, the mind is very interested in maintaining time.
00:22:32 The mind would collapse the moment time ceases.
00:22:41 But we have been brought to something interesting that the time is never the present.
00:22:51 The present means that which is, that which is and time in fact never really is.
00:23:04 This is when the Rishi of the Upanishad is moved to declare with a rule in the Ramakaryas.
00:23:21 Time is a tyrant.
00:23:27 Time dominates you.
00:23:32 Time dominates you through mind.
00:23:39 Every cell of the brain is an evolutionary product and is hence steeped in time.
00:23:50 So, you are always compelled to operate in time.
00:23:58 Do you know what that means to operate in time?
00:24:01 It means to take yourself as a product of the past.
00:24:07 And as an entity that is constantly moving into the future and hence must hope about the future,
00:24:14 worry about the future and build a future.
00:24:18 And is that not the story of mankind?
00:24:22 When you take yourself to be time, to be a product of time, then who are you?
00:24:33 You are the body that was born.
00:24:36 You are the name that was given to you.
00:24:39 You are the religion that was given to you.
00:24:46 You are the beliefs that were given to you.
00:24:51 You are the relationships that came to you.
00:24:55 And who are you?
00:24:57 You are the one who keeps aspiring, hoping, worrying, becoming.
00:25:07 Becoming based on past and moving into the future.
00:25:13 Becoming that is dependent on time and would only keep generating more time.
00:25:23 Is that not so?
00:25:26 That is the tyranny of time.
00:25:30 The mind is never empty of it.
00:25:34 But miracles do happen.
00:25:37 This declaration of the Rishi is such a miracle.
00:25:40 Nahaam Kaalaksh, I do not belong to time.
00:25:48 I do not belong to time.
00:25:52 That unfortunately is not the story of most of us.
00:25:57 Most of us take ourselves to be belonging to time, don't we?
00:26:08 If I ask you, tell me something about yourself.
00:26:14 Can you tell me anything which has not been given to you by time?
00:26:20 And that is the ultimate proof that we take ourselves as belonging to time.
00:26:31 Go into this question.
00:26:33 It is about your own life.
00:26:35 If I ask you, who are you?
00:26:38 Can you utter even one sentence independent of time?
00:26:47 Your very identity is time bound and time given.
00:26:54 It happened sometime in the past.
00:26:59 And that happening is what you are now identified with.
00:27:04 That is the deception and dictatorship of time.
00:27:10 Are you getting it?
00:27:13 That appears to be normal and natural to most of us.
00:27:17 But don't forget, we just said that what is real is not in time.
00:27:26 Did we not say that?
00:27:29 Then how is it possible that the moment I ask you, who are you?
00:27:33 You cannot utter.
00:27:35 Nobody can.
00:27:41 You cannot utter even one sentence which is not in time.
00:27:46 You will say something about your body.
00:27:48 And the body is a product of time.
00:27:50 You will say something about your ideology.
00:27:52 And the ideology is a product of time.
00:27:54 You will say something about religion.
00:28:02 You will say something that is coming from your knowledge.
00:28:05 And is there knowledge without time?
00:28:07 That is the grip.
00:28:14 A really vice-like grip that time holds over us.
00:28:20 We are nobody if there is no past.
00:28:34 And is that not pitiable?
00:28:41 Past is memory.
00:28:47 If by some incidence that memory is deleted,
00:28:55 we would actually cease to exist in our own eyes.
00:28:59 Because whatever we are, our own self-definition is so very dependent on the past.
00:29:07 You say you love somebody.
00:29:10 And is that love anything in absence of memory?
00:29:17 And is it not amusing that with memory wiped out, the love too would be wiped out?
00:29:25 Is such a love real?
00:29:30 Which depends on memory or knowledge?
00:29:39 You say you are a wise man.
00:29:43 You say you are realized.
00:29:45 And would there be wisdom left if memory is gone?
00:29:58 And I am talking about not only the memory contained in the brain,
00:30:04 but also about the memory that is present in every cell of the body.
00:30:09 I am talking about physical conditioning as well.
00:30:12 With all that gone, would your wisdom, realization or even enlightenment remain?
00:30:21 So, is that not pathetic?
00:30:27 That what seems to be so dear to us, what seems to be the very essence of living,
00:30:32 love, realization, even they are so very dependent on past identification and time.
00:30:44 The Rishi does not like this at all.
00:30:51 It is humiliating.
00:30:55 He says, "Naham kalasya."
00:31:02 It cannot be so that I allow my love to become a hostage
00:31:13 of something as fickle, impermanent, and deceptive as time.
00:31:26 "Naham kalasya."
00:31:30 This is a statement of denial.
00:31:36 And when it comes to bondage,
00:31:45 to the bonded entity, to the one who is in chains,
00:31:51 freedom always begins with a denial.
00:31:57 Freedom always begins with a rebellion.
00:32:01 A rebellion against your present situation.
00:32:07 If you do not see most people rebelling, it is because they do not understand their present situation.
00:32:17 It is impossible to really know how you are shackled and yet not to rebel.
00:32:27 Anybody who comes to see the mess that he is in is bound to act.
00:32:39 That action is a rebellion.
00:32:43 The Rishi rebels. He says, "Naham kalasya."
00:32:46 In these two words, the Rishi has negated and distanced himself from the entire flow of mankind,
00:33:05 from all history and evolution, and from all becoming.
00:33:11 He says, "Naham kalasya."
00:33:14 Sorry, no past for me.
00:33:19 And no future I.
00:33:23 He is not yet saying whether there is a substitute.
00:33:30 He is not yet coming up with a positive affirmation.
00:33:35 He is just saying what he is not.
00:33:39 He is not asserting what he is.
00:33:45 And it is not really very important to assert what you are.
00:33:54 What is far more important is to say what you are not.
00:34:05 Why?
00:34:07 Because you already are so much.
00:34:11 And what you are is not very all right.
00:34:18 Must I say that? No, I do not need to say that.
00:34:23 That it is not all right is evidenced by all your movements, by all your efforts.
00:34:36 Are we not always wanting to change?
00:34:40 Are we not always striving to reach somewhere?
00:34:48 Are we always not looking for completion?
00:34:53 Anybody who is contended, anybody who is prepared to say, "Full stop, I am relaxing."
00:35:11 This constant urge to become, this constant itch to achieve is the very proof
00:35:25 that there is something that is continuously disturbing us.
00:35:36 Eating us out.
00:35:41 Like some hidden insect that is gnawing at us.
00:35:50 Yes, of course, we have decorated our situation by giving it fancy names.
00:36:00 When somebody is afraid, terrified and searching for security
00:36:06 and searching for an identification, a being, a self in other science, we call it ambition.
00:36:15 We even praise that person. We say, "Look how ambitious he is. He will be a big achiever someday."
00:36:20 We do not see that it is a disease.
00:36:28 We have started celebrating our diseases, our restlessness.
00:36:38 Nevertheless, the restlessness is there, always there.
00:36:48 The regime rebels. We say, "No more of it for me."
00:36:56 Why don't we rebel? We don't rebel for some very basic reasons.
00:37:05 One, we don't pay attention. We don't pay attention to our own condition.
00:37:15 Second, even if per chance, by the virtue of grace, our attention is drawn to the peculiarities of our condition.
00:37:42 We deceive ourselves through naming.
00:37:58 A man is suffering out of his conditioning. We say he is fulfilling his duty.
00:38:12 Another man is suffering. We say, "Oh, he is just receiving the results of his past actions, karanphal."
00:38:27 Another man is suffering. We say, "Oh, he is a Martian."
00:38:38 Another man is suffering. We say, "Oh, it has to be like this." This is life.
00:38:45 Don't you see? It is normal. It is happening with everybody.
00:38:52 Why do you expect to be an exception?
00:39:00 See how we deceive ourselves.
00:39:05 Is there a worse enemy that we have?
00:39:20 But the Rishi would have none of this. He says, "I am opting out."
00:39:29 Once he too was like the rest of us.
00:39:36 Same flesh, same blood, same birth.
00:39:48 There is nothing extraordinary about him.
00:39:52 So, let that not become another deception. Do not say, "Oh, but we are mere mortals.
00:39:59 The Rishi of the Upanishad is divine. So, how can we expect to match him?"
00:40:04 No. This argument is just another deception.
00:40:08 The Rishi who utters these words is just another one like the rest of us.
00:40:16 But he has a certain basic honesty.
00:40:23 If he doesn't understand something, he doesn't say, "Oh, it's alright. It's normal. I know."
00:40:31 If he doesn't understand, he stands like a child saying, "I do not know. I yet do not know."
00:40:39 He has the confidence as well as the humility to say that, "I do not know."
00:40:48 Do we really know anything?
00:40:53 Do we really know anything?
00:40:56 But look at the audacity and the stupidity with which we go about living normally, business as usual,
00:41:12 as if all is so very clear to us.
00:41:19 Do we know even a blade of grass?
00:41:24 Do you know the sky?
00:41:27 Do you know these sounds that are coming to you?
00:41:33 Do you know yourself?
00:41:40 But you keep on living. Not only do you keep on living, you also keep on making so-called important decisions.
00:41:49 Without knowing, we keep on deciding. Without knowing, we keep on acting. Without knowing, we keep on living.
00:41:59 Have you seen a child, a kid?
00:42:02 Have you seen how he insists if he does not know?
00:42:08 Do you know why you live with a particular person? Do you know why you work a particular place?
00:42:14 Do you know why you are attracted to something?
00:42:17 Do you know why you are studying? Do you know why you are saving?
00:42:22 Do you know why you are afraid? Do you know why you tremble?
00:42:26 Do you know why you are excited?
00:42:29 Do you know why this is a weekend?
00:42:32 We know nothing. Yet when the weekend arrives, we are quick to hop to the mall.
00:42:39 Have you not? Anybody who knows why he visits the malls,
00:42:47 anybody who knows why he waits for the movies,
00:42:51 anybody who knows why he must have kids,
00:42:57 anybody who knows why he visits the temples,
00:43:03 we do not know, but it is life as usual.
00:43:09 Another day in the office, the Rishi would not dupe himself.
00:43:21 He says, "I do not know. I want to know."
00:43:24 The moment you say, "I do not know," knowing dissents.
00:43:32 The mind suddenly enters into something that is beyond itself.
00:43:41 But for that, first of all, you have to humbly admit,
00:43:47 "I do not know."
00:43:50 Even if it pains you a lot, even if it hurts your notions a lot,
00:44:00 "Why am I a Hindu or a Christian?"
00:44:04 Please know that you do not know.
00:44:07 Do you know?
00:44:12 What is this thing called God based on which so much of my life operates?
00:44:26 What am I seeking?
00:44:31 How am I a wife or a husband? What does that mean?
00:44:34 What brought me here?
00:44:45 That is the only difference between the ones we call as ordinary human beings and the Rishi.
00:44:53 He too has an ordinary life, but he wants to really know his ordinary life.
00:45:07 Be with me. That is the only difference between the wisest one and the most stupid one.
00:45:19 That is the only difference. Otherwise, there is no difference at all.
00:45:25 There is someone who operates like a machine.
00:45:32 There is someone who says, "It must be so."
00:45:36 And there is someone who says, "I want to figure it out."
00:45:45 If this is the stuff of living, it ought to be known.
00:45:58 So, the Rishi rebels. What does he rebel against?
00:46:01 He rebels against the collective stupidity of entire mankind.
00:46:08 The ignorance of one man is the ignorance of all.
00:46:13 There is no mistake that you commit which has not been committed by somebody else earlier.
00:46:21 There is no mistake that you commit that has not been committed by you earlier.
00:46:26 The mind of one is the mind of all.
00:46:29 So, when the Rishi is rebelling against his personal bondage,
00:46:35 he is actually rebelling against the bondage of entire mankind.
00:46:40 And that is how he is useful to all of us.
00:46:45 Because our bondages are the same, hence one man rebels against his bondages.
00:46:56 That is a rebellion against that which shackles the entire mankind's consciousness.
00:47:05 He is not yet going out to do social service.
00:47:14 He is talking about himself.
00:47:18 "Naaham kaalas"
00:47:22 He is concerned with himself.
00:47:25 And one must be concerned with himself because what you call as others,
00:47:32 what you call as universe is just what you perceive as others in universe.
00:47:39 So, before others and the universe comes, you are there already.
00:47:44 Without you, there is no other and there is no universe.
00:47:49 So, how can you jump into helping the universe without first looking into the fact and the content of this me?
00:48:01 The me is the only rightful subject of inquiry.
00:48:12 It is the only honest subject to go into.
00:48:21 And if you come across a man who is studying about miscellaneous things,
00:48:30 science, history, literature, philosophy, politics, economics, without having gone into the me,
00:48:40 then he is simply making a fool of himself.
00:48:44 And is the world not full of too many of such people who are busy studying about this and that,
00:48:55 about the universe, about others, about systems and processes, about ideologies,
00:49:01 without having gone into the me that perceives the universe?
00:49:07 Don't you find the universe full of such people?
00:49:14 The Rishi is not one of them.
00:49:17 He says, the universe and I are no different.
00:49:29 And even if I say that I am the perceiver of the universe, then how do I talk of the universe when I am not sure that I am perceiving rightly?
00:49:45 My vision is blurred.
00:49:50 When I am seeing fairies, should I talk about the fairies or should I talk about my vision?
00:50:00 But the world is too full of people who are busy writing papers and volumes and books and other intellectual stuff on fairies.
00:50:17 They neither have the humility nor the courage to turn inwards and look at themselves.
00:50:34 It would actually be very apt if we just stop at this point.
00:50:48 Naham kaal se.
00:50:52 Nothing more needs to be said.
00:50:55 A total negation, a total cleaning up is enough.
00:51:06 It brings us to a clean emptiness.
00:51:12 Nothing more is really required.
00:51:20 But for the benefit of the mind of the reader, the audience, the Rishi says something more.
00:51:34 We will briefly take it.
00:51:37 The Rishi says, ahmev ki kaalam.
00:51:41 Ahmev kaalam.
00:51:44 Having totally gotten rid of the stranglehold of time, time which is others, time which is
00:52:03 evolution, time which is situation, time which is society, time which is conditioning; having
00:52:09 totally denied the power of time over the selves, the Rishi now says that time will
00:52:22 have to be secondary to selves.
00:52:31 He says yes, as far as the senses go, as far as the movement of mind goes, it cannot be
00:52:40 denied that time is experienced.
00:52:44 In fact, all experience is in time.
00:52:49 He says yes, yes, that message is constantly coming to the mind that time exists, time
00:53:00 exists, but time exists only at the periphery.
00:53:18 Having detached myself from the periphery, I now sit at the centre, the centre that rules
00:53:29 the periphery, the centre that owns the periphery, the centre that gives birth to the periphery,
00:53:40 the centre that now has no reason to be afraid of the periphery.
00:53:48 I am time, I am not ruled by time, I am not owned by time, I do not belong to time, time
00:54:06 belongs to me.
00:54:09 I am time, I am the mother of time, time is not my mother.
00:54:21 He has very clearly and categorically gotten rid of the idea that time gave birth to him.
00:54:33 He is not one of those who celebrate birthdays and anniversaries.
00:54:40 He is not one of those who lives in the impression of age.
00:54:51 He is not one of those who hence identifies himself with his parents and consequently
00:55:00 his religion, caste, economic status, nationality and the rest of it.
00:55:12 Time is not my mother, not my father.
00:55:17 I was not given birth.
00:55:19 When I am, then time is.
00:55:28 I rule time and what does that mean?
00:55:32 What does that mean?
00:55:34 That I rule time, ahmev kalam.
00:55:44 It means that whenever there is activity of the mind, the activity is surrendered activity.
00:56:08 The activity is not claiming to be truth.
00:56:16 The activity is saying I am happening.
00:56:20 I am appearing to be happening.
00:56:29 But I know very well that there is a vast field beyond me.
00:56:41 So I cannot take myself too seriously.
00:56:50 So I cannot really feel like a doer, feel too responsible.
00:57:02 Let it keep happening.
00:57:03 I will not move with the movement.
00:57:13 Feeling means movement, thought means movement, mind means movement and I have now known my
00:57:22 nature and that nature is of non-movement.
00:57:26 I will not move.
00:57:29 I am the non-moving center around which time keeps moving, around which events keep happening,
00:57:38 around which somebody is running, somebody is driving, somebody is honking, somebody
00:57:43 is being born, somebody is dying, somebody is climbing, somebody is falling and all that
00:57:51 drama is taking place all around me but never upon me, never within me.
00:58:00 I do not allow it to dominate me.
00:58:02 I am a 'Vakal'.
00:58:17 I am a 'Vakal'.
00:58:29 Now even rebellion is not needed.
00:58:35 Now time is not an enemy.
00:58:40 Now the time is time.
00:58:43 Time is a faithful friend.
00:58:50 Now time is a surrendered servant.
00:58:58 Now time is a doting lover.
00:59:00 You do not even need to deny it or negate it or rebel against it.
00:59:07 Now you can live peacefully.
00:59:16 Now you can actually live and that brings us to something very beautiful.
00:59:28 You know the aim of all spirituality as coming from the same Rishi of the Upanishad is freedom
00:59:40 from the fear of death, freedom from death itself, a movement into non-death, a movement
00:59:53 into immortality, a movement into complete fearlessness and all fear is fundamentally
01:00:03 the fear of elimination and hence the fear of death.
01:00:07 When you are really living that is when the fear of death is gone.
01:00:18 How is the fear of death gone?
01:00:19 The fear of death is gone with the concept of birth.
01:00:23 Till the time you say that time is my mother, time will also be your assessing.
01:00:35 The one who says that he is born will invariably have to die.
01:00:43 The Rishi says I am not the one who is born in time.
01:00:50 Time is born out of me.
01:00:54 If I take myself to be born out of time then I am allowing time to keep me afraid always.
01:01:02 It will keep me afraid because I see dead bodies around me.
01:01:09 All human movement, all human thought, all activity, all progress is actually nothing
01:01:17 but an attempt to deny and defy death.
01:01:21 Ask yourself had we not been afraid, had we not taken ourselves to be mortal beings who
01:01:31 have come to this earth only for a few years, would we have done all that we do?
01:01:39 Ask yourself had I not been thinking of death, would I still be living in the same way as
01:01:52 I do?
01:01:58 In fact, those who know, know very well that anything and everything that we do is in the
01:02:06 shadow of death.
01:02:13 Not only are our lamentations in death but even our celebrations are colored in the black
01:02:34 shadow.
01:02:35 You may be laughing but you very well know that death is left in behind.
01:02:46 And is that not the reason why the word 'Kaal' which denotes time also denotes death?
01:03:00 Because freedom from time is freedom from death, hence it is the attainment of sheer
01:03:07 immortality.
01:03:08 Immortality does not mean that you will continue to live for 1000, 2000, 10,000 years.
01:03:23 It just means that your life is not being lived in fear.
01:03:29 To live fearlessly is to be immortal.
01:03:33 That is the only definition of immortality, to live fearlessly.
01:03:45 The Rishi is giving us the sutra of immortality.
01:03:50 If you do not want to die, then do not take yourself to be born.
01:03:57 And to not to take yourself to be born is to not to identify yourself with anything
01:04:04 that comes with birth.
01:04:08 Not to identify yourself with gender, religion, caste, knowledge, experience, conditioning,
01:04:16 anything.
01:04:17 The moment you are any of these, you have condemned yourselves to terror.
01:04:27 And we do not want to be terrorized, none of us.
01:04:33 I repeat, anything and everything that is happening in time, which is by implication
01:05:02 anything and everything that is happening in the mind, because that was one of the first
01:05:07 things that we said, that nothing can happen in the mind without time.
01:05:13 Anything and everything that is happening in the mind has to be seen just as a happening
01:05:22 in the mind, which is just full of imported happenings.
01:05:30 It is not to be taken as truth.
01:05:34 It is to be taken with a pinch of salt.
01:05:38 And if that does not suffice, with a little pepper as well.
01:05:55 One has to be honest and see whether there is anything here in mind stuff, which is really
01:06:10 worthy of respect.
01:06:13 When you start seeing that there is nothing really worthy of respect here, then you drop
01:06:29 your pretensions, then you drop your holliness.
01:06:36 Otherwise, even our humility is arrogance.
01:06:52 I now know it is just mental movement, which is coming to me because of the machinery
01:07:03 that I take myself to be.
01:07:08 Let the mental movement be there, as long as it is known to be just mental movement,
01:07:17 not the truth, not a compelling reality.
01:07:24 Just mental movement, what else?
01:07:28 Just a mood swing, a fickle wish.
01:07:41 Nothing else, real stuff, nothing else.
01:07:50 So I can play with it, but I can never give it the respect, the reserved position, which
01:08:02 is to be given only to the truth.
01:08:08 I can never give it the sincerity and the seriousness, which only the ultimate, the
01:08:17 beyond, the living reality, the present deserves.
01:08:23 And I must specify that it does not mean dropping of the world, because what you call as the
01:08:34 world is not really there.
01:08:36 When you are giving respect only to the truth, then you are giving respect only to the present.
01:08:45 And the present is really the world.
01:08:52 Now you are really alive.
01:08:58 Now you are really responsive.
01:09:01 Now you are really free.
01:09:02 Now you are really free.
01:09:02 Now you are really free.
01:09:03 Now you are really free.
01:09:03 Now you are really free.
01:09:04 Now you are really free.
01:09:05 Now you are really free.
01:09:05 Now you are really free.
01:09:12 How is it possible to live?
01:09:39 How is it possible to respond when you do not even know what is happening?
01:09:49 All happening is in the present.
01:09:54 And if you are responding via thought, then you are missing out on the happening itself.
01:10:02 It is like trying to shoot a bird after the bird is gone.
01:10:10 It is like trying to spot a cloud when the cloud is no more there.
01:10:21 But if you are fixated to thinking about the cloud rather than the cloud itself, then instead
01:10:36 of looking at the cloud, you will think about the cloud.
01:10:45 And hence you will miss the cloud and hence you will miss the world.
01:10:52 So it must be made very clear that whatever the speaker has said right now is not a renunciation
01:11:01 of the world.
01:11:02 Those who call themselves worldly actually know very little of the world.
01:11:11 They have ideas about the world, but they know nothing of the world.
01:11:20 The Rishi really really knows the world.
01:11:29 This is paradoxical in a way, but it is a beautiful paradox.
01:11:38 In denying what the world appears as, you come to that which the world really is.
01:11:49 In denying life as it appears, you come to that which life really is.
01:12:00 So if you are renouncing, you are renouncing only your illusions and that is the real meaning
01:12:07 of renunciation.
01:12:08 Drop your stupidity.
01:12:09 You getting it?
01:12:10 Drop your stupidity, know things for what they really are.
01:12:11 And if you want to know things, you will have to know the world.
01:12:12 You will have to know the place where things appear and that place is the mind.
01:12:42 So know the mind.
01:12:45 Know the mind, having known mind, you have known thought, you have known time, you have
01:12:51 known fear and in knowing all these, you have gone beyond all these.
01:13:00 This is the real meaning of renunciation.