Would repetition of “I am Brahm” lead to liberation? || Acharya Prashant, on Ribhu Gita (2018)

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Video Information: Shabdyog Session, 14.2.18, Advait BodhSthal, Noida, India

Context:
~ What is liberation?
~ What is the Essence of Ribhu Gita?
~ Would repetition of “I am Brahm” lead to liberation?
~ How to get liberation?
~ Can the witness be witnessed?

The continued repetition of 'I am Self-Brahman' constitutes the sole mantra-japa leading to Liberation.
All other mantra-japas connected with diverse gods should be firmly eschewed, as they aim at mundane objectives other than the Self.
All other mantra-japas always entangle one inextricably in the bondage of worldly enjoyments.
~ Ribhu Geeta (Chapter-6, Verse-37)

Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:15 Rigovita says the continued repetition of "I am Self Brahma" constitutes the sole

00:27 mantra jaap leading to liberation. So he asks, "I used to do it in the past, the

00:39 repetition of Guru Vachani, but now the effort has been dropped because whenever

00:48 the thought arises to do it, something observes to whom the thought arises,

01:02 which I normally call "I" or "I am" and then the whole thing just drops. That

01:17 something through which all this is observed, is that also a part of mind?

01:24 Asking because I could clearly sense it is not a mere thought, it just always is.

01:32 The other reason that there is no interest to do it is that I feel that

01:38 the effort itself is a demand to know the truth, which in turn means that it is

01:43 somewhere in the future and so all this drops. Mind keeps telling me that you are

01:50 not doing your sadhana or respecting your Guru and something just laughs at

01:55 mind. This is so affirmative in itself and still there is a need for approval.

02:05 Is this fine or is it just another kind of mind trap? Kindly help. Pradeep, a few

02:18 things must be understood.

02:22 First of all,

02:28 the witness cannot be witnessed. The observer that you have talked of, if he

02:47 is really mere observer, a pure observer, then he cannot be talked of. You cannot

02:56 sense him. That is one thing. The other thing is that when the scriptures talk

03:07 of repeating, I am self-brahm. They do not talk of repeating in a mere verbal

03:37 way. The repetition has to be breath-like.

03:52 The repetition must encompass your whole day, your entire life. That is the meaning

04:06 of repetition. What does it mean to repeat I am the self-brahm? It means to

04:22 really live in an unfettered way. It means to be free even when surrounded by

04:42 the various forces of prakriti, by the entire world, by the daily rigors and

04:56 rigmaroles of life.

05:06 Then you are living as brahm. That is the only repetition. When moment by moment

05:21 in an uninterrupted way

05:35 you are living without the usual chains of habit, sorrow,

05:48 unfounded certainty,

05:55 insecure suspicion.

06:02 You are living without the usual patterns of life.

06:05 If you just make a pattern out of any repetition, whether verbal or mental, it

06:21 may at best make the other patterns dormant and overwrite them. Overwrite

06:37 them as another pattern.

06:46 Even the existing patterns won't have disappeared. They would have been just

07:00 tricked into sleeping and you would have created another more debilitating and

07:24 pious looking pattern for yourself. You are saying

07:32 that you could clearly sense that that something which observes is not merely a

07:45 thought. It is something that just always is. That which always is can have no

07:56 beginning and no end. Right? If something always is, it couldn't have begun, couldn't

08:07 have ended. Which means it can have no boundaries. If it can have no boundaries

08:15 then what have you sensed? To sense something, anything, you have to be first

08:25 outside the boundary of that thing.

08:31 You have to be distant from that thing.

08:36 The thing has to be finite and limited. If it is not finite, not limited, then you

08:53 won't be able to perceive it because all your perception is dualistic and applies

09:01 only to limited objects.

09:05 Then you say

09:11 that there is no interest in doing it.

09:25 Whatever is done by you or done out of personal interest with always anyway

09:35 fall off at some point. So there is no wonder

09:45 that you tried something for a while and now you do not feel interested in it.

09:53 Living as Brahm is not a matter of personal interests. It is also not a

10:02 matter of personal disinterest. Interests keep coming and going. Brahm does not

10:12 really interfere with your interests. Your Brahm reality, your Brahm

10:22 foundation is the sky in which various interests can keep coming and going.

10:35 But no interest can really pertain to the truth. You can be interested about

10:44 one thing or the other. You cannot really be interested about the absolute. If the

10:53 absolute becomes an object of interest, then you are missing. Then you say that

11:04 your mind keeps telling you that you are not doing your sadhana or respecting your Guru.

11:12 Guru is respected only in clarity. Guru is another name for clarity. Unless you

11:24 are clear about what the Guru is saying, there is no question of any kind of

11:31 respect. Blind obedience is not respect. Obedience without understanding is not

11:44 respect. You must ask very persistently, do I really understand or am I turning

12:04 the words of the Guru into something personal?

12:10 Have I colored the words of the Guru with my own beliefs, interests,

12:19 affiliations?

12:22 Then you have said that you still are a little doubtful and you want approval on

12:40 whether it is alright to do what you are doing or is it just another mind trap.

12:49 I often say in matters of truth, if there is suspicion, then the suspicion is well

13:02 placed. If you are suspicious whether or not you are in the truth, then you are

13:15 suspecting rightly. You are not in the truth. In truth you can suspect

13:25 everything. In truth you become free to doubt, inquire, question. But in truth you

13:37 do not doubt the truth itself. However, you are free to doubt your personal

13:42 truths. You are free to doubt all your images of truths. In fact, nothing powers

13:52 inquiry

13:55 better than the truth itself. Right doubt is powered by truth and right doubt

14:11 powered by truth demolishes all the false truths, all the personal truths, all the

14:19 mixed truths, all the conceptual truths.

14:25 So if you're asking me must you doubt the truth, I will say if the truth is

14:31 something or anything for you, please do doubt it. But if you are doubting and

14:38 doubting fully and freely, you must know that it is only the grace of truth. Why

14:47 else would one doubt? One doubts because one wants to fully be in the truth. So it

14:56 is nothing but the truth that is energizing the doubt.

15:02 Please be brutally honest with yourself.

15:14 It is great that you are doubting yourself. In doubting yourself you are

15:20 not reducing yourself. In doubting yourself you are only displaying that

15:25 the truth is something that you can be absolute sure of. That the truth is not

15:31 something that will go away if your concept of the truth is shown to be

15:39 false. When you know very well that you have something that won't be reduced or

15:47 taken away, then empowered by that thing, emboldened by that thing, based on the

15:56 certainty of that thing, which is surely not a thing as such, now you can doubt

16:06 the entire world and can be prepared to

16:12 leave the entire world if it is shown to be false. You will say that which is true

16:20 is anyway with me. What will I do with duplicate things? What will I do with

16:31 inauthentic stuff?

16:36 You know why most people are unable to let go of stuff even though they know it

16:44 to be false? You can give up the false only when you are very certainly in the

16:51 truth. Only when you love the truth more than yourself, then you can give up all

17:02 the falsenesses that you are attached to.

17:07 Yes?

17:11 [Music]

Would repetition of “I am Brahm” lead to liberation? || Acharya Prashant, on Ribhu Gita (2018)

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