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#acharyaprashant #Liberation #gratification
Video Information: 14.01.2024, Sant Sarita Session, Greater Noida
Context:
~ What is the right technique for meditation?
~ How to be an intellectual?
~ What is real understanding?
~ How to bring knowledge into action?
~ What is the place of practice in spirituality?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates?
Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
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Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work?
Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...
Want to work with Acharya Prashant?
Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #Liberation #gratification
Video Information: 14.01.2024, Sant Sarita Session, Greater Noida
Context:
~ What is the right technique for meditation?
~ How to be an intellectual?
~ What is real understanding?
~ How to bring knowledge into action?
~ What is the place of practice in spirituality?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00So, I heard you quote Chandogya Upanishad earlier, Nalpe Sukhamasti, and I was thinking
00:12that I will ask about seeking greatness on the context of those lines, and I guess most
00:20probably are familiar with them, but just to repeat them, was that there is happiness
00:28only in the infinite, there is no happiness in the finite, and the infinite is that in
00:38which one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else, and in the
00:45finite one understands something else, so forth.
00:52So in the context of greatness, I always took those verses to mean that, basically, if you
01:02know something as other than yourself, it's like the ego knows something as other, only
01:07the ego knows something as other than itself.
01:11So I guess you could interpret it to mean that greatness is where the ego is not, if
01:22you read it from this side, and I guess when I connect it to my life, I see that I don't
01:37know the practical way of seeking greatness, if that makes any sense.
01:49But in some sense, it's not that I lack the intention or even the honesty or the discipline
01:56right now, that was maybe a thing of the earlier times, but not anymore.
02:01But right now it's like all the building blocks from this teaching have been given, I just
02:07don't know what to put them to use, and the knowledge will not really take root unless
02:14I really start paying for it in action.
02:18But I don't know, well, obviously the work for the foundation, that's kind of, in some
02:27sense everything I do is based on that, that has to happen.
02:31But then I don't know, it's like I have to figure something out in my own context of
02:37operation, because the way this mission and this work is going right now is you're working
02:44here as a Westerner, as an outsider, you can't really like, you can come to a certain point,
02:52but you can't really do that much unless you know Hindi.
02:58But still, this is a, I don't know, what should I choose that would like really reduce
03:09and challenge myself.
03:12See, you are asking for a practical way to greatness, as if there is a theoretical way.
03:25There is only a practical way.
03:28Practice is the way.
03:33What else is greatness except the rejection of everything that is petty about us?
03:42You mentioned that.
03:44There is no way to greatness except to actively and continuously reject the little, the small
03:53that pervades our daily lives.
03:57And it is there.
03:58It is continuously there.
04:01Why not locate it and just drop it without attachment, without feeling, without the burden
04:13of expectations, of fear.
04:20You said what can you do as a Westerner in context of a mission that is operating primarily
04:29from India?
04:32Think of Raman Maharshi, think of Nisargadatta Maharaj.
04:38We probably wouldn't know too much of them, especially Nisargadatta Maharaj had it not
04:43been for a particular Westerner.
04:49And your job tonight is to figure out the name of the people who served them and the
04:57countries they came from.
05:01So location or nationality might not be that big a barrier.
05:08Remember that when Indians come to help, besides other things, they bring their Indian-ness
05:18to the table, which might not always be a very needed thing.
05:30When you come from a different context, then you also bring something that might not be
05:36so readily available here, in this location.
05:41But then you have to find out a way, a way you have to figure out the gaps and you have
05:48to see how the thing is working, you have to understand the whole apparatus and you
05:52have to see where you fit in and how you can contribute.
05:57Obviously the work today is not even 0.1% of the scale it needs to have.
06:06So obviously there is more than ample scope for everyone who wants to pitch in.
06:13It just needs to be figured out.
06:16And the beautiful part here is, beautiful and challenging, that even the figuring out
06:22has to be done by the contender himself.
06:28Because with the little resources that we have here inside, we don't even have time
06:37to create space and position for a newcomer.
06:44And even if a space or position is being created, it is being created in a particular regulated way.
06:53Yours would be a special, exceptional way.
06:58And then the scope has to be determined by you, the way has to be creatively thought out by you.
07:11It's not at all sensible to say that it's difficult to fit in.
07:17I mean, we have to grow in all directions, we are growing in all directions and time
07:28is the bottleneck.
07:33Any growth in any direction is obviously not just needed, but welcome.
07:43But the initiative has to come from the applicant.
07:54How do we know what really you can do, what's the price you are ready to pay?
08:03Internally, what your conditions are, what's the point at which you would stop, where you
08:10have set your limits, that the foundation cannot know, that only you know.
08:16So you have to see what is it that is needed, what is it that you are able or strong with.
08:26And accordingly, the pieces are set and the moves are made.
08:35And that's also the answer to the theoretical part of your question.
08:40There is no way to achieve greatness without dismantling your current inner structures.
08:52You will have to raise yourself to the ground.
08:55If you continue with the way you are operating currently, how can there be a new life?
09:05And if the current ways are centered on smallness, how can there be greatness with smallness
09:13as the center?
09:16But that's where most of us make a very fanciful assumption.
09:22We say, let the center of my life remain the same, let the fundamentals remain the same,
09:28let the foundation remain the same, foundation with a small f.
09:36Let the foundation, the niv, buniyad remain the same and I will raise an entirely new
09:42structure with a great facade on the same foundation.
09:48It cannot happen.
09:50Your current foundation is not strong enough, not deep enough to hold this new edifice.
10:05Dismantling what is currently happening is the only way and the sooner done, the better.
10:12Because the more it continues, the more you will find yourself invested in it.
10:19It's very easy when you are 17.
10:24It's still easy when you are 27.
10:28It starts becoming difficult when you hit your 30s.
10:32If you are 40, with this and that and mortgages and personal liabilities and relationships
10:39and this, it becomes difficult.
10:42Once you have crossed 50, it requires something special to start afresh.
10:49To start as soon as possible and no point investing in something that you actually want
10:59to drop out of.
11:04Let's say you are a tenant somewhere, right?
11:09How much do you want to spend and you very well know that the deed is expiring after
11:15a few months.
11:16It's an 11-month thing.
11:19How much do you want to spend in repairs?
11:23How much?
11:24You will be shifting out, sir.
11:28If you have to shift out, shift out as soon as possible and don't invest too much in that place.
11:35You will need all your resources elsewhere.
11:42And the greater the dislocation, the greater the benefits, needless to say.
11:52Obviously, I can see it's more difficult in a sense for you than for somebody who lives 50 km from here.
12:03But then risks and rewards go together, don't they?
12:09Obviously, you have to measure your risks.
12:12You have to see how the calculations run.
12:15But a risk is a risk.
12:17It has unpredictability.
12:22And then you say, fine.
12:26The way I am, it had to go.
12:30The future, nobody can ascertain.
12:32But what I can certainly ascertain is that the way I currently am, that is disposed off.
12:39That's gone.
12:40What replaces it?
12:41I don't know.
12:42Nobody knows.
12:43I can only try for betterment.
12:49And when it comes to taking this teaching to the West, if you don't mind, a little follow-up on it.
12:59The thing is that you already have the numbers here, that you are already a thing at this point.
13:06But in the West, it's like, I find myself thinking that how exactly are we going to
13:15bring this to someone, to a Westerner, who doesn't, to a Westerner the numbers here might
13:25not really mean anything.
13:26It's just one of those big, whatever.
13:30You figure that out.
13:32I'm sitting here.
13:33I'm doing the utmost I can.
13:36And even in India, the challenge is enormous.
13:41And most of my time, energy, resources are being expended in just meeting the challenges here.
13:49I understand there is a whole wide world to take care of.
13:53I understand that spirituality knows no national boundaries.
13:56Obviously, I know what we are saying is for the entire world, not just for India.
14:02That's known, well known.
14:04But Providence has me situated here.
14:07So somebody has to take it forward at other places, US, Europe, you figure out how to
14:15proceed with it.
14:17And as far as the foundation is concerned, we hardly have the wherewithal, the numerical
14:25strength or the financial muscle to establish centers there or proceed in the conventional way.
14:34Whenever people from India, the spiritual ones, whenever they have gone out, they have
14:40established this and that.
14:43I just don't see how we can do that.
14:47So we'll have to operate in a smart way, in a digital way, just as we have operated in India.
14:55That's a huge slice of luck.
14:58Sitting here, I can address Western audiences.
15:03So, see how to make it possible and you'll have to slog it out, right?
15:10Gather people in India, I started by speaking to two people, four, five, eight at a time.
15:17I'll have no issues speaking to a bunch of Westerners, not at all.
15:23But somebody has to make it happen, arrange it.
15:32The first online camp in the US, we addressed it in 2020 or 20 days, 20, three years back, four years back.
15:49I wish my month had 90 days.
15:55There are books in English.
15:56There is an entire channel devoted to content in English language and there is ample material
16:09to showcase to the Western audience.
16:12Yes, it's just about finding the parts of it that are really like accessible, because
16:20you can't just throw anything at them.
16:22Do that, do that.
16:27Create a playlist or create a new book.
16:31It's not going to be easy.
16:32And it's not terribly difficult either.
16:34No, no.
16:35Actually, our friend in Finland, he has many, many texts translated, it's just not so easy.
16:41But then, you know, getting people to buy into it, to enroll into it, that's the challenge.
16:49Getting them to listen to it, please sit down and at least listen to what is being
16:53said.
16:54That's the thing.
16:55And that requires patience and effort.
16:57Do that.
17:01You'll not find me lacking in participation or...
17:08Yeah, I don't doubt that, but I guess I just forget that it's easy to get into this kind
17:22of coma that you're not really very active, even though you deep down know that you should.
17:28What is happening is that in India, we have been able to raise a bit of a significant
17:35wave here over the last two years, whereas in the West, it has to start almost from zero.
17:42So that comparison seems very daunting, but you don't have to compare.
17:47You just have to say it has to start from zero in the West.
17:50That's all.
17:51Fine.
17:52And we are ready.
17:53We are ready.
17:592016 was when I first went to Europe.
18:04But the thing is, I have to return because being there consumes resources and all those
18:10things and this is the Karmabhoomi, this is where I have started off, this is where it's
18:16easier for me to bring these things to people.
18:21So you'll have to take it as your own baby, your own particular project.
18:29This is what I am into, my own entrepreneurship in the spiritual dimension.
18:35Also, the West needs probably more of a detox dose than India does because the worst of
18:48detoxification, because the worst of India has gone there and colonized them in the spiritual
18:55sense.
18:56It's a reverse colonization.
18:58India has thoroughly colonized the West when it comes to just the wrong kind of spirituality.
19:04Yeah, that's another problem, actually.
19:07I think you've even talked about it here in the sessions that truth is against my truth
19:13and not falseness.
19:16It's nothing about that, really.
19:19Every Westerner who gets into spirituality gets into the spirituality.
19:24It's almost like a law of nature.
19:26See, it's a game of money versus determination.
19:31They had the money, the dollars, we don't have the dollars, but we have determination.
19:37So let's count on our determination and make it happen.