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Video Information: Shabdyog Session, 14.02.2018, Advait BodhSthal, Noida, India
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
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Video Information: Shabdyog Session, 14.02.2018, Advait BodhSthal, Noida, India
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaste Acharyaji, what is the screen, Satchitananda, Shiva Self, is the absolute a state?
00:13How can a thinking mind know about Shiva?
00:20How will the mind become still in order for the Shiva state to appear spontaneously?
00:29Can we still the mind?
00:33Who has to be still, we or the mind?
00:37And how?
00:40Satchitananda, truth, illumination or awareness and joy.
00:53This is not the absolute, Satchitananda is not a characteristic of the truth itself,
01:11though it is variously referred to as verily nothing else but the truth.
01:22Satchitananda is the relaxation of the mind into the truth, Satchitananda, yes you could
01:36say is the final state of the mind, whether you want to call it a state depends on you.
01:53If you are speaking from a dissolved point, then you need not call Satchitananda a state.
02:04But if you are speaking as a seeker, then you can call Satchitananda a state because
02:13you are yourself still in a state, Satchitananda is the final state.
02:20What is meant by the final state?
02:22After this there are no states.
02:29It is existence merging into non-existence.
02:39It is like water merging into water, mixing with water.
02:49It will be very difficult for you to tell apart the waters.
03:00How do you judge a person's health?
03:12One of the first things that you do is you measure the blood pressure, you measure the
03:22temperature and then if you want advanced tests, then you take blood sample or urine
03:34sample and get it tested in a pathology lab, right?
03:49Tell me when are you testing health?
03:53You are just testing temperature, blood pressure, sugar, blood.
04:03When are you testing health?
04:08Go into this.
04:11Health is that which keeps the body regularly functional.
04:22Health cannot be tested, only the body can be tested.
04:26Similarly, the truth cannot be known, but whether or not you abide in the truth can
04:41be known by looking at the condition of your mind.
04:51Health cannot be known, but whether the body is abiding in health can be known by testing
05:01the body, right?
05:04Similarly, truth cannot be known, but whether the person, the ego, the little self is abiding
05:16in the truth can be known by looking at the characteristics of the person, the mind.
05:27Satchitanand is a sure-shot characteristic that the mind is abiding in the truth and
05:40equally there are very certain signs that the mind is not abiding in the truth.
05:53If you remain infected with fear and jealousy and comparison, if you keep feeling small
06:04or big, if you keep feeling the need to defend, if you keep feeling lonely, if you feel insecure
06:19in front of a new concept, then it is a sure-shot sign that the mind is not abiding in the truth.
06:41If the waves of happiness and sadness just carry you away and you start talking of yourself
06:53as nothing but the experiencer of pleasure and pain, then it is a sure-shot sign that
07:03the body is not abiding in health.
07:12You could even say it is a sure-shot sign that the Deh is not honestly abiding in the Prana.
07:26Have you ever seen Prana?
07:30It is not to be seen and I am not talking of Prana in the classical sense, I am not
07:36talking of the various kind of vayus, I am talking of the spirit, the life force.
07:50Have you ever seen something escaping a dead human body?
08:02But for sure, the Prana and the body are no more united.
08:13Some link has broken and that is what you call as physical death, don't you?
08:19And it is very obvious that the link has broken.
08:21It is so obvious that you cannot confuse a dead man with a living man.
08:29You commonly use the expression that the Prana has gone out of the body.
08:33I don't want to use that expression.
08:35But I will still say that the link between Prana and the body has been severed, right?
08:44And it is obvious then that the link has been broken.
08:47Similarly, when you look at a mind that is dissociated from its origin, from the truth,
08:56then it is very easy to tell.
09:01Not as easy as telling a dead body apart from a living one, but still not very difficult.
09:14Even the grossest fool will say this man is dead and he will be right.
09:21But it requires some wisdom to point out that this person's mind is dissociated from the
09:35truth or distanced from the truth.
09:40It can be however told.
09:43It is not beyond recognition.
09:46Absolute is not a state, but all your states keep crying aloud for the absolute.
09:58All the states want to turn into the absolute state,
10:03which means that as long as you belong to a particular state,
10:08you will look at the absolute as a state and that is all right.
10:12No problem.
10:15Call the absolute whatever you may, but move towards it.
10:19Let it be your sharp and powerful inspiration.
10:29You can even call the absolute as the best state if you want to.
10:33And if that is useful, please do that.
10:38But irrespective of what name you give it, move towards it.
10:45Make it your only goal.
10:47I am weighing my words.
10:49I know what I'm talking of.
10:51I'm saying make the absolute your only goal.
10:56Why am I saying that?
10:57Because you will not be able to live without goals.
10:59Even if you agree at this moment that the absolute cannot be a goal,
11:06you will find that you are helpless due to your own constitution.
11:14You need goals.
11:16Make the helpless, make the absolute your goal.
11:22You have no option.
11:23How can a thinking mind know about Shiva?
11:29A thinking mind can know and that knowing is called Shiva.
11:36You cannot know about Shiva, but you can know, right?
11:41And whatever you know,
11:44you can know about Shiva.
11:46You cannot know about Shiva, but you can know, right?
11:50And whatever you know is due to the blessings of Shiva.
11:56The knowing itself is Shiva.
12:01Shiva is anyway not a person,
12:08not a deity, not a figure, not an object.
12:12There is only Shiva, Shiva-ness.
12:17And that Shiva-ness expresses itself in your knowing.
12:22So, no, don't try to know about Shiva.
12:27Shiva is not furniture.
12:29Shiva is not a tree.
12:30Shiva is not a cloud, not even the sky.
12:34How will you know Shiva?
12:37Do you know of anything that has no shape, no form and is eternal?
12:42How will you know Shiva?
12:43But no, do know.
12:44What can you know?
12:46This world and yourself, know that.
12:48That knowing is Shiva-ness, Shivatva.
12:57How will the mind become still in order for the Shiva state to appear spontaneously?
13:03The mind becomes still when it sees that movement is foolish.
13:09There is no other reason for mind to become still
13:14and the mind is captive of reasons.
13:21You will have to give the mind a strong reason to not to run.
13:29The mind will never agree to be still.
13:32It can only agree to not to run.
13:34And this is not merely wordplay.
13:36There is a great difference between being still and not running.
13:40You can never take the consent of the mind for stillness.
13:47It's like a traveler who is intent on moving and he is standing at crossroads.
13:56He is a traveler.
13:57That's his definition.
13:58That's his self-identification.
14:02You cannot tell him to not to travel.
14:05That would be stupid.
14:06Then how do you tackle this situation?
14:09He's standing at the crossroads.
14:11He wants to move north.
14:12You tell him, no, no, no, north is not the way.
14:14So he can't move.
14:15Immediately he wants to move east.
14:19You tell him, no, no, east is not the way.
14:21He stops.
14:22Then he wants to move south.
14:25You tell him, no, no, south is not the way.
14:27He wants to move west.
14:28You tell him, no, no, west is not the way.
14:29He is still constantly trying to move.
14:32Constantly trying to move.
14:35But you are constantly able to show him that all his movements are wrong, stupid.
14:42They will not take him to the destination.
14:45And that is the only way he can be still.
14:47The mind has to know moment after moment what is stupid for it.
14:56And if you can constantly keep the mind in this realization, only then it will be still.
15:01The stillness of this man, this traveler is not the stillness of the monk
15:07who is standing just at a little distance,
15:13intent on going nowhere, and is just standing.
15:17If you look from afar, then you will say that these two are just the same
15:22in the sense that both are just standing.
15:24But there is a great difference.
15:28The monk intends to stand.
15:32The mind intends to travel.
15:37Your saving grace is that the mind intends to travel rightly.
15:43The mind doesn't intend to just travel.
15:45It wants to travel with a purpose.
15:48It wants to travel to reach somewhere.
15:50Use the intent of the mind to stall its travel.
15:56Tell the mind, north is not right.
15:59See, you just don't want to travel.
16:01You want to travel rightly.
16:04And north is not right.
16:07So fine, can't go north.
16:09Okay, you want to travel east or west?
16:13See, you just don't want to travel blindly.
16:16You want to travel rightly.
16:18And west is not right.
16:21So the mind is still trying to move but can't move.
16:24That is the only kind of stillness that will come to you.
16:28Not the monk's stillness.
16:32It will take long for you to come to a point
16:37where even the tendency to travel disappears or gets burnt out.
16:45Till the time that tendency remains, only discretion can help.
16:51Apply discretion.
16:59Tell yourself, yes, of course, I'm going to smoke.
17:01I'll smoke only a cigarette that doesn't harm.
17:07Of course, I'm free to smoke.
17:08And then smoke.
17:11If you can find a cigarette that doesn't harm, do smoke.
17:15That is the only way you can come to terms with the traveling mind,
17:20with the desirous mind.
17:22Give it what it wants.
17:24But also tell it that you don't merely want.
17:27You want rightly, don't you?
17:30And that's something that the mind will have to, you know, unwillingly agree to.
17:45Then you have asked, can we still the mind?
17:47I have taken this up.
17:49Who has to be still?
17:50We or the mind?
17:51Who has to be still?
17:52The one who is moving.
17:52If you are moving, you be still.
17:54If the mind is moving, the mind will be still.
17:56Why do you want to get into such verbiage?
17:59We, the mind.
18:00Are you any different from your mind?
18:04If you are different from the mind, if you are a witness of the mind,
18:09then all these questions will be absorbed in the witness.
18:14You and the mind are one, totally one.
18:17You are so completely identified with the mind
18:22that there is just no differentiation possible right now.
18:29You asked, who moves?
18:32Or rather, who has to be still?
18:34You said, who has to be still?
18:36I said, the one who moves.
18:38If you want to say that the mind moves, then the mind has to be still.
18:41If you want to say that you move, then you have to be still.
18:45It's merely wordplay, doesn't matter.
18:50And then you say, how will the stillness come?
18:52I have answered it.
18:53Stillness won't come.
18:55Only foolishness will have to be seen.
18:59If you move, you get hurt.
19:01So better don't move.
19:03And there would be times when you would not know
19:05that movement can be dangerous or harmful.
19:12Then in those occasions, you will move and get hurt.
19:16And that is all right.
19:19Such experiences are good.
19:21But don't repeat those experiences.
19:24Getting hurt one time is acceptable.
19:28Probably even good.
19:30But don't get unnecessarily hurt the second time.
19:33For the same reason.
19:34In the same way.