If you are in Love, then why are you asleep? || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir (2018)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? 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? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   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...  ~~~~~~  Video Information: Shabdyog Session, 29.12.2018, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India   Context:  What is divine Love? How to love God? What is real love? Why Guru Kabir is saying that, " If you are in Love, then why are you asleep?"  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  “Oh Friend, I love you, Think this over, carefully.  If you are in Love,  Then why are you asleep.  If you have found him,  Give yourself to him.  Take him.  Why do you loose track of him again and again.  If you are about to fall,  Into heavy sleep anyway,  why waste time smoothing the bed and arranging the pillows? Kabir will tell you the truth,  this is what Love is like; Suppose you have to cut your head off,  and give it to someone else,  what difference would that make?”  ~ Guru Kabir Saheb .

Transcript

00:00Oh friend, I love you. Think this over carefully. If you are in love, then why are you asleep?

00:17If you have found him, give yourself to him, take him. Why do you lose track of him again

00:25and again? If you are about to fall into heavy sleep anyway, why waste time smoothing the

00:34bed and arranging the pillows? Kabir will tell you the truth. This is what love is like.

00:43Suppose you had to cut your head off and give it to someone else, what difference would

00:49that make? So, Alok ji is saying, Acharya ji, reading this poem, I felt Kabir ji is

01:00encouraging everybody to be in devotion 24x7. Is that so? What Kabir sahib means when he

01:09refers to smoothing the bed and arranging the pillows? Does he mean household life of

01:15sansari, where falling into sleep every now and then is almost given?

01:22Alok, in studio Kabir is saying, bin jage na milenge, sajan sakheer. That's what Kabir

01:39sahib is again saying here. If you are in love, why are you asleep? About sleep he says,

01:52if you are about to fall into heavy sleep anyway, why waste time smoothing the bed and

01:58arranging the pillows? Sleep of any kind, sleep at any place, sleep at any time, means

02:14distancing yourself from the beloved. Sleep implies distance from the beloved. Now, what

02:29kind of a lover are you that you are preparing bed and pillows so that you slip into even

02:38deeper sleep? What kind of lovelessness is this? Please understand this.

02:47In the old days, the students in India were required to keep a shikha. You know what a shikha

03:12is? What is shikha? The entire head would be shaved off and there would be a tail here.

03:27What do you call it? A choti. It's just called shikha. There are no hair, but on the top

03:43of your head, there is a thick bunch of long hair and you have tied that bunch of hair

03:56together. It's a shikha, choti. So the student was supposed to study his lessons, memorize

04:14them and all that and one of the things that would prevent him from going deeply into the

04:27lessons was sleep. Sleep would bother him. So the student would sit with his back to

04:36the wall and tie his shikha to a nail in the wall. As long as he is sitting straight and

04:56doing the lessons, reading, meditating, memorizing, things would be alright. But the moment sleep

05:08would take over and his head would swing downwards, the nail would pull the shikha and so he would

05:19wake up. Those who are in love with awakening create methods against sleep. Don't they?

05:39What does this student want? He wants awakening. So he is creating a method whereby he would

05:44not fall asleep. It's such a simple method and an effective one. The head must stay still

05:54and then it would not hurt. But the moment your head swings, especially if it swings

05:58downwards, it would appear as if somebody has just pulled your hair and how hard would

06:06be the pull as hard as your downward swing. So the more deeply you are asleep, the more

06:17unconscious you have become, the harder will be the pull and so you will be compelled to

06:26stay awake. Do you get this? Now what kind of an idiot would want to do his lessons and

06:45also keep a soft and nice and scented bed with pillows ready nearby? You are making

07:05an arrangement to fall into sleep when you are professing that you love awakening. That's

07:18what Gabir Jaha is saying. That if you know that you are in love and you know that you

07:24must stay awake to greet the beloved, then why are you deliberately creating conditions

07:38that would induce you to fall asleep? The one who wants to stay awake must create harsh

07:49conditions around him, shouldn't he? Those who want to stay awake drink black coffee without

07:59sugar. Do they drink strawberry shake? You are already so nebulant and what would a little

08:25more sugar inside you do? It would make you simply collapse. So if you want to stay awake,

08:35you give yourself a cup of hard steaming black sugarless coffee. That is the arrangement you

08:47make and that's the arrangement the seeker of truth must make in his worldly life. He must

08:56push away all those things that offer him comfort, ease, pleasures and sleep. That is sadhana. You

09:15have to stay awake. Why are you purchasing that new bed? You are a lover of freedom. Why are you

09:26creating more obligations upon yourself? What is it that you are doing? Look at these loan papers

09:33that you are signing and you say that you are a lover of freedom. Are you?

10:03There were those who wanted to

10:30get up without fail at the break of daylight. You know what they would do? They would sleep

10:53with their face to the east and they would sleep by the window. The first rays of the sun should

11:14fall on their eyes. They have already ensured that because they love to be awake and see what

11:24kind of sleeping arrangement you have created for yourself. Sleep is a metaphor here. I hope

11:34you get it, Alok. Of course, you do. Look at all the luxuries you have entitled yourself to. Would

11:45they help in your awakening? Look at all the stuff in your house. Look at everything around you and

11:51ask yourself why is it present in my life if it does not contribute to my awakening? If you are

11:57really in love, would you want to surround yourself with stuff that impedes your love? No,

12:03you would just throw it away and you would angrily throw it away. If your beloved somehow

12:17hates to see you in a particular dress, would you still wear that dress? Would you even keep

12:27it in your cupboard? But forget about dresses. We have masks upon masks with which to conceal

12:37our face to the beloved. Why are you keeping those things in your cupboards, in your almirahs,

12:45in your lockers, in your life, in your house? Why don't you throw all these things away?

12:51When I talk of things, I'm not only talking of material things. You understand that. I'm

13:06talking of mental stuff as well. When you fall in love even with a mortal man or woman, you ensure

13:25that your mouth is not full of foul breath. You don't want to smell foul. And if you have

13:49fallen in love with the truth, why do you allow your mind to be full of foul thoughts? Do these

14:05things help you in going to him? Now that gives you a very definite answer as to what is worth

14:19keeping with you. Keep that with you which helps you stay awake. Keep that with you which helps you

14:29go to the beloved and throw all the things away that keep you separate from the beloved. You must

14:40very ruthlessly question. Why is this thought present? Is it helping me? Why is this tendency

14:50present? Is it helping me? Why is that thing present? Why is that relationship present? Why

14:57are such actions present? Are they taking me there? And if they are not, why am I clinging to them?

15:03Not only am I clinging to them, I am actively paying for them and it is such stupidity to pay

15:12for one's own destruction, to pay to stay loveless.

15:42Saints say you anyway have to sleep for very long ultimately. You will get enough time

16:11to sleep for decades, centuries, sleep right till the end of time and nobody is going to

16:24come and disturb you. Right now is the time to stay awake. Sleep is anyway going to overpower

16:39you. Remember our friend on the buffalo? The buffalo man is gonna get you all. His is the

17:04oldest taxi service and a very reliable one. The buffalo man never misses a pickup. He is

17:31far better than the Ulas and the Ubers. He never cancels a ride. He never cancels a ride. He will

17:43never disappoint you. And it's always a solo ride you know. It's never a buffalo share. You die

18:08alone. So the saints say you'll have enough time to keep sleeping. Now wake up. Kabir

18:32has sung so much about awakening. There is a great relation between love and awakening.

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