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Video Information: 13.04.24, Vedanta Session, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Who is the right teacher?
~ Which teacher is insecure?
~ What does the teacher intend for the student?
~ Who is a good student?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
~~~~~
Video Information: 13.04.24, Vedanta Session, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Who is the right teacher?
~ Which teacher is insecure?
~ What does the teacher intend for the student?
~ Who is a good student?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00So, I've been watching you a lot these days. I've been binge-watching you, like, Netflix,
00:09YouTube videos, all the sessions, both Pratyusha, Vedanta Samhita. And my husband was even joking
00:16the other day that, like, how in our childhood our parents used to play Aastha channel, you
00:22keep him, playing him in the background these days. And I know it's because I want to gain
00:27that knowledge. We all have problems in our life and your videos provide comfort to me.
00:33But at the same time, I don't want to make you my entertainment. That just feels wrong.
00:38The objective should be gaining the knowledge, applying it in my life, making it better and
00:44maybe someday making, you know, other lives better to using that. So, how do I strike
00:49this balance between my mind enjoying this too much and reveling in it versus actually
00:54sitting down in a disciplined environment and learning from it? I feel as if I'm addicted
00:59to you. I don't want that.
01:04It's a delicate thing. I'll share with you how it's been with me. Whenever I have found
01:17the right company over the last four decades, comprising of the time I have been conscious
01:28enough to understand something, whenever I have found something right, something nice,
01:36something beautiful, something auspicious, I have never cared for any kind of balance.
01:47In fact, I have totally allowed myself to be drowned, to drench, to sink, to fall. I
01:59have not bothered to retain any kind of control of myself. If the thing wants to take me in
02:08totally, if it wants to consume me fully, I have been, you could say, carefree enough
02:17or loving enough or bold enough to let that happen.
02:25The thing is, if that which is compelling me so much towards itself is really right,
02:36then it will progressively make itself, what should I say, redundant for me.
02:56I trust that thing or that book that much. Let me go to it and let me go to it fully
03:06and when it has given me the most that it can, then it will set me free of everything
03:18including itself. It will say, now that you have learnt most of it,
03:27go out, act as my ambassador and spread the light.
03:35The thing is that light cannot be spread before I have it and I cannot have it if I hold myself
03:45away from the source of light, if I hold reservations, if I am caring for self-preservation
03:59and I say, I will necessarily maintain some kind of little distance between myself and the source.
04:07If that little distance is maintained, then the light will remain where it is and I will remain a mere recipient of the light.
04:21You know how it works between two candles. Even if there is a little distance,
04:28the second candle will remain a mere receiver of light.
04:31It will not be set alight itself. It has to go to the lit candle
04:41without any reservations.
04:44And once both the candles are aflame, there remains no point in them remaining together anymore.
04:54Then it becomes very obvious, very sensible
04:59for the two candles to pursue two different spheres of darknesses.
05:08There is so much darkness around. If there are so many candles, what are they doing?
05:14Just aggregating together.
05:18Just aggregating together.
05:26One has to be
05:36very bold in these matters. The ego
05:40seeks security from the world and even when it comes to the truth, it still wants
05:49to somehow uphold its security.
05:55It is alright if one wants to guarantee one's security against the world. But when it comes to truth and beauty,
06:03when it comes to truth and beauty, that's when one should just drop the defences.
06:11It is alright to be immersed. It is alright even to be drowned.
06:19It is alright even to die.
06:24What is the point in conserving something that is anyway imperfect?
06:30If there is a rare chance at gaining perfection,
06:37why waste it away in one's fears?
06:47And
06:51my own experience has been that I have never been harmed by truth and beauty.
07:00And I have also never been held captive by them.
07:05The truth is not there to enslave us. It is there to set us free.
07:10If you go very close to the truth, even if you go very very intimate,
07:19it is the truth that will kick you away.
07:23The truth will say, now that you have me,
07:27what are you doing here clinging to me? Now go out! Go away!
07:34And radiate to the world what you have gained.
07:40So, that kind of bondage which we apprehend is not possible.
07:47But yes, that kind of bondage is very much possible. If you go to something that is insecure,
07:54that is insecure in itself and wants to own you, cling to you or possess you
08:02for the sake of its own security. So, that much care you must always ensure.
08:10That if you are going to a book or to something or watching a video,
08:14you have to ask yourself, is this for the author's good or mine own?
08:22If you are going to someone who is still worried about his own welfare or security or whatever,
08:30that fellow will never set you free.
08:35That is what is called as possessiveness. That is what is slavery and bondage.
08:42But if you feel
08:44honestly assured that the more you read, the more you immerse,
08:51the more your bondages are dropping, then don't hold yourself back.
08:58It will be a great mistake to prevent the auspicious from happening.
09:06And when it happens, remember, truth is like a tyrant.
09:10Truth is like a tyrant. It does not brook nonsense. It does not tolerate a competitor.
09:22When the truth comes, I have experienced,
09:27it's like complete ownership of the one thing over your entire life.
09:34There have been phases of craziness.
09:42You are immersed in a book and you can't sleep.
09:49Entire night you are just with that one book.
09:53Even in my office, I found myself reading the book.
09:57That book turned me super efficient in the office.
10:00I would wind up everything in 2-3 hours flat,
10:03just so that I can go to the office library or to the office canteen or even to the lavatory
10:14and continue to read there.
10:19I fondly remember those phases.
10:22I fondly remember those phases and I wish we all pass through those.
10:33That's what should be rightly called as love.
10:37Not the very ordinary thing that we experience and label as love.
10:46Love is when your consciousness is totally in control.
10:49Love is when your consciousness is totally besotted with something sublime.
11:00Let it happen and don't be afraid of it.
11:11So, it's a good problem to have. I can continue this addiction of mine then.
11:16But if the object is good, the object will not allow you to remain addicted.
11:23That's the thing with the right teacher.
11:28The teacher liberates you from everything including the teacher.
11:36A point comes when the teacher makes himself just a friend.
11:43So, the teacher is gone.
11:46The teacher then turns into a comrade.
11:51So, if the teacher is obsessed with keeping himself necessary,
12:01then the teacher himself is quite insecure.
12:08The teacher wants the student to graduate as quickly as possible,
12:12not remain a student all the while.
12:16So, don't worry too much about that.
12:18If you are a good student, that only means that you will graduate very quickly from the school.
12:25So, don't worry that the school will hold you prisoner.
12:28The opposite is true.
12:30If you are a good student, if you are always immersed in the library,
12:34that means you will be very soon out of the library.
12:37The school will say, please go.
12:39You are not allowed to attend classes anymore.
12:42You have now graduated.
12:44Go out.
12:46Or if you want to stay in the school, come, join us, become a teacher.
12:51Or become a librarian, whatever.
12:55Yeah.
12:57Sir, you also mentioned a thing compelling you too much sometimes.
13:02Some people call it their calling.
13:05And I've often wondered, do I go looking for this calling or it will come to me sometime?
13:13Because as of today, I don't have any burning desire in me to give my all into some higher cause.
13:20I try, but I keep drifting among different causes.
13:25And that feeling inside is not there yet.
13:28So, how do I cultivate that?
13:30You have to, first of all, know the facts.
13:32You have to be in touch with at least the factual reality, if not the higher reality.
13:42Take two contrasting examples.
13:45You are in a burning house.
13:48How will you know that you must immediately swing into action?
13:53First of all, your senses must be alert.
13:56If you can neither feel heat nor see the flames,
14:00then you will say, you know, what am I supposed to do in life?
14:03I am just lounging on this chair. There is nothing to do.
14:07Whereas the fact is that there is a lot to do.
14:10Now, this example is from the scary side.
14:14Take a contrasting example from the side of beauty.
14:22There is something extremely enticing, something of immense beauty.
14:27But you are snoring next to it.
14:32How will something compelling happen to you?
14:37Even for beauty to entice you, even for beauty to make you act,
14:44you must first of all know clearly what's going on.
14:48So, does calling come to you or do you find a calling?
14:54Both of these things.
14:57It's like grace.
14:59You cannot control it at the same time.
15:02You will not receive it unless you have cleared the barriers.
15:07Your sleep is the barrier.
15:11So, know, know a lot.
15:14Waking up means being conscious.
15:18You have to know what is going on, both outside and within yourself.
15:22And then you will know what is worthy of being done in this world.
15:27When you say calling, you are asking for something to do in this world, right?
15:32In this world.
15:33How will you know what to do in the world if you do not know what the world is all about?
15:39So, you have to know the world.
15:40You also have to know yourself.
15:42And from that arises clarity about what to do in life.
15:48Okay?
15:49When both of these are known, the situation of the world
15:53and the relationship that I have with the world, when these both are known,
15:59then it is very, very clear what one must spend his life doing.
16:10Thank you, sir.
16:11Welcome.
16:17Thank you.