When the five senses quarrelled: A Vedanta story || Acharya Prashant, on Chhandogya Upanishad (2022)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00:00What's happening here? Firstly, I'll read it out to you and then explain.

00:00:14Once the five senses disputed among themselves about their personal superiority.

00:00:24The five senses quarreled as to who is superior among them.

00:00:32So once the five senses disputed and each of them was saying, I am superior.

00:00:43Those senses approached the father Prajapati and said, respected sir, who is the best among

00:00:54us? He replied, he among you is the best on whose departure the body would appear its

00:01:06worst as it were. So the five of you are there. Which of you is the most superior? He said,

00:01:16the one upon whose departure the body would become the worst is the highest or the most

00:01:28superior. Getting it? So it's an experiment. The judgment has not been passed. An experiment

00:01:37is to be conducted and the result would decide the winner. Alright, so the experiment begins.

00:01:44Speech departed. Speech is the first sense to leave the body to conduct the experiment.

00:01:53Staying an ear out, it came back and asked, how have you been able to live without me?

00:02:01So what's been your condition once I'm gone? This is gone. How have you been living? So the

00:02:07others replied, just like the dumb. You were gone, so we were living just like a dumb person.

00:02:16Not speaking, yet alive with the breath, seeing with the eyes, hearing with the ear and thinking

00:02:30with the mind. So this much is your worth. Even after you are gone, the mind is functional and

00:02:39thinks. The eyes are functional and see. Ears are functional and hear. And the breath is functional.

00:02:47So the organism is living, alive. So the speech got an appraisal of its worth and re-entered the

00:03:00body. Now the speech knows the value it holds. Who's the next one to go? The eye departed. Staying

00:03:10an ear out, it came back and asked, how have you been able to live without me? So the others replied,

00:03:19just like the blind. Though not seeing, yet living with the breath, speaking with the organ of speech.

00:03:29The whole thing could say the tongue. Speaking with the organ of speech, hearing with the ear

00:03:37and thinking with the mind. So that's the worth of the eyes. Even if the eyes are not there,

00:03:46one still lives as the blind do. The next one. This is the way of Upanishadic storytelling. The

00:04:02way of repetition. Now you'll be able to predict what's going to happen in the next one. The very

00:04:09fact that you are now able to predict the next leg of the story tells that you are understanding

00:04:18the story. If you do not understand something, how can you predict it? So they keep things repetitive,

00:04:23the seers, for the students or the readers' sake. Once you repeat something, it goes within. That's

00:04:33the method, the tactic employed in a lot of spiritual literature, the way of repetition.

00:04:42Not only are the verses repetitive, you are actually asked to read the verses repetitively,

00:04:51in the sense that the same verse has to be read 20 times. The same verse has to be read

00:04:59repetitively for 20 years. You don't get done with it. You can't say I've read it once and I'm

00:05:08done. You are supposed to read it every day and then it no more remains reading. It becomes

00:05:19something higher. And if you are really reading it properly, then with every subsequent movement,

00:05:29with every next read, a new layer of meaning is revealed. The words remain the same. The

00:05:39meaning enhances. Are you getting it? So you cannot read the Upanishads or the Gita like a

00:05:49novel. You cannot say it's just like a movie where we now know the story. So the movie is finished on

00:05:57us. You can never read the Gita completely because several concealed meanings are still

00:06:09waiting to open up. Are you getting it? It's not usual fictional literature. It is a method that

00:06:22works by repetition. And if the very method is repetition, then how can you not repeat? The

00:06:30method will then not work on you. Getting it? Now why is repetition the method? Yes. Because

00:06:44repetition has to act as an antidote to another kind of repetition. What is that other kind of

00:06:53repetition we are referring to? The repeated continuous assault of the world on the senses.

00:07:05Is that not repetitive? Is that not repetitive? So when poison is being injected into you

00:07:18repeatedly, the Rishis say that the antidote too must be regular and repeated. Just as you are

00:07:34being dirtied repeatedly every day with dirt settling on your body, the bathing process too

00:07:44must be repetitive. Can you say that you get dirty every day but would take bath only once a year?

00:07:53That would be foolish, right? So because life itself is a process of accumulation of dirt,

00:08:01how does the dirt accumulate? Through the senses. Whatever you see in a sense corrupts you,

00:08:09whatever you hear in a sense corrupts you. So that is something that is happening again and

00:08:16again and again. Therefore the observance of this too must happen again and again.

00:08:24That is the wisdom behind the method. Do you see this? So now the ears are departing and you may

00:08:42very well predict what is going to happen. You can even predict the exact words in which it

00:08:49is going to be said. So the ears departed. Staying an ear out, the ear came back and asked,

00:08:57how have you been able to live without me? The same words. The Rishis have no fondness

00:09:07for superficial innovation. They will not needlessly use synonyms to pretend as if

00:09:16something fresh is being said. In fact, they want to ruthlessly expose that nothing fresh

00:09:22is being said. Otherwise you have speakers who do not have too many things to say. But they'll go

00:09:32on and on at 2000 places for 20 years, speaking as if they are delivering a fresh sermon every

00:09:42time. How? By playing with words, narrating the same story in 20 different ways, using fresh idioms,

00:09:55clever metaphors, synonyms, this and that. The Upanishadic way is just the opposite.

00:10:04The three verses are exact replica of each other. Just that ear is being replaced by eye,

00:10:19is being replaced by tongue. Deaf is being replaced by blind, is being replaced by dumb.

00:10:31They want to make it very clear that these three things are the same,

00:10:39implying that the three senses are the same. There is no difference. It is a certain unity,

00:10:49a commonality they want you to appreciate. And therefore the austere similarity in the

00:10:59three verses. And you will find this similarity continuing. It continues so that you get the

00:11:08message. Else we miss the message in diversity. Diversity is what deludes us, does it not?

00:11:18You look at one thing, it appears so different from the other thing that you get attracted

00:11:23towards it even if you have burnt your fingers with the first thing. You burn your fingers with

00:11:32one thing and you woe never to touch it again. That one thing returns to you in another shape

00:11:41and form and appears different from the first thing. Now you fall for it and you again burn

00:11:49your fingers. So what does the thing do? It changes its apparels. It dresses up at something

00:11:59else and returns and now you again fall for it. So diversity in one sense is the cause of your

00:12:10suffering because all that which appears as diverse is fundamentally one and not only one,

00:12:17it is false. How do you sum up the entire diversity in one word? What would that one

00:12:28word be? Mind. So this is all mind and that's a mark of wisdom. When you look at stuff and

00:12:41you do not accord it a thousand names, what is it? Mind. That's also what science does to an

00:12:50extent in the objective world. The common man would look at this and say, this is black,

00:12:57this is mine, this belongs to one brand, this is another thing, another thing, another thing,

00:13:01another thing. Science reduces the diversity. First of all, it will say that the diamond and

00:13:12the coal are one. That's something only science can say. To the commoner, the diamond is diamond

00:13:19and coal is coal. But science has reduced the level of diversity. Now diamond and coal and

00:13:26graphite and something else are all just carbon, just carbon. But still diversity remains because

00:13:37carbon is different from nitrogen, is different from oxygen, is different from uranium. And

00:13:42uranium is so very different. Such a heavy atom it is and radioactive. So you can still say,

00:13:54diversity exists. The diamond and the coal are one, but still the diamond and the coal both

00:14:02are different from oxygen or from water or from some other compound. Now science proceeds a step

00:14:13further and says, no, no, no, wait a minute. Even there, there is no need for such diversity.

00:14:24They are all just electrons, neutrons, protons. So there is no need to say carbon is fundamentally

00:14:31different from oxygen. Both are just the same. What? Electrons, neutrons, protons. But then

00:14:41you'll say, oh, the numbers there are different. Science progresses a bit more and says,

00:14:48what numbers are you counting? There are no objects there. You can count numbers only if

00:14:54specific and different objects are present. There are just waves, just waves. What are you counting?

00:15:01So that's something that science does in the objective world. The Upanishads do the same

00:15:11thing in the subjective world, within. They cut the clutter. They reduce the diversity. It's all

00:15:20the same. And that makes you very detached and equanimous. You understand equanimity? What is

00:15:32that? You start looking things as just the same. Now that's a spiritual virtue, but that can also

00:15:42come through science. That's just a spiritual virtue, but can also come through science.

00:15:48If you're a spiritual person, you'll look at one kind of food and another kind of food,

00:16:00and you will say, oh, food is just food. So fine. This one is probably just for 50 rupees. This one

00:16:09is for 5000 rupees. But food is just food. So your spirituality helps you accept the both as one.

00:16:17You become equanimous. Sambhav. The scientific bent of mind would look at these two and say,

00:16:27what? Calories? Minerals? All right. How many milligrams of potassium here? How much sodium

00:16:37here? How many calories here? And he'll find probably that these two are comparable. He may

00:16:44even find that in terms of the elemental composition, the 50 rupees plate is better.

00:16:50So that enables him to look at the whole situation very differently. The problem arises when you are

00:16:59neither scientific nor spiritual. Then all that matters to you is appearance, delusions, the

00:17:08branding, the story that goes with something, the fiction associated with something. Now,

00:17:16you cannot look at the reality of things because all you can perceive is the story,

00:17:21the fiction or the brand, the imagination. Are you getting it? It's a mark of inner

00:17:34development when you stop seeing differences where they do not exist. And when you stop

00:17:46seeing useless differences, then you start differentiating the one real thing from the

00:17:57thousand useless things. Are you getting it? All our life is spent in something very worthless.

00:18:07We differentiate between A and B where A and B are both worthless. But since we have to

00:18:15distinguish the two, we start calling one of them as worthy. Otherwise, how will you distinguish?

00:18:20The fact is that you are playing the entire game between A and Z. That's your limited universe

00:18:32within the mind. And to entertain yourself, you are trying to find value in one of the characters.

00:18:43The truth is that the entire alphabet is worthless. But that's a very painful truth

00:18:53because that alphabet is all that you have. That's your entire world. So,

00:19:00you are left with no option but to artificially declare M or Q or S or Z as important. How dare

00:19:10you admit that everything is false and worthless? That's how we proceed. And when you do this,

00:19:21when you artificially accept that M or B or Z or D has value, when that kind of compulsion,

00:19:32you totally discard, then you come upon that which is beyond the alphabet and really valuable.

00:19:39But for you to come to that, first of all, you have to be free of the alphabet. Are you getting

00:19:48it? So, distinguish you must. But no point fooling yourself with false distinctions.

00:20:01And people act very self-righteously. They'll say, no, I'll stick to D because D is far more

00:20:13important than M. And they'll say, you know, see, what kind of righteous man I am. I discovered that

00:20:23D is more important than M. So, I acted as per the rules of justice. I kept sticking to D.

00:20:39And this fellow will appear very moralistic. This fellow will become an authority in his own eyes.

00:20:50He'll say, I'm better than everybody else because I found D better than M. And I remained wedded to

00:21:00D all life. Whereas the truth is that D is equal to M. D and M are not at all different. The

00:21:13difference you have created is fake, not merely fake. It is dishonest because you are fooling

00:21:21yourself almost deliberately. Do you see this? Then there is the one who has the heart, the

00:21:34courage to say, you know, I really, thoroughly, honestly examined right from A to Z. It's all

00:21:44the same. To tell the truth, there is no difference. All the differences are just superficial. Yes,

00:21:54on the surface there are differences. When you go inside, they are all one. So, then someone will

00:22:03come and say, oh, don't say that because if you say that, what are you left with? If everything

00:22:08is fake, where would you go? Where would you live? Where would you work? Who would accompany

00:22:16you? Don't you want to have a house? Don't you want to have a life? Don't you want to be stable?

00:22:24Don't you want to have security and kids and some prestige? If you say everything is fake,

00:22:35how would you live? And you then need to have the gumption, the conviction to say that I don't know.

00:22:44I don't know how I would live. But A to Z, they are all the same. And I leave myself to the unknown.

00:22:56I don't know what would happen of me. But it's all right. I subject myself to uncertainty. And

00:23:08that uncertainty is preferable to deliberate dishonesty. Then something magical opens up.

00:23:18Are you getting it? Something magical just happens beyond the alphabet. But it cannot

00:23:30happen if you sit within the alphabet and crave for guarantees or reassurance or advance

00:23:43demonstrations. Even in the spiritual domain, we act as customers. We ask for demos. We say,

00:23:53all right, I am prepared to, you know, try freedom a little because you are pressing me so much. So

00:24:02I'll give freedom a shot for your sake. The guru is a salesman. So for his sake, the customer,

00:24:11the listener is prepared to try freedom for a while. A little bit, you know, can you give me a

00:24:15sample? Or can you give me a demo? It won't work this way. You cannot be assured in advance. You

00:24:27have to run the risk. You have to put yourself through uncertainty and insecurity. And that's

00:24:36when the beyond opens up. Does it necessarily open up? You are again asking for certainty.

00:24:43I don't know. And you have to be happy with not knowing. Honesty that does not bother about the

00:24:57results. That's what is needed. If you're too bothered about the results, you just cannot be

00:25:04honest. Not possible. Are you getting it? So they are all the same. This, this, this, this,

00:25:22this. What does this mean? The entire world is just the same. Because the entire world comes

00:25:29to you through this, this, this, this, this. Equalizing the senses means equalizing every

00:25:43object of perception that comes to you via the senses. When you say eyes are equal to the ears,

00:25:52what does that mean? Everything that you can see is not fundamentally different from everything

00:25:58that you can hear. It's not about the senses. It becomes something about the objects of the senses.

00:26:05Are you getting it? And that's why there is this repetition present here. This repetition

00:26:14is not incidental. It is a deliberate method. So don't get bored. You are in a process.

00:26:23Are you getting it? When you don't nod, I get afraid. I don't know whether you are

00:26:40immersed in meditative trance or are you just fed up. So the ear came back and he was told of his

00:27:05worth. Now the mind departed. The mind departed, staying an ear out, it came back and asked,

00:27:16what did it ask? How have you lived without me? And now the mind is being shown its place.

00:27:25So the others replied, just like infants without developed minds.

00:27:32But yet living with the breath, because the breath is there, so the infants are there,

00:27:38they don't really have minds, they don't think much and all that. Yet living with the breath,

00:27:44speaking with the tongue, seeing with the eye and hearing with the ear.

00:27:52Hearing this, the mind entered the body and humbly sat down. Oh, I have been shown my place.

00:28:08Isn't it intriguing what's going to happen next?

00:28:11Okay, good.

00:28:15See, it's interesting on its own. It's actually a thing of these times that I have to artificially

00:28:27spice it up for you. I don't, I shouldn't need to. I shouldn't need to. But because our lives

00:28:35are so drenched in spices these days, we cannot savour the taste of

00:28:48pure juice. This is pure juice. But it starts appearing tasteless because we have become

00:28:57accustomed to spice.

00:29:02So then there is a need for me to explain, elaborate and make it a little more palatable for

00:29:11you and then still wonder whether my efforts are sufficing.

00:29:23All right.

00:29:23Then, as the prana was about to depart, it uprooted the other senses

00:29:40just as a horse of metal would uproot the pegs to which it is tethered.

00:29:48Now, prana too is in the fray and prana says, now I'm going to go. But as prana is about to depart,

00:29:56all the other senses too are uprooted.

00:30:02Without prana, eyes, ears, mind, nothing functions.

00:30:08They all then came to it and said,

00:30:10respected sir, please be our lord. You are the best among us. Do not depart from the body.

00:30:23Then speech said to prana, just as I am the richest, in the same manner are you also the

00:30:30richest. So that's a climb down. Just a while back, that's just a few years back because they

00:30:37all took a near age. What was speech declaring? Speech was saying, I am superior amongst all of us.

00:30:47Now, speech is humbly admitting, just as I am the richest, in the same manner you too are richest.

00:30:55So at least this much of humility. I'm not superior, the two of us are equal.

00:31:01In this acknowledgement lies the implicit admission that you are actually higher.

00:31:06But the speech being full of itself, full of pride, cannot openly admit that. So all that it is saying is,

00:31:13oh, the two of us are equal. All right, all right, bro. Same to same.

00:31:21Then the eyes said to prana, just as I am the stable basis, in the same manner are you also

00:31:29the stable basis. Whatever I stand for, whatever is best about me, you two have that, we two are peers.

00:31:35The claim of superiority is gone. Then the ear said to prana, just as I am prosperity, that's

00:31:44how the ear believes that the ear stands for prosperity, in what way only the ears know.

00:31:50Just as only the proud man knows what his pride is all about, the others cannot see that.

00:31:59Have you not seen vanity of that kind? That fellow is all puffed up and he believes himself

00:32:05to the most important man in the universe and only he knows why.

00:32:12Others look at him and say, what, piece of trash.

00:32:16But he says, no, if I am not there, the sun won't rise.

00:32:22So the ears come and say, just as I am prosperity, in the same manner you two are prosperity.

00:32:30And then the mind came and said, just as I am the abode, I am the one who shelters everybody,

00:32:37I am the abode, in the same manner are you also the abode.

00:32:42So verily, truly, people do not call them as organs of speech, nor as eyes, nor as ears,

00:32:49nor as minds, but they call them only as pranas, for the prana indeed is all these.

00:32:56Right? Now, what does prana stand for? Who won the race? Who is declared the winner

00:33:04unanimously? Who? Prana. What is prana? What is that?

00:33:16What is that? Consciousness.

00:33:21Consciousness. Consciousness is what powers thought. Consciousness is what powers all

00:33:37the senses. To put it more precisely,

00:33:41the I-feeling that arises from your physical body, the I-tendency, that's prana.

00:34:01The I-tendency, all your thoughts are founded on the I-tendency.

00:34:06I stands at the center of all thoughts. Think of something in which I is not involved. Try.

00:34:19I is at the center of all thoughts. Even if you try to think about something distant,

00:34:25you will find you are thinking about it because in some way you are related to it,

00:34:31else you can't think of it. Even if it's a purely objective thing, like the rings of Saturn,

00:34:39like the moons of Jupiter, like climate change, like the snow in Alaska.

00:34:50Even in these things, the I is at the center of thought. Otherwise, you just won't think.

00:34:59It's impossible for you to think without being interested. What does interest mean?

00:35:05You have something at stake. Who has something at stake? The I has something at stake,

00:35:10else the thought cannot arise. We talk of free thought or objective thought. The fact is,

00:35:16free thought is not possible. All thought is tethered to the I. So, how can it be free?

00:35:26Yeah, there can be a long rope, we understand. But even if an animal is tethered by a long rope,

00:35:37would you call it free? The rope is long. Does that make the animal free? No.

00:35:44So, thought is never free.

00:35:49Thought is founded on I, and that is prana. So, that's the reason the mind is subservient to prana.

00:36:02And that also tells you what is the definition of life.

00:36:07When something comes to life, meaning when something has prana,

00:36:12it starts saying I. It may not utter from the throat, but the I tendency arises. And that's

00:36:21the definition of life. If you ever want to distinguish between something that is animate

00:36:33and inanimate, this is the test.

00:36:37Does the thing have a consciousness of itself? If the thing has a consciousness of itself,

00:36:46it is alive. If the thing does not have consciousness of itself, it is not.

00:36:53If the thing does not have consciousness of itself, it is not.

00:37:02That's what happens when life develops in the womb.

00:37:10The embryo is taken to have come alive at a particular point or in a particular phase.

00:37:26That is when it starts

00:37:27having an I, an identity, an appreciation or concept of itself, however vague.

00:37:45It does not know itself, but it still can feel itself and therefore starts responding.

00:37:58The body is special because even as the body is material,

00:38:05from this body arises something that is not completely material. And what is that? The I

00:38:14consciousness. And there is nothing in the body that you can independently, in isolation, look at.

00:38:28And declare as the birthplace of the I tendency. Does the I tendency come from the fingers?

00:38:40Does it come from the neck? Does it come from the heart? It does not even come from the brain really.

00:38:51Even if you are kind of brain dead, yet your lungs will respond to ventilators.

00:38:57What is this I? What is prana? That's the magic of life.

00:39:11The only way to know I consciousness is to give it fulfillment.

00:39:20As long as it remains unfulfilled, it remains unknowable. To know it, fulfill it.

00:39:28The interesting thing is, if it is fulfilled, there remains no urge to know it because the knower

00:39:38departs. Are you getting it?

00:39:49So we were saying, do you know the one who looks out through your eyes?

00:39:53He is the master of the eyes. He is the I.

00:40:01The eyes are doing his bidding. The eyes are his servants.

00:40:08The eyes are not random. The eyes are not performing a mechanical function.

00:40:16Had the eyes been random, why would you all have been looking only this way?

00:40:23Look randomly any other way? Because the eyes can look elsewhere as well.

00:40:30The eyes will have no problem. But there is somebody within who will have

00:40:34problems if the eyes start looking towards the door.

00:40:41There are so many other sounds floating around, are they not?

00:40:46The creaking of the chair and there is some object outside and something is happening and

00:40:52somebody just tapped his feet, something. Did you even hear? Because the ears are not

00:41:00random. There is somebody within who is trying to hear through the ears.

00:41:06And when he knows that something important is happening, he won't focus on the random things.

00:41:11Contrast that with this. What is it recording? Everything. What are you recording? One thing.

00:41:25Because this does not have? Prana. You have prana. So your ears become very different from

00:41:35this receiver. Even though, objectively, this receives sound waves in much the same way as

00:41:43this funnel receives sound waves. They both receive them in the same way but they don't

00:41:52record them or admit them in the same way.

00:41:56Because this is devoid of prana and this is not.

00:42:03You could also take the example of this camera. Same thing. But that would not be a good example

00:42:09because the camera is not recording everything. You have prohibited it from loitering around.

00:42:17Are you getting it? It's very important to come to your fundamental identity.

00:42:27That's what these verses are all about. This is a very important thing.

00:42:32Are you getting it? It's very important to come to your fundamental identity.

00:42:42That's what these verses are all about. This is not some nice, juicy, entertaining take

00:42:50on the five senses and one of them appears as winner and nice. Contest over.

00:42:56No. It is to educate you in something very important about yourself.

00:43:06And that education, unfortunately, we do not get through our system.

00:43:13The education, social system, etc. The physical system, obviously, won't allow that education.

00:43:27Not making much sense.

00:43:35Do you understand the implications of what is being said?

00:43:39This is not important. This is not important. This is not important. This is not important.

00:43:46Of much more importance is the one driving all these.

00:43:51Especially because you are thinkers, intellectuals, you must know that thought is not very important.

00:43:57You have to look at the center of thought. The center of thought is the master of thought.

00:44:04And thinkers love to call themselves as free thinkers. This is what is telling you is that

00:44:10there is nothing called free thought. There is nothing called original thought either.

00:44:15All thought is commanded by and is subservient to the fundamental I-tendency.

00:44:27Are you getting it? Stuff like new ideas, creative thoughts,

00:44:34innovation through brainstorming. These are meaningless terms in light of spirituality.

00:44:40In light of spirituality, true freedom is not freedom of thought or freedom of limbs

00:44:49or freedom of speech. True freedom is freedom of consciousness itself.

00:44:59Consciousness is born in bondage. Can you liberate it?

00:45:04The I is the master of speech. Now you want to have free speech

00:45:10when the master himself is in bondage? Not getting it.

00:45:17Go back to the Second World War. Britain ruled India. And let's say Germany starts ruling Britain.

00:45:26And would you call India a free country?

00:45:41That's just as hilarious as clamoring for freedom of speech.

00:45:48Speech comes from the I-tendency and the I-tendency itself is in bondage right

00:45:55from the moment of birth. So how can you have free speech?

00:45:59Therefore in the name of free speech, all kind of nonsense is uttered.

00:46:07Is the speaker free? If the speaker is not free, how can speech be free?

00:46:12Who is the speaker? That I within. Is he free? He is not free. Why? Because he comes from the body.

00:46:20And therefore he carries all the rubbish of the body since birth.

00:46:27When the speaker himself is not free, what's the point in asking for freedom of speech or freedom

00:46:32of thought? Not that these should not be given. Obviously one should have freedom of thought,

00:46:36speech, movement, trade, this, that, freedom of worship, all the freedoms that you want to have

00:46:42in the liberal sense. Obviously you must have them. But having them is quite pointless.

00:46:48Not that you must not have them. The point is that even if you have them, it does not mean much.

00:46:58We are like free slaves, free to practice our slavery. How alluring does that sound?

00:47:06We all are free to practice our respective and favorite slaveries. Her favorite slavery is

00:47:14of one kind, his is of another. All kinds of slaveries.

00:47:20You choose your flavor and you can top it with extra cheese.

00:47:31And then we say we are free people in a free land. What freedom?

00:47:36The most fundamental freedom is the freedom of the I-tendency from its fundamental bondages.

00:47:49What are its fundamental bondages? What are you born with? What are you born with?

00:47:57What does the child do as soon as it is born? Cries.

00:48:01Ignorance, body identification, fear, anger, lust. That's what the I is captive to.

00:48:16If you are not free of these, what's the point in speaking aloud? What is the point in writing

00:48:22a thick book, saying this is an expression of my original thoughts? Inwardly, the I-tendency

00:48:31is that inwardly you are fearful, lustful, vengeful. Outwardly, even if you are left

00:48:40free to express yourself, that expression would actually be polluting and poisonous to everybody.

00:48:52We talk of hate speech, for example, and we want to abolish it and condemn it, which is all very

00:49:01good. It's just that hate speech is not just steeped in explicit hatred necessarily.

00:49:12When there is ignorance within, then even normal speech is just hate speech in disguise.

00:49:25You may not realize it because there is no explicit hatred in that speech.

00:49:32So you cannot jail that person. You cannot condemn him. You cannot delete that tweet.

00:49:40It will appear like something very normal, very, very normal. There is no hatred in this. The fact

00:49:44is there is actually a lot of repugnance in that. You just don't realize it. And that's not an odd

00:49:52event. When you are not sorted within, then everything that you utter, everything that you do

00:50:00is just an exercise in hatred, division, lovelessness, suffering. You don't realize

00:50:13that. Inwardly, if you are not sorted, then even an I love you is an expression of deep hatred.

00:50:24Is that so?

00:50:25The fellow is expressing deep hatred by saying, I love you. Alarm bells.

00:50:39What to do? And if you are sorted within, even that which superficially looks like

00:50:48which superficially looks like hatred is actually love.

00:50:59Therefore, prana is the superior one amongst all the senses. Sort that one out.

00:51:18Is it so absorbing or so unacceptable? Both.

00:51:37Yes.

00:51:57I have a basic question. As we are sitting here,

00:52:00you are talking to my high tendency or you are talking to the consciousness.

00:52:09Because when I had meditated in your speech, I found that I am

00:52:17I am not finding proper word for it, but I am kind of deeply involved in it. I don't find my...

00:52:35Immersed.

00:52:38So are you talking to my ego self or are you talking to the consciousness?

00:52:47I am talking to the one who is in desperate need of these words.

00:53:02Who do the clouds rain for? The stones, the deserts, the rooftops?

00:53:09They rain for the one who is in need of water. Who is in need of water?

00:53:28That same one the Upanishads are alluding to.

00:53:30And therefore the drops are received differently by all.

00:53:45How do the stones receive the drops? With contempt.

00:53:49Drops fall on the stones and just break into splinters. Don't they?

00:53:55That's the reception the stones have for the drops. The drops just come and shatter.

00:54:10And then there is the parched earth. How does it receive the drops?

00:54:19In love, in a most welcoming way.

00:54:25There is something parched and dry within all of us.

00:54:40It keeps waiting for the rains, but it cannot cause the rains.

00:54:45But in another sense, if its wait is honest enough,

00:54:59it somehow not only invites but actually creates the clouds.

00:55:09So then they say that when the student is ready, the teacher just appears from somewhere.

00:55:19The question is not who the teacher is speaking to or where the teacher is coming from.

00:55:26The question is what is it within you that is so anxiously and so lovingly waiting for the drops.

00:55:38If you can know that as your real identity, then you will invite more and more clouds.

00:55:51If you do not know that as your real identity,

00:55:55then you will have to be dependent on the accidental shower.

00:56:01Sometimes it will rain, sometimes it will not.

00:56:04But you will never find yourself consistently drenched.

00:56:11Are you getting it? It depends on you whether you want this to remain

00:56:20a mere accident. You are at some place and it started raining.

00:56:26So you found relief for a while and then you

00:56:31coolly, calmly, happily walked away. You could choose that option.

00:56:38Or you could be where the clouds are.

00:56:43You could say, quenching my thirst is more important than anything else.

00:56:49So why do I walk away?

00:56:51I have to be where the clouds are.

00:56:56No other place, no other task is more important.

00:57:07Of course, I am not answering you. Of course, the question was different.

00:57:11But this is something that needed to be said.

00:57:13Acharyaji, you said about the eye consciousness, the Naha Gulati building.

00:57:23The day it is born, it feels like it is a new world.

00:57:29It is a new world.

00:57:31It is a new world.

00:57:33It is a new world.

00:57:35It is a new world.

00:57:37The Naha Gulati building, the day it is born, it feels so much attachments

00:57:45and kind of builds a framework for seeking that fulfilment.

00:57:51And that kind of loosely I translate it into, it starts building its baggage.

00:57:55Its world.

00:57:57Its world.

00:57:59The world.

00:58:01And this baggage continues to grow and my question about that is,

00:58:05it also seems to be changing its form all the time.

00:58:13Like lust is replaced by greed.

00:58:17Greed is replaced by something else.

00:58:23And you sometimes also get a feeling that the baggage has been released.

00:58:29And you have drawn it away.

00:58:31But that turns out to be also, because you are not free,

00:58:35so that also turns out to be eventually a misconception, a delusion.

00:58:41And in no time the baggage is again back there.

00:58:45So, can there be certain, like visiting the scriptures, reading the texts,

00:58:56can there be certain reminders that one can build within ourselves

00:59:04of not letting the new baggages get created and also...

00:59:10The entire scripture is a reminder.

00:59:14The scripture itself is a reminder.

00:59:18See, if the shape and form of the baggages won't change,

00:59:24how will you continue carrying the baggage?

00:59:28Because the baggage is in itself something very weak, very unappealing,

00:59:38very liable to be dropped.

00:59:42Its just a baggage.

00:59:44You are carrying it. It hurts.

00:59:46So how does it then continue to remain on your back and shoulders your entire life?

00:59:52By changing name and form and shape and thereby deceiving you.

00:59:56Otherwise you would have gotten rid of it just after the first few experiences.

01:00:02No?

01:00:04Alright, there is a man who loves ice cream.

01:00:14So he goes after vanilla.

01:00:20After a week he gets fed up.

01:00:24Goes after chocolate, then strawberry, then something else.

01:00:30Then he gets fed up with ice cream itself.

01:00:34So rasmalai.

01:00:38Then all other kinds of sweets, 40 varieties.

01:00:42Then he goes after cakes, then pastries, then candies.

01:00:48Then he is reminded that he is gaining weight.

01:00:52So he starts going after fresh fruit juices.

01:00:56You know what he is actually after?

01:01:00Sugar.

01:01:04But because sugar in just one form starts getting exposed,

01:01:12therefore to deceive himself he starts consuming sugar in another form.

01:01:18Had sugar been available only in the form of vanilla ice cream,

01:01:24this man would have achieved liberation very quickly.

01:01:28Because vanilla would have been exposed.

01:01:32But vanilla very quickly becomes strawberry.

01:01:36Strawberry becomes chocolate.

01:01:41Then it becomes kaju barfi.

01:01:45Then it becomes rasgulla.

01:01:49And then it becomes some healthy option.

01:01:53Sugarcane juice.

01:01:57Even apple juice.

01:02:01So you can even claim with some kind of righteousness,

01:02:05you know, I take only healthy drinks.

01:02:09Sugar.

01:02:13That's how we remain deceived all our life.

01:02:39you

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