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Video Information: Shabdyog Session, 24.01.2019, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India
Context:
If dry bread pieces are all your fare, will salty or saltless taste really matter?
If you are benumbed by slumber, can you wait for cushion and cover?
Saya Kabir - unique is the path of love, if you sever your head, why you shed a tear?
~ Guru Kabir
What is love?
Who is a lover of Truth?
What is Truth?
How to understand the teachings of Guru Kabir?
Who is a beggar in a spiritual sense?
Why one feels incomplete?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information: Shabdyog Session, 24.01.2019, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India
Context:
If dry bread pieces are all your fare, will salty or saltless taste really matter?
If you are benumbed by slumber, can you wait for cushion and cover?
Saya Kabir - unique is the path of love, if you sever your head, why you shed a tear?
~ Guru Kabir
What is love?
Who is a lover of Truth?
What is Truth?
How to understand the teachings of Guru Kabir?
Who is a beggar in a spiritual sense?
Why one feels incomplete?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00If dry bread pieces are all you fear, will salty or saltless taste really matter?
00:20If you are benumbed by slumber, can you wait for cushion or cover?
00:31Says Kabir, unique is the path of love.
00:35If you savour your head, why you shed a tear?
00:44So she is asking, does salty or saltless taste refer to one's suffering?
00:56Also when Kabir Sahab says savour your head, is he referring to one's suffering as well?
01:09The difference between the lover of truth and the pursuer of the world is stark.
01:35For the lover of truth, the world and all the worldly
01:54experiences are just one thing, one unit, one entity, one taste, one monolith.
02:18For the one besotted by the world, chasing the world, the world and the experiences it
02:38offers are a complete spectrum.
02:46A complete spectrum holding an infinite number of distinct possibilities, an infinite number
02:58of distinct tastes.
03:03To all these possibilities and tastes, the pursuer of the world assigns different names,
03:13different connotations.
03:19To all these names correspond different feelings.
03:31At the two ends of this spectrum are the two states that most excite him.
03:47There is happiness at one end and there is sadness at one end.
03:53And in between there are various mixtures, combinations of happiness and sadness.
04:05You go to someone who is enamoured by the world and ask him how are you feeling right
04:14now.
04:17He will have one description to offer to you.
04:21Note down that description.
04:26Go to him after a couple of hours and ask again the same question, how are you feeling
04:35now?
04:36He will have a separate word to offer you.
04:40I am assuming his vocabulary is rich enough to depict all his different experiential states
04:50in different and suitable words.
04:55He will offer you a different, distinct word.
04:59Go to him again when he is in a different situation, a different mood and repeat the
05:07same question.
05:09What is the question?
05:12How are you feeling?
05:14How are you experiencing?
05:16And he will offer you a third word.
05:24Go to him 400 times and I say that if his vocabulary is rich enough and if language
05:35has possibilities to precisely and sharply indicate each colour of man's mood and mind,
05:52then he will have 400 different words to offer you.
06:02So he remains engaged.
06:03There are 400 different possibilities and it doesn't stop at 400.
06:10Between happiness and sadness, what is the number of points you can come to?
06:18Infinite.
06:21If I give you even this much, a length in space, in how many different parts can you
06:31divide it?
06:33Infinite.
06:34It's just that you need to have a razor sharp enough.
06:40If you can have a pencil sharp enough, then you can draw an infinite number of lines between
06:47these two points and these two points correspond to happiness and sadness.
06:55So man is always engaged.
06:57There is so much happening.
07:00There is so much to keep him busy and hopeful and infinite number of possibilities are there.
07:06If one thing doesn't satisfy you, you feel that there is something else on offer.
07:11Life doesn't stop ever.
07:14Are you getting it?
07:18But it doesn't matter what your current state is, the dimension is always linear.
07:31The dimension is between happiness and sadness.
07:39If it is required to point out your state, it can always be depicted as alpha H plus
07:48beta S where beta is equal to 1 minus alpha.
07:57You get this.
08:01It is so silly.
08:02It is so predictable.
08:03It is so unilinear, unidimensional.
08:14You would always be found somewhere between this and this.
08:19It's just that since there are infinite possibilities between this and this, so you keep feeling
08:25as if you have arrived at a new place.
08:30Whereas you never arrive at any new place, the mind keeps moving between these two poles.
08:43You know, if you dig a tunnel from the north pole of the earth to the south pole and you
08:50drop a ball in that tunnel, what would that ball do?
08:58The ball will keep performing simple harmonic motion in the tunnel.
09:04The north pole is happiness, the south pole is sadness.
09:08The ball is the mind.
09:17And the mind takes it to be quite an adventure.
09:23For the mind, it is quite a thrill to be journeying in the tunnel.
09:31It's a long tunnel, you see.
09:33The mind never comes to realize that the tunnel is really its captivity, that the tunnel is
09:46really the prison that defines the mind.
10:01So the mind is never really bored.
10:05How many points are there between north pole and south pole?
10:09Well, if there are an infinite number of points between even these two fingers, then between
10:17north pole and south pole, obviously the number of points is just beyond any count.
10:32Mind keeps feeling thrilled.
10:34Mind keeps saying, well, something new is happening in life.
10:37I just moved to a new point, a different point.
10:41What the mind doesn't realize is that it's the same axis, same dimension.
10:48So the worldly mind is always looking forward to the future in the hope of coming to a new
10:57point.
11:01In the mind of the worldly man, the world is a diverse place in which there are certain
11:10good things and there are certain bad things.
11:14The role of human life, the purpose of human life is to get more and more of the good things
11:24and avoid more and more of the bad things.
11:28You go to a common man and he will admit, if he is honest, that this is the purpose
11:34of his life.
11:35There are some good things, they are all found on the north pole and there are some really
11:43evil things and they are all found towards the south pole and then what is the purpose
11:48of life?
11:53Please stay closer to the north pole.
11:56If possible, attain an equilibrium right on the north pole.
12:03If possible, simply stick to the north pole.
12:06That's the purpose of the ordinary man's life.
12:09What is the north pole?
12:10The pole of happiness and therefore the purpose of the common life is happiness.
12:17Behind it is an assumption and a lot of ignorance.
12:23What is the ignorance about?
12:24The ignorance is about the laws of simple harmonic motion.
12:33If you go north, you will have to go south.
12:38Physics calls it SHM.
12:43History calls it the basic law of duality, basic duality.
12:54But the commoner thinks that it is possible to violate this law.
12:58The commoner lives in the constant hope that a day will come when the ball will ultimately
13:08stop at the north pole and he dreads the opposite.
13:15He dreads a situation in which the ball has stopped at the south pole.
13:22It doesn't matter whether you demand it or dread it.
13:27The ball will keep moving between the poles.
13:30That is your fate as a human being.
13:34Nevertheless, life is full of changes for the common man.
13:41This much must be evident.
13:43Things are changing.
13:45Now one is a student.
13:47Now one is a husband.
13:48Now one is a father.
13:49Now one is an employee.
13:51Now one has grey hair.
13:53Now one's kids are going to the college.
13:56Now one has to get his kids married.
14:01Now one is a grandpa.
14:10Now one is booking a slot for himself in the graveyard.
14:16Every moment there is something new that life offers you.
14:20Have you not heard this statement many a times?
14:23There are people who come to you and say, especially speechful teachers, they would
14:27say life is new every moment.
14:33These so-called spiritual teachers keep you in a dastardly hope.
14:41They keep telling you every moment in life is new, you see.
14:45What is new?
14:49What is new?
14:51All the time you are just oscillating from the North Pole to the South Pole, from the
14:58South Pole to the North Pole.
15:03And in this oscillation, you are being tutored that the journey is new.
15:08Every day is a new day.
15:10What is new?
15:13Same old tendencies, same old thoughts, same old hopes, same old tendency to keep hoping
15:19same old fears.
15:25Even if the fears appear new, the tendency to remain afraid is very old.
15:31What is new?
15:35But be it shrewd advertisers or renowned spiritual teachers, all want to drill it deep into you
15:47that life is new every moment.
15:54What is new in life?
15:59Why?
16:01I just had a baby.
16:02Isn't that a new thing?
16:06Seriously?
16:09Are you so sold out to names and forms that you think that having a baby is a new thing?
16:17Look seriously into it and you will see that the tendency to have babies has always been there.
16:31The baby might have appeared in a physical form right now, but you have always been a
16:36mother and you have always been a father.
16:46The body itself is the mother and the body itself is the father.
16:50When have you not been a mother?
16:57Is it the first time that something is attracting you?
16:59Is it the first time you are so excited about a new arrival?
17:04It has happened again and again.
17:06And you are again demanding for the same thing, totally forgetting how you have been thoroughly
17:13and repeatedly disappointed by all such previous hopes.
17:22But you want to try once again.
17:24Have you no care or love for yourself?
17:28But anyway, that's the common average life to keep thinking that one day something new
17:36will happen.
17:46Waiting for that one great morning.
17:48Or if you are not waiting for that one great morning, if you say you have some worldly
17:54wisdom, then you will say no, you don't need to wait for one great morning.
17:58Every morning is new.
17:59And that sounds so cute, so smart.
18:03And feels like buying into it.
18:07Every day is a new day.
18:14Not Kabir Saheb.
18:16See what he is saying.
18:17He is saying, if dry bread pieces are all you fear, will salty or saltless taste really
18:24matter to the saint?
18:26The world is just one experience.
18:33The entire expanse of the senses is just one experience.
18:45In this particular verse, Kabir Saheb says that the experience is of dry bread pieces.
18:57Dry bread pieces.
19:00That's how the world feels like to the knower or to the lover.
19:08It is the shared, common exclaim of both the realized one and the devoted one.
19:20The world is just dry bread pieces.
19:25Now how does it matter whether the bread pieces are salty or saltless?
19:35The common man creates a great distinction.
19:40He says, you know, salty bread pieces are far more preferable to saltless bread pieces.
19:48Salty bread pieces he calls as happiness.
19:52Saltless bread pieces he calls as sadness.
20:00The saint says, how does it matter if those bread pieces have been salted?
20:05After all, fundamentally they are just dry bread pieces.
20:12And I do not agree with dry bread pieces.
20:22I just cannot bring myself to a state where I start delighting in dry bread pieces whether
20:29salty or saltless.
20:31The common man says, no.
20:36It is great when bread pieces are salted.
20:41It is bad only when the bread pieces are…
20:46You get the difference in the positions of the saint and the common man.
20:53The common man is saying, it is possible to enjoy these dry bread pieces provided they are salted.
21:03The saint says, it doesn't matter whether they are salted or saltless.
21:08I cannot enjoy them.
21:12So, to the saint, the world is not a spectrum.
21:19To the saint, the world is just one thing.
21:24What is that one thing?
21:26Dry bread pieces.
21:29Something that gives you no consolation, no comfort.
21:33Something to which you can really never agree.
21:41Therefore, the saint does not try to find satisfaction in the world.
21:46The saint has finally declared, declared with finality.
21:55What?
21:57The world is not where I am going to find contentment.
22:02The world is just dry bread pieces.
22:05It's just that some of those pieces are salted.
22:08Some are saltless.
22:10Some of those dry bread pieces are colored.
22:13Some are colorless.
22:15Some are aromatic.
22:21Some have no aroma.
22:24Some of them come in fancy packaging.
22:29Some of them do not even look good.
22:34Some are named very eloquently.
22:41And some have a bad name.
22:45It doesn't matter what the names of the bread pieces are.
22:52It doesn't matter what their forms are.
22:56It doesn't matter what their descriptions are.
23:02What their social standings are.
23:06The saint says a bread piece is a bread piece.
23:11And that to a dry one.
23:15I do not like dry bread pieces.
23:19The world is just one big dry bread piece.
23:24All the diversities that are found in the world are superficial.
23:32Those diversities cannot fool me.
23:36I have come to realize that the bread in the pizza is stale.
23:45Now will the topping change things?
23:53You have just come to see that the bread in the pizza is stale.
23:59Now would it help if the topping is fancy and eye-catching?
24:07Would it help?
24:09The common man is taken in by the topping.
24:22The saint looks at the dry bread piece.
24:27He says this pizza has dry stale bread.
24:32It doesn't matter whether you put a lot of salt or a lot of oregano or a lot of cheese or a lot of whatever.
24:40And you know if and especially if your bread is dry and stale it becomes very important to top it well.
25:01It becomes very important to top it well.
25:07Freshly baked bread you can have even without jam, cheese or butter.
25:17Stale bread, dry bread you require salt, you require many other kinds of spices and additions.
25:26You know most people do not eat the pizza for the bread.
25:37They eat the pizza for the toppings.
25:40That's the common man.
25:43He forgets the base.
25:45Who is the saint who remembers the base?
25:49The saint remembers the base.
25:58The common man looks at the topping and sees a lot of differences.
26:02And the chef with all his experience and wickedness is smiling.
26:10And the customer is acting very smart in his own eyes.
26:17He says you know a little bit of this and that and add that as well.
26:25And you know what is the one thing that the customer is not talking of?
26:29The base.
26:31And the chef is smiling.
26:32The chef is saying the bugger doesn't even bother to inquire whether the base has any substance.
26:42The base is totally rotten.
26:47And the customer is busy specifying the toppings.
26:55To this customer pizza is bad if the topping is bad.
27:03But there is a great possibility that the pizza is good provided the topping is good.
27:09To the saint the pizza is definitely bad.
27:14Because the base is just dry bread.
27:23That's what Kabir Sahab is talking of here.
27:30This is in front of a pizza shop in Varanasi in the 15th century.
27:41I tell you seriously.
27:47What do you think?
27:4915th century Kashi did not know of pizza?
27:54What is the proof?
28:01Next, if you are benumbed by slumber can you wait for cushion or cover?
28:12If you really are desperate for that final relaxation.
28:23Will you attach conditions to your sleep?
28:30Sleep here stands for relaxation.
28:35Sleep here stands for a state of consciousness in which the world is no more.
28:51Kabir Sahab here is not talking of ordinary sleep.
28:56He is using ordinary sleep as a metaphor to point at the final sleep that each of us craves for.
29:12He says that if you are talking too much about beds, mattresses, pillows, cushions and covers
29:30that only shows that you are still not sleepy enough.
29:35That only shows that you still have appetite left for the normal state of consciousness.
29:42That only shows that you still can be hanging around for another 30 minutes with your eyes opening into the world.
29:55You have not come to that point where you say enough is enough.
30:03I do not want the world to enter into me anymore through these eyes.
30:09These eyes must close.
30:12I want sleep right now immediately.
30:15The world has to cease.
30:19And when you are so very sleepy
30:26then you do get to sleep because then you drop all your conditions against sleep.
30:32It is not that sleep is not available.
30:39Man refuses to sleep for two reasons.
30:44One, he feels there is something important in the world that is waiting for him, pending.
30:54So he says, how can I sleep?
30:56Something is yet to be done.
31:00Even in ordinary sleep that happens, does it not?
31:04If something important is pending, then you find that sleep is difficult to come.
31:13Similarly, the spiritual sleep cannot come to you
31:19if you keep thinking that some important matter in the world is still to be closed.
31:27And as far as we are concerned,
31:32the list of important items pending in the world just keeps forever increasing.
31:41We are never going to come to a point where we may say, I am done with the world.
31:51All pendencies are cleared.
31:59Nothing remains hanging or lingering.
32:04So I can now retire.
32:09That is one reason attaching importance to the world.
32:23And the second reason is attaching conditions to sleep.
32:33One says, I will sleep when such and such conditions relating to sleep are met.
32:41What are those conditions?
32:43Well, you know, I am a man of high stature.
32:47How do I sleep on this ragtag mattress?
32:59Even my liberation has to be a special liberation because I am a special man, you see.
33:07Maybe there are several who get enlightenment, but mine should be enlightenment plus.
33:18Or do you want me to identify as a commoner?
33:27So there are conditions, you see.
33:33I want to sleep, but the linen has that spot in the bottom left corner.
33:47So unless you replace the linen, I am not going to sleep.
33:55Such are our conditions.
33:59I will come to liberation when, fill up the blank.
34:10And you will never be short of sentences to fill up the blank.
34:22You would never come to a point where you say, nothing is remaining to fill the blank.
34:35I am done with everything.
34:39There would always be some condition standing against your liberation, against your union with the beloved.
34:53And you honor that condition.
34:59You are too full of respect towards the world.
35:04You do not look at the world as just a dry bread piece.
35:11To you, the world stands as something very appealing.
35:21Look at this.
35:30What is the attitude of the saint towards the world?
35:39For the saint, the world is not an end, but an opportunity.
35:46To the common man, the world itself is the end.
35:54The common man says the purpose of life is happiness and happiness comes from attainment in the world.
36:04That is the philosophy on which 99.99% of humanity works.
36:13People might say that they are not philosophers, but in fact everybody is a philosopher.
36:19And what is the philosophy they subscribe to?
36:23It can be summed up in two sentences.
36:26One, the purpose of life is happiness.
36:29Happiness comes from worldly attainments.
36:34That is the common motivating philosophy of the world.
36:43What does the saint say?
36:45The saint says the world is an opportunity to gain liberation from the world.
36:55There is no option but to use the world as an opportunity because the bodied one is finding himself in the world.
37:04So, there is no escape from the world.
37:07And if there is no escape from some place, then that same place has to be used as an opportunity.
37:14What else is the opportunity?
37:16If the embodied being finds himself in the world, then the possibility of liberation from the world too must be where he is.
37:31And where is he? In the world.
37:33Therefore, he uses the world as an opportunity.
37:36He searches for opportunities.
37:38This is the world.
37:39In this world, where do I find that tunnel, that secret tunnel that takes me out of the prison?
37:48This is the world enclosing me.
37:53Where do I find the crack in the wall?
37:56The crack in the wall that I can exploit to break through.
38:04That is the attitude of the saint.
38:09He too looks carefully at the world, but not to get happiness, but to get liberation.
38:21The common man looks carefully at the world, searching for opportunities for happiness.
38:29The saint looks even more carefully at the world, searching for opportunities for liberation.
38:37That is the difference.
38:42The common man looks for happiness without realizing the dual nature of happiness.
38:53Without realizing that the ball is performing a simple harmonic motion between happiness and sadness.
39:01The common man knows neither physics nor the metaphysical.
39:15He looks for happiness and gets a bit of it, no doubt.
39:19Sometimes the ball is indeed at the North Pole or close to the North Pole.
39:24Sometimes it is.
39:25Is it not?
39:26So, the common man looks for happiness and gets a bit of happiness, some crumbs of happiness.
39:33But along with the happiness that he gets, he gets an equal share of sadness and then
39:41he feels both puzzled and motivated.
39:44He feels puzzled because he had never bargained for sadness.
39:48And he feels motivated saying that now that I have sadness, I will look for happiness
39:54with even more determination.
39:56After all, sadness is an unwanted state of mind and it has to be removed or balanced out.
40:04The common man faces defeat in what he wants.
40:18The saint succeeds in what he wants.
40:21The saint succeeds because he is wanting something that is fundamentally different from what
40:27the common man wants.
40:29You too can win this great war, provided you look for the right kind of victory.
40:44The victory in this war is a word that begins with L, not with H.
40:56The victory in the war called life is not happiness, but liberation.
41:06Is it too tough to understand?
41:11Yes?
41:15kahe kabir prem ka maarag sir dena toh rohna kya rahe ho?
41:20Once you have offered your head, now why do you cry?
41:31This is the path.
41:38This is the war in which you are fighting against your own head.
41:44There is no enemy outside of you.
41:49It is a very peculiar kind of battle.
41:55In general, in common wars, your enemy stands outside of you and aims for your head and
42:09your role in the war is to protect your head.
42:14Right?
42:16That's how a common war or battle proceeds.
42:20Is it not?
42:22The enemy is outside of you and he is gunning for your head and what are you trying to do?
42:30You are trying to protect your head.
42:33The real war called life proceeds, we said, a little peculiarly.
42:43How does it proceed?
42:45The enemy is not outside of you.
42:48You are the enemy.
42:50You are fighting against your own head.
42:53Your head is the enemy you are fighting against.
42:58To save itself, your head keeps on misguiding you by telling you that the enemy is outside of you.
43:13The head must save itself.
43:15So, the head gives you fake information like one usually gives to the enemy.
43:27What kind of information do you give to your enemy?
43:29True?
43:30Genuine?
43:31Fake information.
43:32Now, your head being your enemy, it gives you fake information.
43:37What does it tell you?
43:38It tells you the enemy is there, 47.5 degrees to your right at a distance of 3.82 meters.
43:52And if you are not careful enough, not discreet enough, then you will be fooled by your head
44:00and you will start aiming for the enemy, assuming that the enemy is outside of you and somebody
44:08here keeps shooting wherever you want to.
44:11But you will never shoot at the real enemy.
44:13Who is the real enemy?
44:15The one you consider your friend.
44:17The one you consider not only your friend but are actually very closely identified with your head.
44:28Your head will not tell you who your real enemy is.
44:32Your head will never tell you who your real enemy is because your head itself is the real enemy.
44:38Now, why do you rely on your head to determine your friends and foes?
44:45How wise is that?
44:51You are still trying to comprehend me through your head?
44:57Many of you are.
44:59It's like depending on your born enemy, sworn enemy to know where your welfare lies.
45:22Consulting your head to know how to win this war is like consulting your enemy on how to defeat him.
45:34And not only consulting him but actually abiding by his advice, fighting the war on the principles suggested by your enemy.
45:48That's how intelligent we are.
45:59Kabir Sahab says, smaller battles can be fought later on.
46:08Let's slaughter the main enemy first.
46:11As you enter the war, sever your head.
46:31The commander-in-chief of the enemy forces has been killed.
46:35Now how long will the enemy hold on?
46:40Who was the commander-in-chief of the enemy forces?
46:47Your own head.
46:49He has been shot down.
46:51The enemy cannot stand his ground for long.
46:56The war is as good as won.
46:59For all the lovers of truth and peace, Kabir Sahab has just one simple advice.
47:08Kill the mole.
47:14There is a spy in your ranks.
47:29The commander-in-chief of the enemy forces is acting as a mole and has entered your camp
47:38and not only has he entered your camp, he has actually become the commander-in-chief of your forces.
47:45You are so hopeful.
48:07Love does not tolerate resistance.
48:13The lover becomes especially sensitive and discreet.
48:21There is one thing that he becomes very alert to.
48:26Who is impeding my progress?
48:31Who is preventing me directly or indirectly from reaching my target?
48:41Ordinarily, he might not come to know who is secretly blocking his path.
48:48But in love, he becomes so very particular about reaching his target
48:56that he comes to know with great sensitivity who is blocking his path.
49:11And the lover doesn't stand him.
49:26The lover has no sympathy for him.
49:31The lover is not divided.
49:36The lover's devotion is totally concentrated on the one, on the beloved.
49:47So anybody who even obliquely or partially blocks, prevents, resists, impedes,
50:01blocks, prevents, resists, impedes the lover's movement is bound to be slaughtered.
50:16And if the one blocking the lover's movement towards the beloved is the lover's own head,
50:26then too bad for the head.
50:31Gone.
50:43But such things can happen only in love.
50:48And you will know love if you are happy with dry bread pieces.
51:01Next time, do bother to check the pizza base.
51:13The eyes usually fail to see a few things.
51:17Senses deceive, don't they?
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