For those who want freedom || Acharya Prashant, International Psychology Summit (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? 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: 16.02.23, International Psychology Summit Conference   For those who want freedom  Context: ~ How to deal with emotionality? ~ How to be free from emotions? ~ How to be free? ~ How to break our comfort zone? ~ What gives power to change life? ~ What is love? ~ Who dare to take risk in life?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Namaskar Acharyaji, and you've talked of mukti, so I would like to know is it a mukti

00:11from life and birth or I mean more if you can elaborate.

00:18Mukti from internal compulsions, the goal of life can be talked of as mukti which is

00:27liberation which is also called freedom.

00:33So if freedom is the goal of life, surely we are presupposing bondage, right, without

00:40bondage there can be no question of freedom, liberation, mukti.

00:46So that's what the freedom is from, all kinds of compulsions.

00:53Yeah, but that is again a superficial way of mukti, the deeper level as you say or where

01:03we read that mukti from to be desireless, to be detached and finally like in it's mentioned

01:17in the scriptures, I mean like, you know, through, I mean how to express it, I mean

01:32to be the final ultimate goal of every human being though we have been given birth is to

01:39free from the cycle of birth and rebirth and that is the ultimate.

01:45It is not the next, it is not your next birth that troubles you, it is the bondages that

01:53you experience in this birth, let the mic be there, she is communicating, it is the

02:00bondages that you experience in this birth right here, that's what troubles you, who

02:07is experiencing troubles related to the next birth, please tell me and all of us indeed

02:14do have troubles, what are your troubles about, here this, so that's the compulsion

02:23we carry to entertain troubles, to not to drop them, to think that we are helpless in

02:36the matter of troubles, that's what liberation is, liberation is not about the previous birth

02:44or the next birth, liberation is freedom from the bondages that you experience right

02:50now and the experiencer of the bondage is herself the bondage, there is no objective

03:05bondage, the one who experiences bondages is herself in illusion, so you could also

03:15put it as freedom from illusion or ignorance, we do not know who we are, therefore we feel

03:24obliged to keep suffering trouble, once you put on some random dubious fake identity,

03:38you will have to do everything that the identity demands of you, correct, none of these identities

03:45is real and therefore the compulsions attached to those identities are not obligatory, that's

03:53liberation, question is how is life with desires, you are asking how would be life

04:17without desires, that's too much of speculation, shouldn't the question be how is life with

04:26desires, how is life with desires and when you see that, then you say whatsoever is the

04:34alternative is acceptable, anything but this, also a state of desirousness is a state of

04:48ignorance, we do not know who we are, therefore we desire for the wrong entity, see our desires

04:57never fulfill us, what does that mean, that means our desires are for somebody else, metaphorically

05:06put, you are doing something that does not fulfill you, so surely the fruits of your

05:12action are benefiting somebody else, they are not benefiting you, so you do not want

05:25to rush after these desires, you say fine, fine, fine, fine, stop these and I am in a

05:33state of ignorance when I am desirous, in this state of ignorance if I try to speculate

05:43how life would be without desire, what would be the quality of my speculation, I am drunk

05:52let's say, I am drunk, I am drunk, I am drunk, in this state I cannot make head or tail of

06:02anything, correct, and you come to me and preach the virtues of abstinence, you say

06:11don't drink and in my drunken state I say, but I want to understand what would be the

06:17benefits of not drinking, what is the problem with this question, what is the problem with

06:24this question, it comes from a drunken state, in a drunken state I am asking what would

06:34be the benefits I will get if I do not drink, sir even you will know, but please get sober,

06:43in a desirous state I ask what would be the benefits of dropping desire, no answer would

06:52be relevant, how do we navigate through, what, okay, so basically you know I will expand

07:13it on your example, I am drunk and instead of asking you know what are the benefits of

07:19not drinking, I am asking how do I navigate it, like you know how do I, you just stumbled,

07:25look at your knee, that's how you navigate, you are drunk, so what happens to you, what

07:33happens to you when you are drunk, you are not walking straight, and then you, fall,

07:39and you, fall, and you bleed, yeah, look at your knee, that's how you navigate, look at

07:45your pain, acknowledge your suffering, so like suffering is, like you said fulfilling

07:52life, so but if suffering is fulfilling, acknowledge, don't inflict, acknowledge, there is a difference

08:03between creating suffering and acknowledging that you are already suffering, and that's

08:14hard, right, and that's the reason most people prefer to rather live false lives, because

08:22if they acknowledge their real state, it pains, it's like being, like being out of sedation,

08:32when you are sedated, you don't feel pain, right, or when you are anesthetized, you don't

08:36feel pain, so people choose to remain on sedation, on tranquilizers, on such things.

08:43So if I, you know, I acknowledge the pain, what do I do then?

08:49Then there is a natural thing within you, that seeks joy, and will drop pain, we are

08:59not born to live in pain, our nature is joy, and that's the reason why we all rush towards

09:07that poor proxy called happiness, because happiness to an extent seems like joy, in

09:16both joy and happiness, there is an absence of sorrow, so we rush towards happiness, because

09:25it appears a bit like joy, though happiness is not at all joy, happiness is just a shady

09:31cousin of sorrow, but we rush towards it, because it looks like joy.

09:37So your nature is joy, the moment you acknowledge pain, you will find yourself dropping it.

09:47And in that lies your freedom, in that lies the power of choice, you can drop your pain,

09:54and pain is not compulsory, you are not mandated to live a life of suffering, if you suffer,

10:06that's a choice you have inflicted on yourself, and you can reverse that choice, we all have

10:17the liberty, rather an internal obligation, to bring ourselves to a joyous state, a state

10:27of complete bloom, that's what we are born for, right, you look at a flower, how do you

10:34feel about a flower, that remained a bud, or got nipped in the bud, or flowered but

10:42incompletely, you don't feel good, right, you want it to bloom fully, that's what is

10:49the purpose of life, full bloom, and it's therefore quite tragic, if we pass away without

11:00expressing ourselves, blooming fully, actually living, reaching your utmost potential, dropping

11:10your last bondages.

11:17I have another question, I'm really sorry about this, but it's related to this, so you

11:26know we were talking about desires, and like you know, how it should, like we should live

11:31without desires, and like, my desire can be like, I want to be the most excellent person,

11:39yeah, the best person in this field, so it is a desire, and you know, it kind of contradicts

11:46it, because my life won't have any meaning without it, no, no, no, dropping desire is

11:53not the objective, when you are an unfulfilled person to begin with, how can you not have

12:01desire, the thing is to have a sane desire, I'm sick, my desire should be for a doctor,

12:11not a dancer, not a joker, so desire the right thing, desire the right thing, and have an

12:22intense desire for the right thing, wisdom is not about being desireless in the first

12:29go itself, no, we all rather need desire, but we need desire that proves good, that's

12:38of some utility, if your desire ends up troubling you all the more, what good is the desire?

12:48You can be a slave to the desire, if it's the right desire, in fact, you must be a slave

12:54to the right desire, desire rightly and immerse yourself totally in your desire, give yourself

13:01up, surrender. Sir, my question is how we control our emotions

13:07in a difficult situation and we maintain our life peacefully?

13:13Ma'am, mostly our emotions are not our own, they are so pattern based, so pattern based,

13:20if you just recall what made you angry the last time, just the recall will make you angry

13:27again, just try to recall what embarrassed you the last time, just the recall will embarrass

13:39you again, there is nothing but a pattern, so they are not your emotions, it's like having

13:48a button that somebody, anybody randomly can come and just push.

13:56Is there any spiritual practice to control our emotions?

14:01Just tell yourself that's not me, that's not my emotion, address yourself not, I need

14:10your suggestion actually, that's a suggestion, address yourself not as I but as let's say

14:16Manju, what's your name please? My name is Shoma Lahiri Mallik, fine, so Shoma, address

14:24yourself by your name and say Shoma, you are at it again, it's happening again and

14:31it's not you, it's automatic, let it happen, you don't need to participate, you don't need

14:39to participate, let it happen, you don't need to be a part of it, if it's prakritic, if

14:47it's hormonal, if it's bodily, it will happen, what can I do, it's bound to happen, it's

14:53a part of my physical constitution, but I need not participate in the happening, I'll

15:00stay at an arm's length and just see what is happening.

15:06Sometimes other stimulus are disturbed us, outside stimulus.

15:10Yes, there is disturbance but not to you. And in this situation how we control our emotion,

15:19it is also my question.

15:31How can it be difficult to see that it's all so mechanical, there is a word that you despise,

15:42there is a word that you despise, let's say, I abhor being called ugly, after the 10th

15:52time I am called ugly, I should become impervious to the word ugly, I should become totally

16:00non-reactive, indifferent, because now I know what's happening, okay, ugly, thank you.

16:09I mean, I have seen how the whole thing operates like an electric circuit, right, there is

16:17the switch, this is so obvious and so foolhardy, how long can I participate in this.

16:25So, after a point one just drops out and says, I don't see any point being a part of all

16:31this. In fact, if you want to play a game with yourself, predict yourself, predict yourself.

16:41For example, you know somebody you are totally mad on is going to come to you and you are

16:54already steaming hot, very angry and now the doorbell rings and you tell yourself,

17:02now you know what will happen, I will open the gate and shout, predict yourself.

17:08The more you see how predictable you are, the more you see how mechanical you are, because

17:13only machines can be predicted, only machines can be programmed.

17:17If you can predict your behavior, your reactions in advance, then you know that you are just

17:23a lump of chemicals, hormones, circuits and that's not what consciousness is.

17:30Consciousness is supposed to be free, right, an electric circuit is not free, chemical

17:37reactions are not free, sodium and potassium cannot decide whether to react with water,

17:45they are constrained to react.

17:49Do you want to be just a chemical, a chemical that is obliged to act in certain ways, there

17:56is freedom then.

17:59Predict yourself, predict yourself and then defy the prediction.

18:06So, I was supposed to be angry, I didn't get angry, 1-0, self-1, hormones-0.

18:19So, keep the score.

18:27So, the hormones are imbalanced, I am not imbalanced.

18:34I am not my body, so how can I be the hormones?

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