Experiment in life: Test before you Trust || Acharya Prashant, on Chandogya Upanishad (2022)

last month

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?
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: Shastra Kaumudi, 22.02.2022, Rishikesh, India

Context:
~ How to know the world?
~ How to rise above the plane of the world?
~ Who is the real hero in spirituality?

Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~

Transcript

00:00:00What we are taking today from the Chandogya Upanishad includes one of the most famous

00:00:16verses from the entire Vedantic corpus. Sarvam khalvidam brahm. All this is brahm. All this

00:00:35is brahm. Verily, all this universe is brahm. From him do all things originate, into him

00:00:53do they dissolve, and by him are they sustained. On him should one meditate in tranquillity,

00:01:04for as is one's faith, such indeed one is, and as is one's faith in this world, such

00:01:13one becomes on departing hence. Let one therefore cultivate faith.

00:01:30All this is brahm. This statement holds meaning only in the backdrop of what we hold all

00:01:49this to usually mean. When you look at this and that, here and there, inside and outside,

00:01:58you see things, you see objects, you see people, you see meanings. This is what the sage is denying

00:02:16here. No, things are not what they appear to be, and things are not distinct from each other. One,

00:02:32things are not what you think they are. Sarvam khalvidam brahm. Verily, all this universe is

00:02:42brahm alone. Whatever you look at, do not think of that as an objective truth. The pillar in front

00:02:57of your eyes, the man and the woman walking out there, this body that you claim to own,

00:03:11everything that can be there in your mental field, do not think of it as an independent,

00:03:26absolute, objective entity. It does not exist that way. Neither are things anything that you

00:03:43can otherwise take them to be. First thing, things are not what they appear to you. And second thing,

00:04:00things are also not anything you can imagine them to be. And things are not distinct or

00:04:14separate from each other. One thing in its reality is not separate from another thing. All this is

00:04:29brahm. This is not how it seems. And this is not diversified at all. The very basis of one's

00:04:49existence is being challenged. We cannot exist without calling ourselves as differentiated from

00:05:04the other's body. If you're sitting on a chair, you cannot exist without calling yourself as separate

00:05:15from the chair you're sitting on. The very basis of our existence is being challenged because this

00:05:27very basis that sustains our existence is also the basis of our suffering. What is being given

00:05:41to us is not so much of a truth. It is much more of a remedy. We are being given a medicine and the

00:05:54medicine does not work if you just analyze it as a concept. You can keep the medicine in front of

00:06:08you and conduct experiments to know its chemical composition. And you have known a lot about the

00:06:20medicine. You know its molecular weight. You know what all is it some mixture of a thousand things

00:06:26you know about the medicine. The medicine does not work that way. Knowledge may work that way,

00:06:32not medicines. It works when you meditate on what is being said. And therefore, the verse

00:06:49emphasizes so much on meditation. And the second thing the verse emphasizes on is faith. Because

00:06:59this meditation is going to be hurtful. This meditation may set you against the one who

00:07:09encourages you to meditate. Now you also know why the Shantipat of the Upanishads prays that the

00:07:22teacher may not start hating or disliking or abhorring the disciple and vice versa.

00:07:31Because the teacher runs a huge risk by saying to the student what is being said in the verse here.

00:07:43What cannot be communicated in words is being attempted by the teacher and it extracts a lot

00:08:04from the teacher. And the teacher also knows that the possibility of miscommunication,

00:08:10misinterpretation is large. The teacher also knows that to speak to the student,

00:08:26he must retain within himself a bit of what makes the student a student. Unless the teacher

00:08:40carries within himself a part of the ignorance that the student carries a lot of, he can be of

00:08:53no use to the student. And if the teacher carries that, then that same ignorance can turn the

00:09:08teacher against the student. And the problems at the student's end are far easier to see.

00:09:22The student's very existence is being demolished. It would rather be a surprise if the student does

00:09:35not start hating the teacher. In fact, if the teacher is real, it will be impossible for the

00:09:43student to not to hate him, at least occasionally. So, faith is needed, a lot of faith is needed.

00:09:55If you meditate on these words, there would be an instant recoil because you will be threatened.

00:10:02And the only thing that can save you is faith. Once it has been awarded Sarvam Kalvidam Brahm,

00:10:16then only these two remain, meditation and faith. Meditation, so that the essence of these words

00:10:34may indeed reach you. And faith, so that you may not run away when that essence reaches you.

00:10:48If you don't meditate, you will remain safe. You will just keep parroting Sarvam Kalvidam Brahm,

00:10:58without ever letting the medicine act on you. But if you only meditate without faith,

00:11:07then your meditation cannot last. Very soon it will become clear to you that you are entering

00:11:16into something tremendously dangerous, and then you will quit. Meditators without faith quit just

00:11:28too easily. They cannot survive the demands that reality poses.

00:11:46From him do all things originate, into him do they dissolve, and by him are they sustained.

00:12:02This meditation itself is the door to Brahm. The world is a lack of understanding. Meditation is

00:12:20the entry into understanding. The more you understand, the more you find that your universe

00:12:37is being dissolved. At the physical level you will probably still see differences, but the meanings

00:12:49that these differences used to carry will steadily drop. The eyes will see the wall and the window,

00:13:05but the wall is just the wall, the window is just the window. The wall and the window are just the

00:13:13eye, nothing more. It's all gone, dissolved. The eye is looking at the wall, the eye is looking at the window.

00:13:32The window and the wall and the eye are just one. The differences are gone, dissolved.

00:13:46That dissolution is Brahm, and if you ever inquire into where those differences came

00:13:55from, it will be clear to you that those differences among things cannot come from

00:14:02the things themselves. The things are the differences, but the things are not the source

00:14:13of the differences. You meditate on the source of the differences, you do not come to the

00:14:25source, however great things happen, the great thing is that the things themselves dissolve.

00:14:35That dissolution is again Brahm. You want to check the reality of things, things dissolve.

00:14:51You want to check the origination, the genesis of things, things again dissolve. Therefore,

00:14:59all things come from Brahm and all things recede, dissolve into Brahm.

00:15:10What makes things sustain? What makes the world run? Because the sustenance of the world

00:15:20is actually the movement of the world. The world does not exist as a thing, the world

00:15:24exists as a flux, a movement. What makes the world move? What is the engine of the

00:15:32world? The engine of the world is your thirst for Brahm. Brahm makes the world move, otherwise

00:15:42why would the bird sing? Why would the man look? Why would the woman desire? Why would

00:15:52the kid run? Why would you wake up each morning? Why would you say? Why would you hear? Brahm

00:16:05makes the world run. So, together it all means Brahm is where it all comes from, Brahm is

00:16:14what makes it run and into Brahm it all dissolves. Now meditate on this. Meditate on this not

00:16:25in the sense that you want to know what Brahm is, meditate on how you are fooled so easily

00:16:34and for so long and we said it won't be easy because it hurts, it hurts the very basis

00:16:42of your existence. So have faith, faith that you won't disappear as a result of this meditation,

00:16:53that truth is not dangerous, that there is no real need to continue being who you are.

00:17:01Have faith. For as is one's faith such indeed one is, you are no different than the quality

00:17:15of your faith. If your faith is so flimsy that it requires an object to trust, then

00:17:25just as objects are ephemeral, objects come and go, your trust too will be very fragile.

00:17:34Whereas if you have a faith that requires nothing of this world to rest on, reasonless

00:17:50faith, only then will you have the courage to keep moving into the depths of truth where the

00:18:01path keeps getting progressively narrower and narrower and not even your own personality can

00:18:14pass through. The only way then to move ahead is to become smaller. Reduce and rise, reduce

00:18:32and rise, reduce and rise. Why will you reduce if reduction means disappearance? Why will you

00:18:43disappear if your false existence is all you think you have? Why would you call your existence

00:18:55as false if you have never meditated on it? Don't meditate on the truth, meditate on yourself,

00:19:03meditate on your life. Start by thinking about these things, then let thought go deeper into

00:19:12contemplation, that becomes meditation. Meditation if allowed to go deep becomes

00:19:20one-pointed attention and that's where understanding blossoms. You'll be able to

00:19:30go to that point only if you are not afraid. For as is one's faith, such indeed one is,

00:19:39and as is one's faith in this world, such one becomes on departing hence. The thing in this

00:19:47world, the object in this world that you have greatest trust upon, that you have greatest

00:19:54affinity to, becomes the center of your life. The previous center departs and the new center

00:20:06is the object you were holding most dearly to your chest. Therefore, in this world,

00:20:14be very careful about the objects you think a lot of, you feel most attracted to. In general,

00:20:25all objects are unreliable. Therefore, if you have to attach yourself to an object,

00:20:36attach yourself to the one object that honestly speaks to you of its unreliability. In the world,

00:20:47if you have to place something very near to yourself, rather at your center,

00:20:53then choose with wisdom and discretion the thing that will be honest enough to tell you

00:21:00that it is merely a thing. Thing that will not come and stick to your insides, rather thing that

00:21:10will come to your insides, look at all that is accumulated there and tell you all this is false

00:21:18and equally I am false. Let all this vanish and let me vanish as well. Such one becomes

00:21:33on departing hence, we are not talking of physical death here. We are talking of the

00:21:39constant change in one's center. You act as somebody in one moment, the next moment you

00:21:50are the thing you have been so covetous of and new identity itself is born. So,

00:22:03be very careful about the things you look at, the things you give importance to.

00:22:09Let one therefore, cultivate faith. Nothing is going to be possible without fearlessness and

00:22:19in the worlds of objects alone there is nothing but fear. Faith is the antidote to fear. Reasonless

00:22:32faith. Just as fear comes to you without your permission, there should be faith without your

00:22:42permission. Just as you do not know where fear comes from, even though fear does come from a

00:22:49very definite point, you should also not know where your faith comes from. Somebody asks you,

00:22:57what is your faith? You should not know. Somebody asks you, why are you so faithful? You should not

00:23:07know. You should just not know. You should fall silent and if you are pressed too much to tell,

00:23:18how come you have such a deep faith? You should feel perplexed because this faith is not yours.

00:23:30This faith has nothing to do with your personality or your ego. Had it come from a point in your ego,

00:23:39it would have pointed towards something in the field of your ego and if you have faith on

00:23:49something in the field of your ego, it will not help the ego. Therefore, it is very important that

00:23:57faith must be reasonless, baseless, objectless. It has to be really a blind faith. What you usually

00:24:08call blind faith is mere superstition, blind belief. In belief, there is an object. Therefore,

00:24:20what you call as blind belief is not totally blind. It is just per-blind or semi-blind.

00:24:27What we require is a totally blind faith. Mark you totally, totally. Semi-blind faith is very,

00:24:41very dangerous. It is superstition. The moment faith becomes totally blind,

00:24:49it assumes an altogether different quality. In fact, it is not possible for a normal human

00:24:57being to have blind faith. Usually, we accuse people of being blindly faithful. The acquisition

00:25:08is an impossibility. When you say somebody has blind faith, it is actually a commendation. It

00:25:26is a big token of praise. Do not say this thing casually about someone. Do you understand what

00:25:47we mean by blind faith? Blind faith is the refusal to absolutely trust anything in this

00:25:56world. That is blind faith. Do not think of blind faith in terms of what it rests upon.

00:26:03Think of blind faith in terms of what it does not rest upon. When you just refuse to take anything

00:26:15seriously beyond a point, including your own thoughts, emotions, everything, that is blind

00:26:20faith. When you have the guts to carry on without the support, the backing of anything in the

00:26:30universe, that is blind faith. When you do not know neither the beginning nor the end of what

00:26:42you are doing and still you know that this is what needs to be done, that is blind faith. And

00:26:47that is very very unusual. That is very rare. One in a million can afford to have blind faith. It

00:27:02is the highest compliment you can offer somebody that man has blind faith. Are you getting it? But

00:27:15that does not mean that you turn superstitious. Blind faith is not an absence of inquiry. Blind

00:27:23faith is the willingness to inquire into everything. This is blind faith. I will not let

00:27:31anything escape the test of inquiry. Anything. I will have that courage to question even the,

00:27:42as we have said, the basis of existence. That is blind faith. Therefore, cultivate faith. How does

00:27:54one cultivate faith? The process is a negative. Start getting rid of your supports one by one.

00:28:04You cannot cultivate faith. You can decultivate your lack of faith. It is your lack of faith

00:28:17that compels you to rely on this or that in the world. Therefore, how do you rediscover your faith?

00:28:27By giving up your reliance on stuff in the world. Progressively start reducing your reliance on

00:28:37stuff in the world and see what it does to you. You are afraid if you do not rely, you will be

00:28:45harmed. See whether you are harmed or raised. Try, check, experiment. This willingness to

00:28:57ruthlessly experiment is blind faith. Namaste Sir. So, my question is like regarding on the

00:29:13lines of faith and right action which you tend to focus a lot on right action. So, whenever we

00:29:23tend to take something, take a decision regarding right action, now mind keeps on asking proof.

00:29:30Proof that I will be fine. Whether I will be fine or not if I do this action. It keeps on asking

00:29:35for closure, proof and honestly many a times in right action it is very difficult to provide a

00:29:43valid proof that yes 100% sure you will be fine. And this fear, uncertainty that will I be fine

00:29:51if I do this thing or not is the perhaps the doubt which Kabir Sir also says keep away. This

00:29:59doubt itself is the root cause of evil which perhaps keeps the faith away. Can you throw some light on it?

00:30:07All I can say is try. Fear tells you a story. We can verify at least whether the story is real.

00:30:22Fear tells you this is what you will lose and if you lose this you will not be able to survive.

00:30:33You will not be able to bear the loss. Check whether first of all the thing you are losing

00:30:45is the thing fear is suggesting you. Secondly, check whether the loss is indeed painful. It is

00:30:58possible that the loss is not too painful. In fact, it is possible that the loss is blissful.

00:31:07But you would never come to know of that if you do not experiment. Have the courage to at least

00:31:16start experimenting in bits. Maybe you cannot take huge risks given your current condition,

00:31:25but a little bit. Start from where you are. Yes, so it might be the case that the loss may be real

00:31:44but the amplitude of loss may not be as what the mind is suggesting. The definition of the loss

00:31:51might not be what the story is suggesting. You are being told that the loss would hurt a lot.

00:32:01In fact, loss by definition is something that hurts. What would you say about the kind of loss

00:32:10that does not hurt instead relieves you? Would you still call it loss? These things have to

00:32:21be tested. And loss, then what terms are we talking loss? Loss, it can be mostly bodies.

00:32:34When it says loss, it means loss of health, loss of finances, only of those things.

00:32:39Anything that you consider valuable. Wherever my ego has got attached to and it seems valuable.

00:32:50Exactly.

00:32:51The question was that you just said, be careful of the objects of the world. And if you have to

00:33:05surround yourself, what I heard was that surround yourself with the one that are openly unreliable.

00:33:11So what I understood from that was, the more you expose yourself to the objects of the world

00:33:23that are unreliable, and you do that proactively, you are basically, I can use that as a technique

00:33:31for gradual disillusionment with the objects of the world. Now, the question there kind of comes

00:33:38to mind is, I find myself to be most unreliable. My mind that always tells me, I have begun to kind

00:33:47of doubt myself more than I used to. It is always telling me things that are not good for me. So why

00:33:56do I have to really go for any further than myself looking for unreliable objects? It's not a

00:34:05question but if you say something about it. Eureka! You can see that the most unreliable

00:34:22one is within jackpot. It is not always but at times I get glimpses. It is not a constant. I do

00:34:38rely on myself also but at times I realize that I am just deceiving myself. A little explanation

00:35:00of when you say objects of the world that are openly unreliable, did that also mean like what

00:35:08Nietzsche says, live dangerously and you were talking about experimentation a little while back.

00:35:13So, putting two and two together, it is like expose yourself to openly a little bit dangerous

00:35:22situations in which you know you will not succeed. See, there are many objects in the world. Let us

00:35:30say we are specifically talking of people here, conscious entities that have a stake in promising

00:35:41you of their reliability. That is what you have to be cautious of. When I said it is alright or

00:35:52rather beneficial to be with objects that are openly unreliable, that is what I meant. Everything

00:36:03is unreliable but most things have a stake in concealing that they are unreliable. It is far

00:36:16better to be in the company of someone who exposes the unreliability of everything including the one

00:36:33who is exposing including the one to whom all this is being exposed.

00:37:03I have a sort of a follow-up question on this discussion. So, we were discussing that,

00:37:17you were explaining that blind faith, real blind faith is when you are not trusting anything

00:37:27essentially, including yourself, including the world, everything. But at our level,

00:37:35we have to trust the words of the Guru. So, is it that if you have to trust someone,

00:37:50trust the words of the Guru and nothing else? No, no, nothing. So, in the world,

00:37:57we just trust the words of the Guru and nothing else? That is why you do not benefit much from

00:38:03the Guru because you trust his words. Trusting is such a lazy business. I don't need to get

00:38:13close to what is being said. I don't need to examine it. I just need to take it on face

00:38:21value and let it be. Oh, something has been said, fine, it is coming from the Guru, it

00:38:25must be alright. This is a clear lack of love and engagement. The Guru should be the last

00:38:37person you should trust. His words are there to ignite enquiry in you. And instead of being

00:38:53full of inquisitiveness, you rather turn dull and let his words pass you without any

00:39:09meaningful interaction. It is an inner ploy against the truth. The Guru's words are meant

00:39:23to be examined. You have to be with them. You have to sit with them. You have to meditate

00:39:29on them. If your self so wants, then you have to rebel against them. You have to be furiously,

00:39:42militantly in opposition of them. Even that is better than passively accepting them. I

00:39:52have often said that why don't you go and wrestle with the Rishis. Instead of offering

00:40:02this false respect, why don't you openly oppose them? That would be a far truer tribute to

00:40:12them. Because you would at least be going close, you would at least be truly engaging

00:40:18with them. But we don't even resist them. Partly because we know that resistance would

00:40:27mean engagement and engagement means intimacy and intimacy means the death of the ego. So,

00:40:36what do we do? We just offer shallow respect. We say, you know, these are the words from the

00:40:41Guru or the great scriptures. So, we will not touch them. We have made the scriptures

00:40:50untouchables. So, we worship them, but don't allow them to touch our core. What the Guru

00:41:02is saying is totally against your life and still you are not questioning the Guru. Don't

00:41:11you see what you are doing? You are saying, let the Guru say whatever he says. It doesn't

00:41:16matter to me. Had it mattered to you, you would have questioned him. Instead you allow

00:41:25the Guru to go on and on and on from some podium and the entire crowd of devotees, 2,000

00:41:33of them are listening, yes, it's coming from the heavens. It merely means there is no relationship.

00:41:43There is no relationship at all because the only true relationship between the teacher

00:41:49and the disciple has to start from resistance. Things like acceptance or devotion or surrender

00:42:01come much later, much later. The first thing has to be honest resistance, but there is no resistance

00:42:11or if there is resistance, then there is very sick kind of resistance. There is no healthy

00:42:24inquiry, no healthy inquiry. If what you are saying is this, then how come this is that?

00:42:34That is not happening. Especially in the India, in the Indian context, it befuddles me that in

00:42:58the land of the Upanishads, where the entire style is conversational, how did preaching become a

00:43:07business? Where are the dialogues? Long monologues, who gets helped? In fact, you get dulled

00:43:36down because to pass through that monologue, you will have to kill your curiosity. Somebody is

00:43:49saying one thing after the other, one thing after the other without giving you an opportunity to

00:43:56express your side or to ask a question. You are just supposed to be a passive receiver.

00:44:02This thing that we are talking of cannot be received in a passive way. It can be received

00:44:20only in love and love abhors fakeness. When the reality is that the teachings do not sync with

00:44:37your life, then why do you sit silently when the teachings are uttered? Your life is a proof that

00:44:48you do not like the teachings. Had you really liked the teachings, they would have shown up in

00:44:53your life, but look at your life and look at the teachings. There is no commonality and still you

00:45:02happily sit through long discourses without uttering a word. Is that not hypocrisy? I have

00:45:17been speaking to young people over the last 10-15 years and part of my mission is to encourage them

00:45:27to oppose me. And this is not just coming from my vanity that irrespective of how much they oppose

00:45:36me, I will still be the conqueror, nothing of that. This is the basic requirement. This is

00:45:43the fundamental spiritual etiquette. But Acharya ji, even to know this,

00:46:05know what you are saying, one has to go to the Guru and give a certain importance to its words.

00:46:15So, one has to put the Guru at a higher pedestal than oneself even to know the fact that one has

00:46:25to oppose the Guru. One has to give, one has to give reality. But if you stay with the teacher

00:46:35for long years, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, without ever having honestly engaged, without

00:46:45ever having honestly and openly resisted, you get nothing. Remember, when we talk of the teacher

00:46:57and the disciple, the fact is that fundamentally the disciple has to be in acute resistance against

00:47:03the teacher. Otherwise, why is he the disciple? The disciple is the ego. Classically, the teacher

00:47:11is the truth. How can the ego be so easily in love with the truth? How can the ego so easily

00:47:21surrender to the truth? And if the ego is offering easy surrender, then this is just false surrender.

00:47:30This is mock surrender. This is deceptive surrender. You are surrendering just too

00:47:37easily so that you do not have to surrender really. So, essentially surrendering will begin

00:47:57with resistance. Obviously, you offer resistance and then you see whether the other can overpower

00:48:03you. And if the other can overpower and overwhelm you, then you surrender and that's fair,

00:48:08fair enough. There was a good fight and the loser surrendered. But how can you surrender

00:48:18without a fight? Then you are not surrendering. Then you are just deceiving the other so that

00:48:24you may not have to surrender. But one does know that, does know somewhere that this path

00:48:36of resistance is going to lead to surrender. Therefore, one does not resist because if one

00:48:42resists, one will have to surrender. If you openly fight with the teacher, you are afraid

00:48:48you will be defeated. So, you prefer mock surrender. You say if I openly fight, I will

00:48:56be defeated. So, I will display false surrender and that way I will remain safe. You know that

00:49:12way not only do you remain safe, but also the false teacher remains safe. Because you are not

00:49:20quarreling, not wrestling with him. So, his hollowness is not being exposed. Have a good

00:49:30fight, knock him on the face. Good for you if he crumbles. You have been saved from a false guru.

00:49:40Thank you. Chaireji, we heard in the verse today that the way we are seeing the things are not,

00:49:55the things are not in reality. The way we are seeing it, it is not the reality. The classic

00:50:09example which is used in Vedanta is that of a snake and rope, that we see a snake in the rope.

00:50:18So, my question is that suppose there is a rope, but somehow I am seeing a snake in it. But I am

00:50:24being told that it's not a snake, it's a rope. But still I am seeing a snake in it. So, I want to

00:50:31know how this intellectual adjustment can help me seeing the things as they are. Pick up a stick

00:50:40and poke it a little. You know stick, stick and you also know how to poke. So, stay at a safe

00:50:51distance. Who knows it might be a real snake. Pick up a long stick, long enough to keep you

00:50:57safe and poke. Or get a water sprinkler, pichkari and throw some water from a distance. If it is

00:51:10snake, it will stand up and hiss. Lot of things can be done. That's called experimentation against

00:51:20blind belief. Yes, but my question is that, that state really can be achieved by this intellectual

00:51:38adjustment and thought process and the knowledge which we hear. Experiment, experiment, experiment,

00:51:45try, test, inquire. Too much? Observe. If it's a snake, it can't lie still for two hours flat.

00:52:15Just observe. Okay, and like we hear that, I mean the oneness between the two people. There

00:52:36is no distinct two people exist in reality. There is only oneness. So, I want to know how to approach

00:52:43that also. You cannot approach oneness, but you can approach the falseness of distinctions.

00:52:53Is the falseness how we can even start with that? You have curiosity, I have curiosity. So,

00:53:03the distinction is falsified. You don't want to be caged, I don't want to be caged. So,

00:53:09distinction is falsified. The deeper you go into individual consciousness, differences disappear

00:53:20and similarities emerge. At the surface level, there are only dissimilarities. You are a woman,

00:53:31I am a man, you have long hair, I don't have that long hair. Your skin complexion is different from

00:53:38mine, your name is different from mine, your age is different, everything is different. Superficially,

00:53:44everything is different. Bodily, a lot is different. You go into the mind, go into the mind

00:53:51and that's when similarities start appearing. You go deeper and similarities turn into oneness.

00:54:02So, Acharya, is this similarity is the same which we are talking is that Atrupti? Is that the same

00:54:14similarity? Good, yes. But don't rush to that conclusion. That conclusion must be attained,

00:54:27not borrowed. You must let that conclusion emerge from your own observation. So, observe the world

00:54:37and if you are observing keenly enough, maybe you will start seeing a lot more similarities

00:54:44than you currently do. And Acharyaji, in the first part of this session, we heard that Maya is

00:54:58sitting in each one of us and which sets our goal and which makes us run after it. We were talking

00:55:07that and in this verse we heard that it is Brahma only, it is Brahma because of whom the world moves.

00:55:15So, I see a conflict in that. Maya looking at itself is Maya. Brahm looking at itself is Brahm.

00:55:33Maya does not exist for Brahm. Maya exists only to itself. All this when you say is Maya,

00:55:44when you say all this is Maya, all this is Maya, right? Then it is to Maya that all this is Maya.

00:55:52The scriptures say both the things, don't they? On one hand they say all this is Maya,

00:55:58Jagat Mithya. On the other hand, they also say all this is Brahm. So, you should be puzzled.

00:56:09How is it that the scriptures are saying both the things? Depends on you. If you are Maya,

00:56:14then all this is Maya. If you are Brahm, then all this is Brahm. Acharyaji, also I want to know that

00:56:28from whom the Maya gets strength? From whom the Maya gets? Strength. Lack of attention.

00:56:38Is it our cooperation also? You cooperate by not choosing to attend, to focus. When you are more

00:56:54interested in the surface of things than in their reality, then you do not know the truth. That is

00:57:02Maya. So, in this verse it is mentioned that on him should one meditate in tranquility. So,

00:57:20I was wondering why was this word tranquility is used? Maybe because, for example,

00:57:25why was the word tranquility used in the verse? Because my, perhaps my explanation is that,

00:57:35because for example, if you try to see our face in a water which is quite turbulent,

00:57:41we cannot see through clearly. Good, good, good. That is also a classical analogy from Vedanta.

00:57:47That if the water has waves or ripples, then you cannot see the moon's reflection very clearly. So,

00:57:57the water has to be still. Yeah, that is classical Vedanta. So, perhaps that means that we need a

00:58:03certain atmosphere to better understand and grow because our external situations can in fact impact

00:58:11us to think properly to grow also. Good, good, good, good. So, that especially might be an

00:58:19indication towards people around us, situations around us, work around us, all of those things.

00:58:23Good. And if you continue down this line, you will come to something dangerous.

00:58:29Okay, maybe what Vikram sir was explaining about my mind itself.

00:58:39I don't know. You have to figure out for yourself.

00:58:43At least, yeah. Okay, then I will try to understand more.

00:58:49So, we said that to know the oneness between the two people, we can see the similarity in

00:59:02them and discard the differences like that. So, one of the point which came to my mind was that

00:59:09the feeling of that recklessness, that atrupti, that can be a common thing. But we see some people

00:59:18around us, many people in fact, 99 percent that hunger for knowing the truth is completely missing

00:59:27in the people. So, how we can correlate on that basis, I want to know.

00:59:35The love for truth is there, it is just that they convince themselves that they already have it.

00:59:43It is not that they don't want the truth, they convince themselves that they already have the

00:59:47truth. And they would therefore avoid all situations where it is exposed that they are

01:00:00living falsely. And hence, they will avoid Vedanta in particular, because Vedanta becomes dangerous.

01:00:17And is it that we should also avoid such people? We should also?

01:00:22We should also avoid such people? It depends on your strength and resolution.

01:00:30If you can be a doctor to the sick one, approach him. But if the sick one is going to

01:00:40infect you back, then probably it is not the right time yet.

01:00:47Yes, and many times the sick one doesn't know they are sick.

01:00:53They don't know that they are sick and they spread the infection around.

01:01:00But still, if you can have the knowledge and the compassion of a doctor, do approach them.

01:01:17Yes, that was my question. Thank you.

01:01:25Ajay, I had a small query on the previous discussion on tranquility that we had.

01:01:32So, is this definition of tranquility completely different from external tranquility that we

01:01:40generally define? Includes both.

01:01:44Is this internal tranquility? Your internal tranquility is still very

01:01:49dependent on external situations. Therefore, you cannot have internal tranquility without

01:01:55bothering for your situations. So, it includes both. You are still not where you can be tranquil

01:02:03irrespective of the situations, you have to be particular about the situations as well.

01:02:14Yes, but the way we generally define tranquility is where there is

01:02:25not much thought or it's an externally peaceful place. Whereas, I mean, we have

01:02:35also discussed this earlier a lot of times and you have mentioned it that you can be internally

01:02:42peaceful and tranquil even in a situation of let us say high stress.

01:02:49That is an achievement. That is a potential possibility. But that is not the reality of

01:03:00most people. Most people are just too vulnerable to their surroundings, to their environment.

01:03:07Therefore, the environment must be taken care of.

01:03:13Rare is the one who can maintain his internal tranquility irrespective of the environment.

01:03:20But that is the objective. That is where we all must reach. But you cannot reach there

01:03:27if you do not take care of your environment. Therefore, take care of your environment

01:03:33even if you want to become free of the environment.

01:03:42If you want to gain freedom from circumstances, ensure that you are firstly

01:03:51choosing the right circumstances for yourself to the extent you can choose.

01:03:55Yes. But coming back to the word tranquility, when people in the common parlance think of

01:04:02tranquility, they imagine a place where there will be not much activity in a general sense.

01:04:11When people go and a lot of things are happening recently also in the name of spirituality, people

01:04:17are just going towards inactivity. So, I was just trying to understand the relationship between

01:04:29tranquility and intensity, intense activity. So, is the tranquility as mentioned in

01:04:37the Upanishad, if we think of it in an external sense, would it more be a place of intense

01:04:48activity or would it be a place where there is not much activity and just inactivity or

01:05:03a picturesque place or something like that? It has to be a place that supports inner

01:05:12tranquility. That inner tranquility cannot come from just false tranquility on the outside.

01:05:22Inner tranquility is a real thing. To have inner tranquility,

01:05:29you will need sometimes an environment of intense activity,

01:05:34but then that activity has to be of the right kind.

01:05:39Sometimes you will need an environment where you can just sit and reflect and watch in this thing.

01:05:48But the real thing is that the environment must be conducive to your mind coming to reality.

01:06:02Tranquility without reality is just stupor. It is a state of being drugged.

01:06:11It is just loss of consciousness. It is sleepiness, tranquility without reality.

01:06:22So, in the sense in which tranquility word comes here, it means a state in which you

01:06:30are not attracted by nonsense. Falseness does not matter too much to you.

01:06:43That is what tranquil means here. Disturbing elements, elements of no value

01:06:50are either not present or even if they are present,

01:06:52you can see through their falseness and hence give very little value to them.

01:07:00Thank you Acharya ji.

01:07:10Pranam Acharya ji. So Acharya ji, we heard that Maya don't exist in Brahma.

01:07:19But we are discussing about Brahma. Can we call it as a rare situation where

01:07:26Maya is actually glorifying a Brahma? Actually, I want to ask that, is it that Maya helps us to

01:07:32walk on the path of truth or is it that it always opposes and it wants to keep us entangled and in

01:07:41ignorance? Because we have heard that we are an unfulfilled Chetna who asks for completeness.

01:07:52This is a reality for everyone actually. But we see very few people walk on this path.

01:08:05Who inspires them also? It's a decision.

01:08:10It's a sovereign decision. You have to decide.

01:08:14There are some things you cannot depend on others for.

01:08:24Somewhere you have to own the responsibility.

01:08:32It's a choice that you make.

01:08:35If you say the choice is inspired by others, then the same inspiration is available to others as

01:08:41well, but they don't make that choice. So, there is no explanation. The only answer is its choice.

01:08:52At some point you have to say yes or no. You have to make a declaration.

01:09:04Yes, that was my question. Thank you, Acharyaji.

01:09:24Pranam, Acharyaji. Acharyaji, could you elaborate a little when you say do experiments?

01:09:34What exactly does that mean? We have a lot of knowledge in the mind.

01:09:48There are sentences that we take to be the truth.

01:09:53So, just a little playfulness with those sentences.

01:09:57This is this way, that is x, this is y, x comes from t, z is bigger than y.

01:10:28A is the same as C. All these things sit very deeply in our minds unchallenged, unexamined.

01:10:45So, can we just, you know, withdraw the respect for a while and be a little playful?

01:10:58That's all.

01:11:07So, means when we catch our thought process, then questioning really like where it is coming from.

01:11:15You don't even have to catch. You already know. There are certain things that we follow as

01:11:23principles. There are certain things we take as facts. There are certain stories we deeply believe in.

01:11:36So, you already know of those things. It's not as if you have to make a fresh catch.

01:11:44Even if you don't catch them freshly, you still know of them.

01:11:48So, why not put them in the dock for once?

01:11:58Why not withdraw the authority that they carry for a while?

01:12:08Why not engage playfully with them and ask them a few nice questions?

01:12:18And why not pick them out if they are revealed to be false?

01:12:39So, when I say catch, Acharyaji, what I mean is that we have things running in our minds.

01:12:48So, when you become aware and then you realize that these are assumptions and then you question.

01:12:56But when you say that we need not catch, it is already there.

01:13:02Does that mean sit and think about all your assumptions?

01:13:08Obviously, you see the things that circulate in your mind are anyway not fresh.

01:13:12It is just the old past thoughts, conclusions, memories, recycling and regurgitating themselves.

01:13:28So, whether you catch them afresh or whether you pick them from the old storehouse of memory,

01:13:37it's much the same thing. What's of importance is examination.

01:13:49Also, Acharyaji, like things that we examine, like for example, in our day-to-day interactions,

01:13:57we come across a lot of falsenesses in the sense you, to some extent, see the

01:14:06falseness behind certain things, events and all that. Now, the question is that,

01:14:15you know, seeing it many a times, does that, should it make you

01:14:20dispassionate? And when I use the word dispassionate, I'm using it in a negative

01:14:28sense, meaning little, you know, lack of liveliness.

01:14:35In that sense, if that is what happens, then

01:14:43is it okay, not good, something is missing?

01:14:50No, it's just that

01:14:55when you really watch falseness and disown and get dispassionate,

01:15:07then you find a lot of free space released.

01:15:11But had you really discarded nonsense, then you wouldn't have reserved the free space

01:15:26for some old thing as if secretly waiting for the past to return.

01:15:35You would have made the freshly released space available to newer opportunities and possibilities.

01:15:49Think of a room where all kind of junk is stashed.

01:15:54Now, you clear away the junk

01:16:07and you just let the room remain vacant

01:16:13without allowing any meaningful thing to enter it.

01:16:18Do you see what the tendencies are secretly doing?

01:16:28They are saying we have released the junk, but we are also not allowing something new to come.

01:16:36In some sense, we are secretly waiting for the junk to return,

01:16:40because nothing new is going to be allowed anyway, only the junk then can possibly return.

01:16:45If nothing new comes in, then what is the only possibility left?

01:16:50One day the junk will make its way back into the room.

01:16:57So, this dispassion has to be accompanied or followed by a renewal.

01:17:15Otherwise, there is just unnecessary barrenness,

01:17:26which is a very needless thing in the life of the true seeker,

01:17:32because what the true seeker deserves more than anybody else

01:17:39is a joyful blissful life, because she has paid the price for it.

01:17:45Now, it is a double whammy of sorts to pay the price and still not find the goods delivered.

01:17:55Why must one let that happen? Now, that the price has been paid,

01:18:05let the goods be delivered, please open the gates.

01:18:07Life is much more than what we can think of. And if you will restrict life to the

01:18:20possibilities you can imagine, then it is a very, very narrow restriction.

01:18:27And this situation is not new. It has been happening since centuries. Those who follow the

01:18:42path of neti neti often find themselves in this place,

01:18:51because by habit you just become a rejector. You kind of forget that remaining open to the new

01:19:10is as important as clearing away the junk of the past.

01:19:17And if you don't remain open to the new, the past has not really been cleared away.

01:19:32So, that rejuvenation must be allowed, must be welcomed.

01:19:39You cannot have a half-cleaned room. You cannot have a situation where

01:19:57things are gone, but their memory hasn't. The memory is the thing.

01:20:09So, you're saying the lack of, maybe passion might not be the right word,

01:20:28a certain liveliness. So, are you implying that lacking that liveliness is actually

01:20:36missing out on the things that have been rejected?

01:20:40Obviously, obviously. It is a state of mourning.

01:20:49Don't you see what the hidden self is doing?

01:20:57It is in a state of mourning.

01:21:03And if it is in that state, what has been cleared or disowned? Nothing.

01:21:11Therefore, the process of cleansing is complete only with a rejuvenation.

01:21:18A rejuvenation.

01:21:30And how I'm blocking the rejuvenation is a matter of further meditation.

01:21:35Wonderful, wonderful.

01:21:42Now, there is progress.

01:21:48Thank you, Ajahnji.

Experiment in life: Test before you Trust || Acharya Prashant, on Chandogya Upanishad (2022)

Category

Transcript

Recommended