Learning from life versus learning from a teacher || Acharya Prashant (2020)
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00:00Atesh Sharma is here, 25 from Bilaspur. He says, If I am the first man and the only one,
00:19can I disregard all your teachings and learn first hand from life? Can I forget all the
00:27theories I have heard from you? Those theories might be holding me back against enquiring
00:36on my own where I am as I am. Atesh, what is this mysterious thing called life you are
00:45referring to? What is life? We talk of life as if life is some vague nebulous thing happening
01:01in some other mysterious or mystical dimension. What is life? This breathing, this eating,
01:12these day-to-day interactions, these relationships, the food that you eat, the work that you do,
01:19the people you come across. Isn't all this life? So, how am I outside the purview of
01:30your life? I repeat, how am I here outside the purview of your life? You are talking
01:43of life as if life is something totally separated from anybody who can help you out. And this
01:58in itself is quite interesting. All the trauma that you experience on a daily basis, that you
02:08happily call as life. All the nonsense you remain mired in, that you happily call as life. Your
02:21interactions and your relationships with all the foolish and unworthy and mediocre people,
02:28that you will gladly accept as life. You will say, you know, life brought me in contact with
02:36this girl and I just fell for her and then this thing happened and that thing happened. And you
02:40will willingly say that was life. So, life can bring you in contact with a girl and that is
02:49life. But if life brings you in contact with a teacher, that is not life. That you take as
02:57something outside of life. I just failed to understand this. People say, I'll not learn
03:04from the teacher, I'll learn from life. Is the teacher situated in some other dimension,
03:11some other universe, on some other planet? How is the teacher not a part of your life? If you
03:17watch my videos, Atesh, which you probably do, aren't the videos a part of your daily 24-hour
03:23schedule? Or are you watching the videos in some specially, artificially, mystically created 25th
03:31hour? Let's say, once a week you watch my videos. Is the time span not within the span of your life?
03:43Is the duration not within the domain of your week? Then how am I outside the life? So, really,
03:57it cannot be about learning from life versus learning from a teacher. This is fishy, very
04:05fishy. All the nonsensical conditioning and influences, you are very prepared to absorb
04:18from your so-called life. In your 24-hour daily schedule, if the media, the TV, conditions you,
04:30or a book that you are reading conditions you, that you will call as life. But if in the same
04:3824-hour schedule, I speak to you, then you call it as something outside of life. That tells me
04:47about your definition of life. What you are saying is, only nonsense and trash of the highest order
04:57can be called as life. Anything high that is available, that you will not call as life. I mean,
05:07did I meet you in your life or have I met you after your death? Are you not alive right now
05:14as you are listening to me? Then what is this insistence on, I will not listen to you, I would
05:20rather learn from life. I mean, fine. Who can have a problem with that? We all can learn only
05:30from one source and that one source is called life. The question is, what is it in your life
05:37that you are choosing to learn from? Rephrase your question. You do not know what to ask. The
05:44question is not whether you will learn from life or you will learn from a teacher. This or is
05:48fictitious. The question is, we all learn from life. There is no other place to learn from. As
05:54long as you are alive, what else will you learn from life? The question is, what is it within
06:00life that you are choosing to learn from? An ass will deliver you a solid kick from its hind legs.
06:11That you can call as life. And you say, I am very prepared to learn from that. That is called
06:19life. But if a person meets you and tells you a few things that are sublime, then you say,
06:28no, no, no, this is outside of my life. Then what is within your life? Only the ass and its powerful
06:34kick. You surely are one person who doesn't care for his teeth. More than a teacher,
06:42you require a dentist then. And this is a very commonly heard refrain. No, you see,
06:52I learn from life. I mean, what the hell? You met Champu, you met Manku, you met Tony,
07:01you met Sony. All those interactions and experiences and relationships, you accepted
07:08as part of your life. Oh, this is life, you know, one keeps meeting people. Don't you say that? You
07:15know, I was there in the flight and I met this beautiful woman who later on turned up a real
07:21witch. But that's life. So that is life. But if you come across a Krishnamurti or a Krishna or a
07:37Kabir that you say, you know, this is not life. This is not supposed to be life. This is outside
07:41syllabus. We will not attempt this. What? Then there are those who say, we will listen only to
07:59ourselves. We learn by ourselves. Why should we listen to some other person? Sir, when you say
08:05you are listening to yourself, even then you are listening to some other person. The true self that
08:11you are really doesn't speak. Anybody who speaks to you, whether from inside or outside, is somebody
08:20else. Now, this is a bit complex. Many of you will just not grasp this. So take your time. But
08:31still, listen. Whether somebody speaks to you from within, calling itself as you, you are Atesh.
08:44Somebody talks to you from within, doesn't he? And he says, I am Atesh. Or somebody could talk to
08:51you from outside and you could have some name. Both of these entities are outsiders. The real
09:00you just doesn't talk. Its nature is silence. It's just that when somebody is talking to you
09:07from outside, you being body identified and sense identified are quick to get alerted and
09:15declare, oh, somebody is talking to me from outside and probably trying to influence me.
09:19But when a voice rises from inside, you call it as your own voice. You say, this is me. No,
09:25that's not you. And that's the entire effort of the teaching. The teaching is needed because left
09:34to yourself, there is almost zero probability that you will figure it out on your own, that
09:41the one talking from inside is not you. It's all the internalized influences and voices that are
09:50speaking through your mouth. Are you getting it? So you are anyway absorbing stuff. The question
10:03is from whom? The choice to not to absorb stuff at all is not available. I am sorry. There is
10:10nobody who is not conditioned. The question is, given that we all are conditioned, given that we
10:18are born conditioned, given that we are born with a great tendency to soak in even more conditioning,
10:24right now what am I doing? So what is my current state? My current state is that I am a product of
10:30my past. That unfortunately is my state. And in my past, what have I done? Like a sponge,
10:37I have just sucked in a lot of worldly influences. That's my state. Now this being my state,
10:45what am I to do right now? Not listening to anybody is not an option. So even right now,
10:52I'll have to listen to somebody. Now am I listening to somebody who will help me get
10:58rid of my baggage of conditioning or am I listening to somebody who will further my
11:04conditioning, make my baggage heavier? That's the right question. First of all,
11:11learn to ask the right questions. The question is not whether you are learning from life or
11:18learning from teacher. The question is not whether you are listening to your own voice
11:21or to some other person. The question is, what is happening to you as you are listening to someone?
11:32That's the choice to be made. Listening to someone, if it is enabling you freedom from
11:42your shackles, then that person is good for you. Whereas if you are listening to someone
11:48who is himself conditioned, himself in dark ignorance, what would that person bring to you?
11:56Ignorance and more ignorance. Are you getting it? So you are free to learn from life. But then
12:10learn from life wisely. In life, you will meet a great teacher or a few great teachers and you
12:22will meet a lot of stupid people. Be very judicious. Who is it that you are listening to?
12:32This answer will decide your fate. Don't remain open and available to everybody. Are you getting
12:47it? Now if you say, Sir, what if I refuse to learn anybody who has come to me with the intention
12:55to teach? What will happen? And that seems to be your assertion here. That's the hidden intention
13:04you are carrying. Sir, what if I refuse to listen to anybody who is coming to me with the intention
13:11to teach? Then you can listen to all others. Even in that there is some chance that you can
13:20learn something. But then the learning will come with a great deal of suffering. The teacher can
13:29tell you, don't go near that ass. It's not a question of that particular ass that you love.
13:37Asses, by their very composition, are known to kick strongly anybody who is approaching them
13:53from behind. That's their primordial nature. That's what they have been doing since the dawn
14:09of humanity. Rather, if there is a word called asanity. So that's what the teacher can tell
14:20you. And you can say, why must I listen to the teacher? You can go to the ass, as most people do.
14:25Take the ass route and get kicked. So life, as you define it, will certainly teach you. But at
14:39the cost of great suffering and there is no guarantee that you will be able to learn in a
14:45lifetime. Because when your so-called life teaches you. Life sans the teacher. Life minus
14:53the teacher. When life teaches you, then life has no conscious agenda to teach you. Life just
15:02operates on the principle of result of action. You do something foolish, you get hit in the teeth.
15:16That's how life teaches you. When there is a teacher, the teacher has a conscious agenda to
15:24uplift you. Life has no conscious agenda to uplift you. Life's principle is, be wise, get rewarded.
15:33Be stupid, get kicked. That's how life operates. So life just does not want you to learn. Life
15:41does not want anything from you. Life is just like an input-output box. Garbage in, garbage out.
15:51Unfortunately, we are born with garbage and as garbage. Therefore, life will keep heaping more
15:59and more garbage over you. Sir, your theories might be preventing me from enquiring on my own,
16:20where I am as I am. I mean, it's quite strange. Because the entire teaching is,
16:28kindly keep enquiring. And why does the teaching say, son enquire, son enquire? Because people do
16:39not enquire on their own. Why don't people enquire on their own? Because our conditioning does not
16:46allow us to enquire. Now look at the weirdness of the situation and the question. The fellow
16:57does not enquire because he is deeply conditioned not to enquire like any other person. When you
17:05look around Atesh, what do you find? People are very inquisitive towards the truth. People are
17:17very eager for self-enquiry. Is that what you find? No, you find people who know zilch about
17:25themselves and aren't eager either. That's what you find, right? Now these people have their
17:34inquisitiveness being killed by the Upanishads, by Krishna. Why doesn't the common man really
17:44enquire into life? Has some great teacher and the great teacher's teachings prevented the
17:52common man from enquiring? Because the common man is too afraid and too ignorant to enquire
18:02into life. That is the reason the teachers have to continuously encourage you and prod you to
18:15keep enquiring. So this is the situation. The fellow is not enquiring because he is deeply
18:22conditioned. A teacher comes in and keeps saying, son look into life, see what is happening, watch
18:30your actions, watch your intentions, watch your thoughts, see what you just did, look at your
18:35relationships, watch your questions. The teacher encourages in all possible ways, but the fellow
18:43still does not enquire. And after a while, what does he say? Sir, it is because of your teachings
18:52that I am not able to enquire into my life where I am as I am. I am quoting you, Atish.
18:58Now when this humble teacher was not there in your life, were you very zealous towards
19:10self-enquiry? Have I come in and blocked your natural tendency to self-enquire? Is that so?
19:18Maybe you are listening to me since three years. What was it before these three years? You were a
19:27great observer of life, really? You were not enquiring then, you are not enquiring now. If it
19:35proves something, it is just that you have successfully resisted all my attempts to uplift
19:43you. And now that you have successfully resisted my attempts to move you towards self-enquiry,
19:50you come to me with the allegation that it is because of me that you are unable to enquire.
19:58Now this is tremendous. But that's how Maya operates, you see. Getting it?