Helplessness of the Guru || Acharya Prashant (2018)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ 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:  Shabdyog session , 29.08.2018, Advait Bodhsthal, Noida, India  Context:   Is there any helplessness of The Guru? Who is a 'Guru'? How to understand 'The Guru?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00In some sense, it is very cruel to be a teacher.

00:20Helplessness one experiences. One feels like asking why does one have to inflict

00:35daily wounds, rather carnage upon himself. You know what is it to be a

00:45teacher? To know everything and have power over very little. You can see but

01:00you cannot act on the other's behalf. The admission and the action has to come

01:09from the other and it is very cruel to know, to see and yet not have the power

01:22to translate the seeing into action. You can tell someone, kid this is the path of

01:36destruction, leave it, but you cannot forcefully pick the kid up and take her

01:47away. You see these things happening in front of you all the time and can't stop

01:55them. Can't stop them because fellows have to live their own lives. You cannot

02:06live on their behalf. You cannot get into their mind, their body, their soul

02:13and start living as if you are them. You cannot give them an ideal script. Isn't

02:26it a bizarre thought to live on somebody's behalf? Life cannot be outsourced. The coach

02:38can't play on behalf of the player. It is extremely frustrating.

02:58I was 6 years old. My sister Pragya was 3 and younger brother was being born. Mother

03:22was in the maternity ward. So we two kids were having good fun. We had been relieved

03:34from school for a month because mother had gone to another city to be admitted for the

03:44delivery and it was a caesarean and all, a little complicated. So these two kids would

03:53be playing and fighting the entire day and I was playing with my sister and I broke her

04:06heart. Just casual kids play. I didn't intend to. I didn't even hit her hard. She got a

04:27fracture in the arm. She was 3. And now I was very guilty. I had not deliberately caused

04:43it but it happened. And it had happened once earlier as well. I was chasing her. She entered

04:57the kitchen and hot boiling kadhi fell over her and she had burns all over the body. She

05:05recovered fully but I had that moment as well and now the fracture. So it was a shock to my

05:13consciousness. Now she had the plaster on her arm from the same hospital and her hand would itch

05:24now under the plaster. Her hand would itch and since she was just 3 so the plaster was not very

05:34thick and I was feeling very guilty. Now what could she try to do? She would try to itch herself,

05:48scratch herself under the plaster. She would take a pencil or a pen and try to put it in

05:56and slowly she was trying to dismember the whole thing. The plaster was coming off. After all it

06:04is just plaster. And as an elder brother and also someone with a guilty conscience it was now my

06:16responsibility to ensure that she does not fiddle with her plaster. So I was keeping a watch on her

06:23all the time. And all the time she was trying to do something with the plaster. All the time.

06:34And I knew the doctor had told and it had been told to me in very clear rather exaggerated ways

06:44that if her plaster comes off or if she keeps fiddling with the arm then the arm may not join

06:52properly or it can get bad for the entire life. So I was very concerned. Now I would be watching

06:59her the entire day and the entire day she would be doing something with the arm. That is the first

07:07memory I have of powerlessness. Great powerlessness. I really wanted her to recover.

07:17And she was doing self-destructive things. And I couldn't even scold her because somewhere

07:28something in me was guilty that I had caused it. For two months even as a six-year-old I was having

07:42troubled nights. She would be troubled because it would itch. So she would get up and do something

07:51and whenever she would get up and do something I would get up and try to cajole her, convince her.

07:58Somehow pacify her into not doing that thing. Mother was busy with her own physical condition

08:08and after some time the younger brother had arrived and he was extremely sick and both the

08:14mother and the kid were sick. So nobody was looking at her and I was the one trailing her all the time

08:20and she was doing something with her arm. She recovered fully. But I remember that period. It is

08:35mark on the heart. You know something is not right for the other person and yet you can't help her

08:43from doing it. And you also can't give up. And you also can't get angry. You can't give up. You

09:13can't get angry and you can't stop what is happening. That's how I felt as a six-year-old. That's how a teacher feels.

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