Lover of Truth versus beggar of world || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir (2019)

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, 24.01.2019, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India   Context:  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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00If dry bread pieces are all your fare, 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 sever your head, why you shed a tear?

00:45So she is asking, does salty or saltless taste refer to one's suffering?

00:56Also when Kabir Sahab says, sever 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, a complete spectrum holding an infinite number of distinct

02:55possibilities, an infinite number of 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 and in between there are

03:55various mixtures, combinations of happiness and sadness.

04:05You go to someone who is enamored by the world and ask him, how are you feeling right now?

04:17He will have one description to offer to you, note down that description.

04:26Go to him after a couple of hours and ask again the same question, how are you feeling

04:34now?

04:35He 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 color 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?

06:32Infinite.

06:33It'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, you know, I just moved

10:38to 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 point.

11:01In the mind of the worldly man, the world is a diverse place in which there are certain

11:11good 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 of his life.

11:36There 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 of 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.

12:43Reality 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, the ball will keep moving between

13:28the poles.

13:29That 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, now one is a husband, now one is a father, now one is an employee,

13:51now one has grey hair, now one's kids are going to the college, now one has to get his

13:57kids married, now one is a grandpa, now 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 spiritual 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 and in this oscillation you are being tutored that the journey is

15:07new.

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?

16:16Look seriously into it and you will see that the tendency to have babies has always been

16:29there.

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?

16:59Is it the first time you are so excited about a new arrival?

17:04It has happened again and again and you are again demanding for the same thing, totally

17:10forgetting how you have been thoroughly and repeatedly disappointed by all such previous

17:16hopes.

17:22But you want to try once again.

17:24Have you no care or love for yourself?

17:29But anyway, that's the common average life, to keep thinking that one day something new

17:40will happen.

17:41Wo sabaha kabhi toh aayegi.

17:46Waiting for that one great morning or if you are not waiting for that one great morning,

17:52if you say you have some worldly wisdom, then you will say no, you don't need to wait for

17:56one great morning.

17:58Every morning is new and that sounds so cute, so smart.

18:03One 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 your fare, 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.

19:09It is the shared common exclaim of both the realized one and the devoted one.

19:21The world is just dry bread pieces.

19:26Now how does it matter whether the bread pieces are salty or saltless?

19:36The common man creates a great distinction.

19:41He says, you know, salty bread pieces are far more preferable to saltless bread pieces.

19:49Salty bread pieces he calls as happiness.

19:53Saltless bread pieces he calls as sadness.

20:01The saint says, how does it matter if those bread pieces have been salted?

20:07After all, fundamentally, they are just dry bread pieces and I do not agree with dry bread

20:19pieces.

20:22I just cannot bring myself to a state where I start delighting in dry bread pieces whether

20:29salty or saltless.

20:32The common man says, no.

20:37It is great when bread pieces are salted.

20:42It is bad only when the bread pieces are…

20:47You get the difference in the positions of the saint and the common man.

20:54The common man is saying, it is possible to enjoy these dry bread pieces provided they

21:02are salted.

21:04The saint says, it doesn't matter whether they are salted or saltless.

21:10I cannot enjoy them.

21:14So to the saint, the world is not a spectrum.

21:21To the saint, the world is just one thing.

21:25What is that one thing?

21:27Dry bread pieces.

21:30Something that gives you no consolation, no comfort.

21:34Something to which you can really never agree.

21:40Therefore, the saint does not try to find satisfaction in the world.

21:47The saint has finally declared, declared with finality, what?

21:58The world is not where I am going to find contentment.

22:02The world is just dry bread pieces.

22:06It is just that some of those pieces are salted.

22:09Some are saltless.

22:11Some of those dry bread pieces are colored.

22:14Some are colorless.

22:16Some are aromatic.

22:22Some have no aroma.

22:25Some of them come in fancy packaging.

22:30Some of them do not even look good.

22:35Some are named very eloquently and some have a bad name.

22:46It doesn't matter what the names of the bread pieces are.

22:53It doesn't matter what their forms are.

22:57It doesn't matter what their descriptions are, what their social standings are.

23:07The saint says a bread piece is a bread piece and that to a dry one.

23:16I do not like dry bread pieces.

23:20The world is just one big dry bread piece.

23:26All the diversities that are found in the world are superficial.

23:33Those diversities cannot fool me.

23:36I have come to realize that the bread in the pizza is stale.

23:46Now will the topping change things?

23:55You have just come to see that the bread in the pizza is stale.

24:02Now would it help if the topping is fancy and eye-catching?

24:09Would it help?

24:11The common man is taken in by the topping.

24:23The saint looks at the dry bread piece.

24:28He says this pizza has dry stale bread.

24:33It doesn't matter whether you put a lot of salt or a lot of oregano or a lot of cheese

24:39or a lot of whatever.

24:52And especially if your bread is dry and stale, it becomes very important to top it well.

25:08Freshly baked bread you can have even without jam, cheese or butter.

25:21Stale bread, dry bread, you require salt, you require many other kinds of spices and additions.

25:34You know most people do not eat the pizza for the bread, they eat the pizza for the

25:39toppings.

25:40That's the common man.

25:44He forgets the base.

25:47Who is the saint who remembers the base?

25:56The saint remembers the base.

25:59The common man looks at the topping and sees a lot of differences.

26:06And the chef with all his experience and wickedness is smiling.

26:14And 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.

26:27What is the one thing that the customer is not talking of?

26:31The base.

26:32And the chef is smiling.

26:33The chef is saying, the bugger doesn't even bother to inquire whether the base has any substance.

26:43The base is totally rotten and the customer is busy specifying the toppings.

26:56To this customer, pizza is bad if the topping is bad.

27:04But there is a great possibility that the pizza is good provided the topping is good.

27:09To the saint, the pizza is definitely bad because the base is just dry bread.

27:24That's what Tabir Sahab is talking of here.

27:31This is in front of a pizza shop in Varanasi in the 15th century.

27:42I tell you, seriously, what do you think, 15th century Kashi did not know of pizza?

27:54Here is the proof.

28:00Next, if you are benumbed by slumber, can you wait for cushion or cover?

28:13If you really are desperate for that final relaxation, will you attach conditions to

28:28your sleep?

28:31Sleep here stands for relaxation.

28:36Sleep here stands for a state of consciousness in which the world is no more.

28:52Kabir Sahab here is not talking of ordinary sleep.

28:57He is using ordinary sleep as a metaphor to point at the final sleep that each of us

29:10craves for and he says that if you are talking too much about beds, mattresses, pillows,

29:26cushions and covers, that only shows that you are still not sleepy enough.

29:36That only shows that you still have appetite left for the normal state of consciousness.

29:44That only shows that you still can be hanging around for another 30 minutes with your eyes

29:54opening into the world.

30:00You have not come to that point where you say enough is enough.

30:04I do not want the world to enter into me anymore through these eyes.

30:10These eyes must close.

30:13I want sleep right now, immediately.

30:16The world has to cease.

30:20And when you are so very sleepy, then you do get to sleep because then you drop all

30:30your conditions against sleep.

30:34It is not that sleep is not available.

30:42Man refuses to sleep for two reasons.

30:47One, he feels there is something important in the world that is waiting for him, pending.

30:55So he says how can I sleep?

30:57Something is yet to be done.

31:02Even in ordinary sleep that happens, does it not?

31:06If something important is pending, then you find that sleep is difficult to come.

31:15Similarly, the spiritual sleep cannot come to you if you keep thinking that some important

31:23matter in the world is still to be closed.

31:31And as far as we are concerned, the list of important items pending in the world just

31:40keeps forever increasing.

31:45We are never going to come to a point where we may say I am done with the world.

31:59All pendencies are cleared.

32:03Nothing remains hanging or lingering.

32:05So I can now retire.

32:16That is one reason attaching importance to the world.

32:26And the second reason is attaching conditions to sleep.

32:34One says I will sleep when such and such conditions relating to sleep are met.

32:42What are those conditions?

32:43Well, you know, I am a man of high stature.

32:48How do I sleep on this ragtag mattress?

33:00Even my liberation has to be a special liberation because I am a special man, you see.

33:08Maybe there are several who get enlightenment, but mine should be enlightenment plus.

33:19Or do you want me to identify as a commoner?

33:28So there are conditions, you see.

33:34I want to sleep, but the linen has that spot in the bottom left corner.

33:48So unless you replace the linen, I am not going to sleep.

33:56Such are our conditions.

34:00I will come to liberation when, fill up the blank, and you will never be short of sentences

34:20to fill up the blank.

34:23You would never come to a point where you say nothing is remaining to fill the blank.

34:37I am done with everything.

34:39There would always be some condition standing against your liberation, against your union

34:51with the beloved, and you honor that condition.

35:00You are too full of respect towards the world.

35:05You do not look at the world as just a dry bread piece.

35:12To you, the world stands as something very appealing.

35:22Look at this.

35:31What is the attitude of the saint towards the world?

35:40For the saint, the world is not an end, but an opportunity.

35:47To the common man, the world itself is the end.

35:55The common man says the purpose of life is happiness and happiness comes from attainment

36:02in the world.

36:05That is the philosophy on which 99.99% of humanity works.

36:12People might say that they are not philosophers, but in fact everybody is a philosopher and

36:20what is the philosophy they subscribe to?

36:24It can be summed up in two sentences.

36:27One, the purpose of life is happiness.

36:30Happiness comes from worldly attainments.

36:35That is the common motivating philosophy of the world.

36:44What does the saint say?

36:46The saint says the world is an opportunity to gain liberation from the world.

36:56There is no option but to use the world as an opportunity because the bodied one is finding

37:02himself in the world.

37:05So there is no escape from the world and if there is no escape from some place, then that

37:11same place has to be used as an opportunity.

37:13Where else is the opportunity?

37:17If the embodied being finds himself in the world, then the possibility of liberation

37:26from the world too must be where he is and where is he?

37:33In the world.

37:34Therefore, he uses the world as an opportunity, searches for opportunities.

37:38This is the world.

37:40In this world, where do I find that tunnel, that secret tunnel that takes me out of the

37:47prison?

37:49This is the world enclosing me.

37:53Where do I find the crack in the wall?

37:57The crack in the wall that I can exploit to break through.

38:05That is the attitude of the saint.

38:10He 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.

38:30The saint looks even more carefully at the world searching for opportunities for liberation.

38:38That is the difference.

38:43The common man looks for happiness without realizing the dual nature of happiness, without

38:54realizing that the ball is performing a simple harmonic motion between happiness and sadness.

39:02The common man knows neither physics nor the metaphysical.

39:15He looks for happiness and gets a bit of it, no doubt.

39:20Sometimes the ball is indeed at the North Pole or close to the North Pole.

39:25Sometimes it is.

39:26Is it not?

39:27So, the common man looks for happiness and gets a bit of happiness, some crumbs of happiness.

39:34But along with the happiness that he gets, he gets an equal share of sadness and then

39:41he feels both puzzled and motivated.

39:45He feels puzzled because he had never bargained for sadness and he feels motivated saying

39:51that now that I have sadness, I will look for happiness with even more determination.

39:57After all, sadness is an unwanted state of mind and it has to be removed or balanced out.

40:14The common man faces defeat in what he wants.

40:19The saint succeeds in what he wants.

40:23The saint succeeds because he is wanting something that is fundamentally different from what

40:28the common man wants.

40:33You too can win this great war provided you look for the right kind of victory.

40:45The victory in this war is a word that begins with L not with H.

40:57The victory in the war called life is not happiness but liberation.

41:07Is it too tough to understand?

41:12Yes?

41:13kahe kabir premka marag sir dena toh rona kya rahe ho?

41:21Once you have offered your head, now why do you cry?

41:32This is the path.

41:39This is the war in which you are fighting against your own head.

41:45There is no enemy outside of you.

41:49It is a very peculiar kind of battle.

41:56In general, in common wars, your enemy stands outside of you and aims for your head and

42:10your role in the war is to protect your head.

42:17That's how a common war or battle proceeds.

42:20Is it not?

42:23The enemy is outside of you and he's gunning for your head and what are you trying to do?

42:31You're trying to protect your head.

42:35The real war called life proceeds, we said, a little peculiarly.

42:45How does it proceed?

42:46The enemy is not outside of you.

42:49You are the enemy.

42:51You are fighting against your own head.

42:54Your head is the enemy you are fighting against.

42:59To save itself, your head keeps on misguiding you by telling you that the enemy is outside

43:10of you.

43:14The head must save itself.

43:16So the head gives you fake information, like one usually gives to the enemy.

43:27What kind of information do you give to your enemy?

43:30True?

43:31Genuine?

43:32Fake information.

43:33Now your head being your enemy, it gives you fake information.

43:38What does it tell you?

43:39It tells you the enemy is there.

43:4547.5 degrees to your right at a distance of 3.82 meters and if you are not careful enough,

43:56not discreet enough, then you will be fooled by your head and you will start aiming for

44:02the enemy, assuming that the enemy is outside of you and somebody here keeps shooting wherever

44:10you want to, but you will never shoot at the real enemy.

44:14Who is the real enemy?

44:15The one you consider your friend.

44:18The one you consider not only your friend but are actually very closely identified with

44:24your head.

44:29Your head will not tell you who your real enemy is.

44:33Your head will never tell you who your real enemy is because your head itself is the real enemy.

44:39Now why do you rely on your head to determine your friends and foes?

44:46How wise is that?

44:52You are still trying to comprehend me through your head?

44:58Many of you are.

45:13It's like depending on your born enemy, sworn enemy to know where your welfare lies.

45:26Consulting your head to know how to win this war is like consulting your enemy on how to

45:34defeat him and not only consulting him but actually abiding by his advice, fighting the

45:44war on the principles suggested by your enemy.

45:52That's how intelligent we are.

45:57Kabir Sahab says, smaller battles can be fought later on.

46:10Let's slaughter the main enemy first.

46:15As you enter the war, sever your head.

46:32The commander-in-chief of the enemy forces has been killed.

46:37Now how long will the enemy hold on?

46:46Who was the commander-in-chief of the enemy forces?

46:49Your own head.

46:50He has been shot down.

46:53The enemy cannot stand his ground for long.

46:57The war is as good as won.

47:03For all the lovers of truth and peace, Kabir Sahab has just one simple advice.

47:14Kill the mole.

47:19There is a spy in your ranks.

47:31The commander-in-chief of the enemy forces is acting as a mole and has entered your camp

47:39and not only has he entered your camp, he has actually become the commander-in-chief

47:43of your forces and you are so hopeful.

48:01Love does not tolerate resistance.

48:14The lover becomes especially sensitive and discreet.

48:22There is one thing that he becomes very alert to.

48:28Who is impeding my progress?

48:33Who is preventing me directly or indirectly from reaching my target?

48:42Ordinarily, he might not come to know who is secretly blocking his path but in love

48:51he becomes so very particular about reaching his target that he comes to know with great

48:59sensitivity who is blocking his path.

49:09Get it?

49:23And the lover doesn't stand him.

49:32The lover has no sympathy for him.

49:37And the lover is not divided.

49:42The lover's devotion is totally concentrated on the one, on the beloved.

49:53So anybody who even obliquely or partially blocks, prevents, resists, impedes the lover's

50:08movement is bound to be slaughtered.

50:17And if the one blocking the lover's movement towards the beloved is the lover's own head,

50:27then too bad for the head, gone.

50:43But such things can happen only in love.

50:49And you will know love if you are happy with dry bread pieces.

51:02Next time, do bother to check the pizza base.

51:14The eyes usually fail to see a few things.

51:18Senses deceive, don't they?

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