How to get rid of Rajasik tendency of mind? || Acharya Prashant, on Vivekachudamani (2018)
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00:00Verse 182 of Vivek Chudamani, With single-pointed devotion to liberation,
00:13one who roots out attachments for sense objects, renounces all actions and with faith in truth,
00:20constantly hears within brackets the truth, etc., succeeds in purging the rajasic nature
00:29of the mind.
00:43Please say it loud for all your devotees on this path on how to purge the rajasic nature
00:48of mind besides as mentioned in this verse.
00:53As far as constantly hearing about the truth, that happens without effort on this journey.
01:05There is a constant pull from inside and nothing seems more interesting than listening from
01:13the buddha purush.
01:15Please also advise about practicing and saying truth always especially at work, etc., purging
01:28the rajasic nature of mind, the rajasic tendency of the mind.
01:36The nature of the mind is the atman, the mind has no rajasic nature, sat, raj, tam
01:50are not elements of nature, they are the attributes of prakrati, they are called guna, they are
02:02not subhav, they are guna, attributes.
02:08So rajas is, rajas is a guna, not, the mind does not have rajasic nature.
02:18Now if you can see that, you don't need much more.
02:33The mind is busy doing something that is not its nature.
02:41So the mind is feeling unnatural, asahaj.
02:48If you do something that is not natural, then how do you feel?
02:54How do you feel?
02:55Try walking on your head.
02:58How do you feel?
02:59I know it's a very distant example, walking on the head or walking on two legs, none of
03:04them represents nature, but still, you get the pointer, don't you?
03:21If you walk on your head, how do you feel?
03:27Dizzy and stupid.
03:34You might have been indoctrinated into walking on head, but your entire system is telling
03:44you something is just not right here.
03:50Even though you are busy convincing yourself that this is the holiest way of living, but
04:00the bad patch here is saying just another story.
04:15The mind is disturbed, the mind is just not sahaj.
04:20The mind is uneasy.
04:23Sahaj means at ease, the mind is uneasy.
04:37When something is uneasy, it pops up.
04:42When something is uneasy, it becomes available to experience.
04:50That which is uneasy pops up.
05:01You have softwares and the softwares are monitoring transactions.
05:07And there are a million transactions a day, let us say.
05:12Which ones pop up?
05:16The fraudulent transactions, the false transactions.
05:25That's what the software is for, to filter the fraud transactions, quickly detect them
05:32and flag them.
05:35And the process owner immediately gets an email or a reminder in some form, something
05:40is wrong somewhere.
05:43And all the right transactions, all the sahaj transactions, they smoothly make their way
05:54out.
05:55They are not called into experience, they are not flagged, they don't show up.
06:05What shows up?
06:08The fraudulent ones, the not right ones, the asahaj ones.
06:16That's with the mind.
06:20That's with especially the rajasic mind.
06:25A lot keeps showing up in the mind.
06:30What keeps showing up?
06:33Feelings, stuff, anger, hatred, jealousy, everything is flagged.
06:43Nothing is sahaj, everything is flagged.
06:47The boss calls a meeting and immediately the inner insecurity pops up.
06:58What if I am singled out and disgraced in the meeting?
07:05What if the meeting decides that my work is not up to the mark?
07:12Pop.
07:13And you experience that, right?
07:16Don't you?
07:17That's what you experience.
07:20That which is right is not experienced.
07:25That which is right just passes below the radar.
07:36It does not blip, it does not cause an alarm.
07:43But look at your mind.
07:44It is always alarmed and things are popping up.
07:52The meeting is both a threat and an opportunity.
07:56Depends on what you take yourself to be.
07:58Depend on how you perceive yourself to be situated.
08:02Oh, the boss has called a meeting, surely he is going to announce my promotion.
08:09Wow.
08:11Something has popped up.
08:14It's never just a meeting.
08:19It's always a flagged meeting.
08:24It's never just a glance.
08:27It always has a meaning.
08:32It's never an instruction.
08:33It is always loaded with intention.
08:37Is an instruction, a word, ever just an instruction or a word for you?
08:42Behind it, you always perceive an intention.
08:48It's a trap, I know.
08:51He doesn't mean to just transfer me.
08:55He means to play with my career and destroy me.
09:04It just pops up.
09:12That's how one purges the rajasic mind, by seeing what all keeps popping up.
09:18When something pops up, Anu, then you have two options, either to chase that which has
09:30popped up and you are chasing it or watch that which has popped up.
09:47A balloon, a hot air balloon goes up the sky.
09:54You can either run behind it, chase it or you can watch it.
10:02What's certain is that your chase is futile.
10:05But still, given what you are, you want to chase.
10:10You very well know that gas balloons can't be chased down.
10:17But you still want to chase them.
10:21The wise one simply watches.
10:26That's how you purge the mind of its rajasic tendencies.
10:33What is rajas?
10:35To want something and not know what you want and therefore run helter-skelter.
10:42Rajas is like being thirsty and being blinded.
11:07Some very nefarious enemy has brought you to this condition.
11:19He has made you thirsty and equally he has blinded you.
11:27Now you want water, but you don't know where water is.
11:34So how are you running?
11:37In a random haphazard way.
11:40You are just running.
11:41Obviously, you cannot stand still.
11:44That's about the rajasic mind.
11:46It can't stand still.
11:49It runs, it runs, it runs, but it runs blindly.
11:54It cannot stand still because it is thirsty and it cannot run rightly because it is blind.
12:05Some very cunning and cruel enemy has done this to you.
12:11That's rajas, to run about blindly.
12:25Some people call this blind running as a symptom of great motivation.
12:34The words ambition and motivation are very closely related to the rajasic state.
12:42Ambition, motivation, speed, achievement, target.
12:54You see how they can be directly mapped to thirst and blindness.
13:10Watch your insecurities.
13:14Watch your desires.
13:16See how you are committed to chasing.
13:22See how it is difficult for you to just drop.
13:32See how others are able to control you by politely threatening you.
13:45See how all this sophistication, civilization is just about pulling the strings gently.
14:06You are a puppet, but the strings are being pulled gently and you call that civilization.
14:15You call that sophistication.
14:33What else is being said?
15:04Then you have said something about constantly hearing about the truth.
15:13No, you cannot hear anything about the truth, but you must hear as much as you can about
15:23the false, provided you do not start calling the false as the truth.
15:34Keep hearing about the false and remember that you are hearing about the false.
15:42The hearing is the truth, not that which you hear.
15:49The hearing is the truth, not that which you hear.
15:57That which you hear is obviously going to be false.
16:00Otherwise, how could you have heard it?
16:02You can only hear the small, the limited.
16:08You hear it and it is calm.
16:12You hear it because it has been worded.
16:15And how can you word the infinite?
16:30Please advise about practicing and saying truth always, especially at work, etc.
16:40Just know the false as false.
16:43You cannot practice the truth.
16:45The truth is not a routine, not an algorithm, not a skill.
17:01How will you have practiced the truth?
17:05But do practice to call the false as the false.
17:13That is the blessing of the truth.
17:16Don't try to do something with the truth.
17:20Just pray to be blessed by the truth.
17:30Truth is not a car that you will practice driving.
17:37Truth is not a skill that you will hone and be deft at.
17:54At work, there is falseness all around.
18:00Don't be co-opted.
18:01Always, always remember stuff for what it really is.
18:14Don't be sucked in.
18:15Don't go unconscious.
18:22Don't just start laughing with the crowd or wailing or yelping with the crowd.
18:39The crowd is one-dimensional and monotonous and that's the dimension of the false.
18:49Don't feel an unholy urge to belong.
19:02It's a very strong urge and it's the undoing of so many.
19:10You cannot afford to feel like an alien or a stranger.
19:15There is a gathering.
19:17It might be at the workplace or at a party or anywhere else.
19:27You just want to gather like people who are afraid of solitude.
19:37And when you are in that gathering, it requires guts to not to belong.
19:47In fact, if you want to test your mettle, that's the place and that's the occasion.
19:54Test yourself.
19:55Can you be there and yet not belong?
19:59But you start belonging, don't you?
20:02Anu, please test yourself.
20:05Right now, as you speak to me, obviously you are a different man.
20:13In some sense, you belong to the truth, you belong to Adi Shankaracharya, you even belong
20:18to me.
20:22But what happens when you are in the middle of your corporate gatherings?
20:36You must ask yourself, to whom do you belong?
20:44You must ask yourself, how can you flip loyalties so easily?
20:54You must ask yourself, does a man have a heart?
21:01Is the heart something to be auctioned?
21:09You must ask yourself, if one is here just to sell himself, why must one live at all?
21:27The market makes you inanimate, for the market you are a thing, a commodity.
21:36The market does not value consciousness, the market only values stuff, material.
21:44You must ask yourself, must I let myself become inanimate?
21:57You must have seen animals being carried for slaughter, are they being treated as conscious
22:09beings?
22:10In the mornings, there are these delivery vehicles and they are carrying birds, chicken,
22:25roosters in extremely small cages.
22:32There is no odd one out there, everybody belongs.
22:49The small cages, you can call them pigeon holes, they are all of set sizes and all the
23:04birds look just the same and all the birds are just the same fit.
23:16And then you also look at office cabs, travelling on the same road at the same time in the morning.
23:30It is a 10-seater, exactly 10 of them are seated and they are being carried away and
23:39there is no odd one out and there is great conformity and all of them just belong there,
23:49just like the birds belong to the pigeons.
24:06Call the bluff.
24:12If you want to be intimate to the truth, call the bluff, call the false as false.