Is Ignoring Grief the Key to Wisdom? || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  #acharyaprashant  Video Information: 14.06.2023, Gita Samagam, Greater Noida  Context: How to overcome grief?  How to tackle problems most affectively? What is the right formula to de-stress? What is the right approach to dealing with hurdles in life? Should we take our problems seriously?  तमुवाच हृषीकेशः प्रहसन्निव भारत ।  सेनयोरुभयोर्मध्ये विषीदन्तमिदं वचः ।।  Bhagavad Gita - 2.10  Music Credits: Milind Date

Transcript

00:00Salutation's Reversal. In verse 2.10, Shri Krishna spoke laughingly or smilingly. When

00:16I read this verse for the first time, I would say I liked it. Arjun is dying in grief and

00:25instead of taking him seriously and helping him, Shri Krishna is smiling. I also related

00:34between Shri Krishna is smiling or laughing here with Hasgulla of Ashtavakra. You mentioned

00:43this phrase Hasgulla of Ashtavakra. Even Shri Krishna seems to be following that. I personally

00:52hate someone who takes my problems lightly. I want others to take my problems seriously

01:00and duly resolve them, not smile or laugh at them. Please help my situation. What does

01:08seriousness mean? To look at the situation in the same deluded way as you do. You are

01:22wearing these specs right now. You put them on your head here as people do and then you

01:30start looking for them and you are deeply troubled. Two hours later, you go to this

01:37person and you say, I am in grief. I have lost my eyesight and he starts laughing. What's

01:47there to be hated in that? He has learnt a lesson and in his laughter, he is sharing

01:57the lesson with you and if he becomes serious about your condition, he will be of no use

02:05to you. He is laughing only because he has seen a solution. In fact, he has seen in the

02:10first place that the problem does not exist. You have not lost anything. The one who takes

02:18your problem seriously is much the same as you. How will he be of use to you? Please

02:27tell me. You have come upon a difficult problem in integral calculus. You are taking it very

02:44seriously. You have just begun your preparations, class 11th, first month. Somehow you have

02:52picked up this problem and you go to your teacher and he looks at the problem that you

02:59have picked up and gets scared just as you are scared. Will that teacher be of any use

03:06to you? No. You want someone who is not serious about things. You are very serious. But then

03:19I appreciate your predicament. Because it is serious to me, so it must be serious to

03:26you. Else you hurt my ego. Else you are showing me down. Else you are demonstrating to me

03:34that I am an idiot. So the wise man often in his wisdom chooses to pretend. He says

03:43obviously, obviously. I see, I see. Oh yes, it is a grave matter. I understand. Even if

03:52the thing can be solved in two seconds, he chooses to take half an hour for it just to

04:01display that the problem was convoluted. No, no. That's compassion. The one in front is not

04:12in a position to appreciate the shallowness of his problems. He is taking his petty problems

04:22as the biggest thing in the world. I have lost my doll. Armageddon. Doomsday.

04:42Let's together find her out. And even if then the doll is in plain sight, you decide to navigate

05:01the entire colony a couple of times before coming to the doll, you know. Okay, yeah. Now the kid

05:11feels pleased. Sometimes the liberated ones get liberated of even this consideration and that

05:25has happened in India. They choose to laugh in your face. The result is that they do not become

05:33very popular and hence lose the ability to help a lot of people. We know of liberated people or

05:45forget about just call them wise people. We know of wise men. You went to them with a petty problem,

05:52they would beat you up with a stick. They would say this is the only way to take care of your

05:57problems and you are trying to run away and he has bolted the door. He is saying this is the

06:03treatment you need. How dare you come to me with a problem like this? The fellow is saying the shop

06:08is not doing well. The son has run away. The wife is seeing somebody else and he is beating you. Yes,

06:13yes. Any more problems? Obviously no one returns to such a person. That's what compassion is.

06:32Remember this now. Compassion is to know that the other is an idiot and yet try to apply wisdom to

06:43solve his problems. Compassion is to know that the other's suffering itself is fake yet try very hard

06:53to relieve his suffering. Compassion is to know that all sorrow is founded in ignorance and yet

07:04take sorrow as a genuine problem to be addressed. No wise man will ever take your problem seriously,

07:16believe me. For the wise one, all your problems are bad jokes, not even worthy of a sound laughter.

07:30But then he says, you know, I can see through. You cannot. So I'll give up my right to laugh

07:45at you. I'll instead pretend to be serious. Yes, yes, yes. Of course, we have a problem.

07:52He says, you know, there was a time I was so much like you. These same things were big issues even to me.

08:05But I know they can be outgrown. I'm relating to you just as I relate to this body of old.

08:20You are my own self of 20 years back. The consciousness might have changed. The body remains the same, right?

08:36So just as I cannot disown my body, similarly, I cannot disown your state. I cannot say that

08:47your state is totally alien to me. Is my body alien to me? No, it is not. You are who I was 20 years back.

08:55Therefore, I will not laugh at you. Because in your state today is the potential to become who I am.

09:09So I'll not laugh at you. I would help you out.

09:13Krishan does not really laugh. Maybe he wanted to laugh. You can visualise him suppressing his laughter.

09:26Or looking the other way while laughing. Or coming up with a pretended cough.

09:38No, I'm not laughing. I'm coughing. No, no, no. Indeed. I understand. Of course.

09:47Such a long statement you have given. An entire chapter. Surely there must be something serious.

09:52How dare I say that there is nothing? No, no. Now think of Krishan.

10:08In 18 chapters or at least 17, he is giving a great and diverse solution to a problem that does not exist.

10:17And he fully well knows that the problem is fictitious. Yet he goes to such lengths to address the problem.

10:28Yes, yes, yes.

10:35If the truth is real, how can any problem be real? Is the truth a problem? Are there two truths?

10:41The truth is real. So can problems be real? All problems are imaginary. The wise one knows that.

10:56He also knows what it takes to know that.

10:58Compassion is not sympathy.

11:18Compassion is to be detached and yet experience the other's pain.

11:29It is the highest virtue.

11:37I can see all your problems are nonsense. Yet I will try to solve them.

11:46That's compassion.

11:58I said this from Arjun's point of view. Thinking from Arjun's point of view, not from Shri Krishna's point of view.

12:12I mean, I thought that at least for Arjun, he is feeling the problem is real.

12:19Yes. And Krishna knows that for Arjun, his problem is real.

12:26And therefore, the problem needs to be addressed.

12:36So at last, you said that we should try to maintain good relationships or relationships with objects.

12:48That take me, take you to liberation.

12:54So now this is the object, this Zoom call.

12:59And this laptop, this is my object right now that will take me towards liberation.

13:05And I should do whatever I can to maintain this relationship.

13:10So why I'm saying this, because you cannot imagine how I'm managing this call right now.

13:17So the power went off, I think, half an hour ago.

13:23And right now I'm in a semi-sleeping or you could say semi-standing position,

13:29just to maintain a white background so that low light can still be managed.

13:35So while I was doing all these things, I tried white background.

13:40I downloaded white background pictures just to play in the background.

13:47And while I was doing all these things, I was listening.

13:50You were saying these things live.

13:53So that was a live teaching or live help for me.

13:58Had you not spoken those lines, I would have said that fine.

14:03Today, the power is cut.

14:05Today, I won't be able to ask questions.

14:07It is best understood when it is live.

14:14When you live it, then it becomes spontaneously clear.

14:19Otherwise, even a wise man's explanations sound a bit foolish.

14:26Real understanding comes only when you get into it.

14:37Thank you so much.

14:47Acharya ji, I'm feeling like I'm reverberating with something.

14:52Because there was this doubt for many years that I had while reading

14:57a verse by Guru Gobind Singh ji in Zafarnama.

14:59He said that had this enemy come to me,

15:02because that enemy was hiding like a coward,

15:07he went back straight to his camp.

15:09And Guru Gobind Singh ji, while mentioning about him in Zafarnama,

15:11said that had he also come to fight me,

15:14I would have blessed him with an arrow also.

15:19He used the word blessed.

15:20And this is what you used to do while establishing a relationship with others.

15:24Even killing them would be something of providing love to him.

15:29And this is something, I cannot explain it right now, but wonderful.

15:34You have played something that was really immense for me.

15:37Why was he using these words?

15:38Wonderful.

15:39Why you use the word blessed?

15:41And this is what played up for me today.

15:43Thank you for it.

15:43Wonderful.

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