So far, yet so near || Acharya Prashant, on Isha Upanishad (2016)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Tad doore, tad antike.

00:25It is far, it is near, so says Isha Upanishad.

00:40It is one of the main Upanishads, has been called Poetic Upanishad.

01:02And it is easy to take its utterances as poetic delight.

01:25A poet is entitled to flights of fancy.

01:32So one may look at this paradox, Upanishad says it is within, it is without, moves,

01:43it moves not, it is near, it is far.

01:47One may look at these paradoxes and take them to be merely poetic in nature.

01:57That would be to miss the point.

02:09What is it that keeps on appearing far to us?

02:18It's a very common, a very simple word, far.

02:28What is far?

02:29What do we mean when we say something is far?

02:41What do we mean when we say something is far?

02:43How is it known that something is far?

02:50Upanishads say it is near, it is far, it is far, it is near.

03:00What is it that appears far?

03:15Is it not simple, that which cannot be reached, that which is difficult to reach, that which

03:28demands effort to reach, that which demands time and method to reach.

03:39The further it is, the more effort, more time, more concentration it requires.

03:46That is what we call as far.

03:50And after all the effort and time that you put in, if it is really far, it still cannot

03:57be reached.

04:02Is there something in our life which is similar, which meets this criterion?

04:20Something in which a lot of time is invested, something towards which goes a lot of effort

04:33and yet it remains perpetually unreachable.

04:40Is there something of the kind?

04:48We seem unable to figure out whether there is actually something like this.

04:5610.

04:57All the while, all our life, we have been striving, we have been trying to get, reach,

05:10attain, obtain.

05:16And that effort is continuing.

05:18Is it not?

05:21The point of secession has not arrived.

05:26The point of stopping, non-doing has not arrived.

05:34There is something that we want and all effort, all aims are directed towards that.

05:45Only we are chasing aims, but all aims are chasing that.

05:55And even after chasing aims, we do not seem to be getting it and the proof is that after

06:02one aim, there is always the next aim to be chased, to be achieved.

06:09Is there not?

06:10There is always.

06:17What is it that is far?

06:20What is it that is so far that the investment of an entire lifetime proves insufficient?

06:32What is it that is so far that in spite of running all our life, it remains as distant

06:42as it ever was?

06:50We are probably not acquainted with that which we are chasing, that which appears to be so

06:56far.

06:59But because we are living, so we are at least familiar with the facts of our life, with

07:05the facts of our consciousness and the fact is that as far as we are concerned, life is

07:13a continuous movement.

07:16Far and near make sense, hold meaning only when there is movement.

07:23Without movement, there is no farness, no nearness.

07:28For us, life is a continuous movement.

07:29Why are we moving?

07:30Towards what are we moving?

07:31Surely, if you are moving, there is something that you want and that which you want is so

07:43distant that in spite of all your movement, you are no closer to it.

07:53Whenever you have moved, have you not moved towards it?

08:00Different occasions, different situations, different times, different ages, different

08:04reasons, you appear to be moving towards different things and different objects.

08:09You appear to be having different motivations.

08:14But what is it behind all motivations that we want?

08:19Surely at times, we seem to have reached the goal.

08:25Surely in the terms of the material, in terms of the world, we are not always a failure.

08:32Sometimes we have succeeded.

08:34But even when we have succeeded, have we really succeeded?

08:40If success is attainment, where is attainment?

08:51Is the achiever not as hollow, as thirsty, as needy as the non-achiever?

09:05The one who is failing, is he any more desperate for success than the one who is succeeding?

09:21What is it that remains so far that man keeps working all his life, traveling milestone

09:30after milestone, conquering challenge after challenge, striving, fighting, hurting, getting

09:44hurt, succeeding, meeting failure.

09:51And yet at the end of the day, the moment of his physical demise, if he is honest towards

09:59himself, all he can say to himself is, it's all non-waste, where there is a chase.

10:18Surely there is a goal, at least an assumed goal.

10:23Can we come to the fact of this, that since we are chasing, hence there has to be a goal.

10:33And that goal presumably cannot be the goal that we assume it to be, because had it been

10:41that, at least somebody would have chased it down.

10:50So while it is true that we are thirsty, while it is true that there is an internal hollow,

10:57while it is true that we want something, it is equally true that what we want is not that

11:06which we are chasing.

11:10That which we are chasing appears to be so far, that we are not chasing it at all.

11:19That which we really want appears to be so distant that we have no concept of it at all.

11:31We are chasing proxies, we are running after dummies, we are targeting substitutes.

11:43There is something important, something real, something immense that you wanted, your heart

11:50cried for it, but because you could not conceptualize it, because it was too far in that sense,

11:58in the sense of being infinite, being immense, so you substituted it with a petty proxy and

12:11started chasing the proxy.

12:15Now you may succeed or you may fail, but in either case you have actually failed.

12:20Have you not?

12:27Look at that, which appeared to give meaning to life and we have all been through such events.

12:38We have all lived through such occasions.

12:47A college degree, a job, a prestigious award, a love affair, beautiful, a love affair.

13:02It appears you have obtained what you wanted.

13:08It appears the end has arrived.

13:14It appears this is the full stop of all craving, but it betrays, does it not?

13:24It does not deliver what it promised.

13:32Every love affair is doomed to fail because the lover promises what he can never deliver.

13:43Because you are searching in the other, what the other is not qualified, neither entitled

13:49to deliver.

13:50In fact, the other can never really know what you are looking for.

14:00Instead of looking for that which is real, which you really, really want, you try to

14:09find a substitute in a lover, in an award, in progress, in money, in all the games of the ego.

14:31Yes, does it not happen?

14:37Rishi of the Upanishad is not coming from imagination.

14:57It is not a mental output.

15:03What he is watching, he is really observing life.

15:10He is looking all around and within.

15:16He is seeing the ways of life in mind.

15:24And from there arise his words.

15:34When words arise from an honest observation of life, then those words are called divine.

15:44That itself is divinity.

15:49Then you are rightly entitled to claim that the Upanishads are not works of the human

15:58mind.

16:01Yes, because the mind in its habitual pattern-based functioning can never really observe.

16:16If honest observation is taking place, it is taking place only when the mind has gone still.

16:23And if the mind has gone still, then the utterances can be rightfully, justfully called to be divine utterances.

16:35Whatever is uttered from a still mind will be divine.

16:45Whatever is heard with a still mind will only reveal the divine.

16:57So the Rishi is looking at the mind of man, the mind of man which is constantly in a want.

17:12And he says, since centuries, since millennia, you are wanting.

17:18And not only are you wanting, you are actively trying to fulfill that want and yet you have

17:24not succeeded.

17:25Surely that which you want is very, very far.

17:33Very, very far.

17:42What is it that you want?

17:44What is it that you want?

17:48The moment this question is asked, what is it that you want?

17:55The mind realizes that it cannot look at its own wants while it is running.

18:07To the running mind, the Rishi is asking, Sir, you are indeed a hard worker, a go-getter.

18:19And you are indeed putting in the maximum effort with the maximum cleverness and tactfulness.

18:32But with all due respect to you, would you please tell me what is it that you want?

18:37And what is it that is so unreachable that you never seem to be reaching it?

18:46Because the question has been asked, because the challenge has been posed, the mind must answer it.

18:58To answer it, the mind finds that it must stop.

19:04Difficult to answer while running.

19:10Difficult to observe while running.

19:12To have a clear view, to have a still view, to have a nice view of itself, the mind says,

19:22Alright, let me pause, let me consider the question, let me consider my own situation.

19:35The mind pauses and finds it has reached.

19:47The mind pauses and finds that it had never gone away.

19:58The mind pauses and finds it had always reached.

20:13The mind didn't pause with the expectation of finding it instantly, finding it so near.

20:25The mind paused because the ego was posed with a challenge.

20:34The pausing is always indirect.

20:43The mind cannot pause with the promise of the infinite because it cannot know the infinite in advance.

20:51Because there can be no imagination, no image, no presumption of the infinite.

21:00So it is only through some trick, some chance, which some people call as grace, that the mind pauses.

21:20It pauses to ask, what is it that is far?

21:24And it pauses and finds that that which it thought of as far is very very near when there is no thought.

21:34For thought itself is the movement of the mind.

21:46Rishi playfully says yet again, it is far, it is near.

21:54It depends on who you are.

21:59If you are the ambitious man, the runner, the achiever, the go-getter, it is far and it will remain far.

22:14Those who want it never get it.

22:17Those who are determined to get it, they too never get it.

22:22Those who chase it, they chase it away.

22:27And those who simply pause, find that the pausing is it.

22:34The pausing, the non-movement, the stillness, the cessation, the dissolution.

22:41That is that.

22:49What we have just talked of is not something that belongs to the Rishi.

22:55We are not discussing a scripture here.

23:00We are not discussing theory or concept here.

23:04We are discussing your life here, that which you call as your intimate personal life.

23:12There is nobody here, not in the streets and not in the entire world,

23:24who is not engaged in a chase, who is not desirous, who does not want.

23:33And if you want, then it is your responsibility towards yourself to know what you really want.

23:46Otherwise, is it not kind of stupid to keep wanting?

23:56Or have you been tutored and conditioned to believe that perpetual thirst is your destiny?

24:08That you are condemned to keep asking and never receiving?

24:14No, that is not our destiny.

24:19We have made that our life.

24:28We, nobody else is responsible.

24:37The very fact of desire is an indication and an invitation.

24:46The very fact of wanting, wanting anything, wanting to understand, wanting to settle down,

24:52wanting to grow up, wanting to get attached, wanting to get detached,

24:59wanting more, wanting to quit, wanting to gain, wanting to renounce.

25:05The very fact of wanting is an indication of an unease with your present situation.

25:15And if I am uneasy with my present situation, must I not know what the situation is about?

25:26Must I not understand who I am and where am I standing?

25:36I constantly feel afraid and run hither-thither.

25:41Must I not pause for a while and ask what is it that terrifies me?

25:50But you cannot look over your shoulder.

25:53You cannot see whether there is anything to be afraid of if you are running away all the time.

26:04You may say, no, I'm not always running away. I'm running towards something.

26:08Yes, you are running towards security, security that is always elusive.

26:16Proof, you're always running.

26:27We claim to be intelligent beings.

26:30We are called as homo sapiens. Where is the sapiens?

26:40Nothing in existence acts more stupidly than us.

26:55Everything seems to be settled.

27:06Only we appear so homeless, so uprooted.

27:16So restless.

27:30Have you seen more stress and tension on the faces of animals, insects, birds, fish,

27:40Can you see on the face of men?

27:47Surely not all is alright with the way we take ourselves to be.

28:02Surely we must stop deceiving ourselves.

28:11Surely we must stop believing in the script, the tension and stress and pull.

28:24It's the stuff of human life.

28:28The enabler of progress.

28:44Look at the movement of an animal.

28:48Look at how it eats, sleeps.

28:54And look at the face of a man.

28:59And if you can really look, you'll feel pity and disgust.

29:13What is it that we have assumed to be so far that we never seem to reach it?

29:33Why is it so that we, through all our myths, all our religions, all our education, all our propaganda,

29:43seem to have convinced ourselves that something is missing in life?

29:52Why do we insist on teaching the child that he is inadequate, that he must become something?

30:07Why is our mind so habituated to compare?

30:16Why are we so ungrateful?

30:23And that is when the fact of physical death is so clearly in our knowledge.

30:41I mean, what is it that we are thinking of and planning?

30:47Living like this and then just dying one day like the way we have lived.

30:55Dissatisfied, burning, wounded, hurt, angry, dissociated.

31:08Planning, hoping, conspiring, running and assuming that we will reach someday.

31:24Is that the bigger plan?

31:28Is that our grand arrangement for ourselves to die this way?

31:46Let's honestly ask ourselves, is it really that far?

31:52Or is it so that there is something within me that swells up when I run?

32:03There is something within me that feels good only when it achieves

32:14and does not feel good when it receives freely.

32:25Is there something within me which for its own sustenance is killing me?

32:43Maybe something is simply, obviously, by virtue of grace, available.

32:54But I want to make it distant so that I can have the credit of chasing it down.

33:07I obtained it. I am the go-getter. I am the achiever. I did it.

33:15Is there a tendency within us to be bloated with that claim?

33:27And to be able to claim, we are keeping ourselves deprived.

33:46Our situation is like that of the hungry man

33:53who insists that he knows where in which particular restaurant is food found in the city.

34:13He says, I already know. I have knowledge.

34:17And because I am a knowledgeable man, I will only eat at places that I have chosen and I have reached.

34:29Walking on my own legs, planning with my mind, deciding with my discretion.

34:38And he is hungry.

34:41And the place that he is aiming actually does not exist.

34:46It is his fancy, his illusion, his drunkenness.

34:53In chasing that place, he is going past one eatery after the other, one restaurant after the other, ignoring them.

35:07He can pause and fill himself up.

35:10At any moment, the city is full of eateries.

35:14But he is saying, no, no, I know where I would get it.

35:19And I must go there.

35:21What is the fun in eating at all these places that have come to me just incidentally?

35:27I cannot accept that which is just coming to me free of cost.

35:33Because if I take it, then where is the pleasure of claiming?

35:38Where is the pleasure of achieving?

35:42How will I claim that I am somebody?

35:46So let me remain hungry.

35:49But I'll chase that mirage.

35:54That is our situation.

35:59How long do we intend to remain hungry?

36:06Can we be a little sensitive and compassionate towards ourselves?

36:16Can we hate ourselves a little less?

36:25Can we be a little less concerned with what others are thinking about us?

36:33Can we be a little more honest and look at our life?

36:40The answer to all these is yes, yes, yes, most definitely yes.

36:45But it doesn't seem to be happening.

36:47Why?

37:03It is near, it is far.

37:22The Rishi is laughing.

37:27It depends totally on you, whether it is near for you or far for you.

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