Video Information:
Vishranti Shivir, 3.11.19, Bengaluru, India
Context:
What are the only two choices available to man?
Which choice should one choose?
How do these two choices affect a man's life?
How can we live a better life?
What are the perfect choices in our life?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vishranti Shivir, 3.11.19, Bengaluru, India
Context:
What are the only two choices available to man?
Which choice should one choose?
How do these two choices affect a man's life?
How can we live a better life?
What are the perfect choices in our life?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00There is a very pithy statement from the essay Listen Little Man.
00:24It says, you put security before truth.
00:33Addressing the little man, it is said, you put security before truth.
00:47So the questioner, Udhaman, is saying, Pranam Acharyaji, this statement is very true in
00:59my life and most people I see every day.
01:09We spend our active years running behind security in the form of money, power, position, prestige,
01:16respect, etc. and we also spend the rest of our petty lives trying to safeguard these
01:26fake things.
01:29What security to achieve when death is certain?
01:34Real and eternal security seems to be at the Lord's feet, but this knowledge too is second
01:41hand for me.
01:43I can see the rubbish all around, but I am unable to see the ever-present truth, please
01:48help.
01:53This security, this eternity, this mention of the Lord and this ever-present truth that
02:12you are talking of, they will not be seen here or there or anywhere.
02:25They are not in the world.
02:30You are saying that you see the rubbish all around, but you do not see the truth anywhere.
02:38Then where to find eternity or security or the Lord?
02:43You will not find the truth anywhere, here, there.
02:57Truth does not lie in the objects you look at.
03:03Truth lies in your relationship with them.
03:14If you can give depth any moment to any of your relationships with any of the objects,
03:34there is truth, there is eternity.
03:38There is eternity in that moment.
03:43Eternity is not an expanse in time.
03:50Eternity is not a stretch of time.
03:55Eternity is another dimension.
03:57Eternity is the depth contained in any given moment of time.
04:10You could simply say eternity lies in the quality of time.
04:20Outside what we see is just quantity.
04:25We have quantities.
04:26This, that, the thousand objects, the entire diversity of the universe, that's quantity.
04:33Where does quality lie?
04:35Quality does not lie in the objects themselves.
04:39I do not mean to say that a thousand bicycles are quantity and a BMW car is quality.
04:53That's not what I am saying.
04:57I am saying quality lies in the depth, the closeness, the independence, the freedom that
05:12is there in your relationship with any object and it could be any object.
05:21If you want to say that if you look around and find only rubbish, then there can be eternity
05:28even in your relationship with rubbish.
05:32If you can investigate rubbish, if you can really know what rubbish is, that is eternity.
05:42The eternal one does not live for 10,000 years.
05:46The eternal one might actually live a shorter duration than most people do.
05:53But there is a certain quality in his moments.
05:58That is called immortality.
06:01It is called immortality because it does not refer to the expanse of time.
06:05Expanse of time is death.
06:08It is nothing that can continue in time, unchallenged, untested, undefeated.
06:18The moment anything starts journeying in time, it is bound to get defeated and dead.
06:25Are you getting this?
06:28The moment anything starts traveling in time, the moment anything starts having a life in
06:34time, what is it surely going to meet?
06:39Death.
06:42If it starts in time, it will end in time.
06:44Therefore, how is immortality possible at all?
06:49Eternity and immortality are the same thing.
06:52How are they possible at all?
07:00They are possible only when your association with things in time is deep.
07:11What is meant by depth of association?
07:15To know depth of association, you have to first see how we usually superficially relate.
07:23We just look at things as they appear in the sensory mode to us.
07:31We don't attend to them, we don't inquire, we don't try to find out what they really are.
07:39There is a reason.
07:40If you want to find out what things really are, what the universe really is, what our
07:45little world really is, then at some point we will also have to figure out who we really are.
07:54That might be inconvenient to our settled prejudices.
08:02So we just take things at face value.
08:07This superficial living is mortal living.
08:15This superficiality is mortality.
08:20The superficiality is the domain of destruction or at least destructibility.
08:41If you have heard these words carefully, Godaman, this is immortality, which means
08:52immortality too is not guaranteed.
09:00Nothing is guaranteed to the ego, because guarantee is a compulsion and the ego cannot
09:10be forced to give up its fundamental freedom.
09:29You have to seek eternity moment after moment and it is possible to withdraw from eternity
09:39at any moment.
09:41You might be in rapt attention right now, but you can decide to withdraw, can't you?
09:55The next moment you could be again back to your superficial world.
10:02So you have to choose immortality again and again.
10:09Every moment this is the question that time poses to you.
10:15How do you want to live?
10:20You will have very little control over the things that happen to you, but you have all
10:29the control over how you relate to those things, which means essentially you have all
10:37the control over how you want to define yourself.
10:44Therein lies the possibility of eternity.
10:48Eternity that is truth.
10:50Eternity that is in religion referred to as the Lord.
11:12Then there is the question of security.
11:16People run after security, they don't love the truth so much.
11:25It is a choice you see.
11:31Our default agreement is with the superficial, because we are creatures of the senses and
11:44the senses can never penetrate deep into anything.
11:50The eyes can only look at the surface of the wall.
11:54The ears can only hear what has been said.
11:57They cannot hear that which has not been said.
12:01The skin can only touch another surface, another skin.
12:14Therefore, our default agreement is with the superficial and once we agree with it, we
12:23identify with it.
12:25Once we have identified with it, then we become the superficial.
12:31Now I am the superficial, hence the superficial has to be protected if I want my own life
12:38to continue and truth is deep.
12:44So now there is a conflict between that which needs to be secured and that which is deep.
12:51I need to be secured and I live on the surface.
12:57I want security and why do I want security?
12:59Because security is my nature, deathlessness is my deep, deep nature.
13:09So I want to be secured.
13:11I want to be secure but I am on the surface and truth lies in the depths.
13:20Therefore if I want to protect myself, what will I have to protect?
13:25The surface.
13:26If I have to protect the surface, what is it that I will have to oppose?
13:30The depth and the depth is the truth.
13:33Therefore most people become enemies of truth.
13:39Most people become very averse, very reluctant to truth.
13:46They shy away, they plot against themselves.
14:04It is a choice, remember, that we have to make.
14:09Do we want to secure the way we are which can be done, if that's what we decide or do
14:18we want an insecurity that is likely to give us something far more fulfilling?
14:34There are pros and cons.
14:36There are arguments on both sides.
14:39Ultimately it's your call.
14:44You decide.