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~~~~~
Video Information: 19.06.22, Upanishad Samagam, Greater Noida
Context:
~ What are some common reasons why Western seekers might feel disappointed in India?
~ How do cultural disparities between India and the West contribute to disappointment for seekers?
~ Can you give examples of specific instances where a Western seeker might feel let down by their experiences in India?
~ What practical steps can Western seekers take to cope with disappointment while in India?
~ How might managing expectations help Western seekers avoid disappointment during their time in India?
~ What resources or support systems are available for Western seekers who encounter challenges or disappointment in India?
~ How can Western seekers reframe disappointment as an opportunity for growth and learning in their spiritual journey?
~ Are there cultural norms or practices in India that Western seekers should be aware of to prevent disappointment?
~ How can Western seekers maintain a sense of resilience and openness when faced with disappointment in India?
~ Can disappointment in India ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of oneself and one's spiritual path?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00051
π Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00051
π Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles?cmId=m00051
~~~~~
Video Information: 19.06.22, Upanishad Samagam, Greater Noida
Context:
~ What are some common reasons why Western seekers might feel disappointed in India?
~ How do cultural disparities between India and the West contribute to disappointment for seekers?
~ Can you give examples of specific instances where a Western seeker might feel let down by their experiences in India?
~ What practical steps can Western seekers take to cope with disappointment while in India?
~ How might managing expectations help Western seekers avoid disappointment during their time in India?
~ What resources or support systems are available for Western seekers who encounter challenges or disappointment in India?
~ How can Western seekers reframe disappointment as an opportunity for growth and learning in their spiritual journey?
~ Are there cultural norms or practices in India that Western seekers should be aware of to prevent disappointment?
~ How can Western seekers maintain a sense of resilience and openness when faced with disappointment in India?
~ Can disappointment in India ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of oneself and one's spiritual path?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant
Category
π
LearningTranscript
00:00Pranam. Now I have a question on yarn. As you said earlier that knowledge has to precede action and this knowledge, you mean that this knowledge is the knowledge of the factual state of oneself as the ego, unfulfilled ego?
00:29The knowledge before action has to be of the actor itself.
00:37But it's a constantly moving thing, right?
00:40Otherwise you cannot have knowledge.
00:44This is very dynamic knowledge that you can attain only in the flux of life.
00:52It's like measuring the speed of water flow.
00:58If you want to measure the speed of flow, you have to measure it during the flow, in the flow.
01:11You cannot stop the water or freeze the water and then try to measure the speed.
01:20Similarly life is a constant movement.
01:23So life can be known only in the movement.
01:27I guess that has been confusing me a little because when I came back to Finland I was actually, at first it felt a little depressing because I had the notion that coming to India would like, that something would happen, you know.
01:54Something will?
01:55Happen.
01:57Like my motivation or something would get a spike up.
02:02But then I realized that I had a notion that that kind of a motivation could come from somewhere outside of me.
02:12It just took me back to the same fundamental that nothing outside of me can inspire me to like really work.
02:20This is going a little off track but I still want to say this.
02:24But now it's just funny because I'm in the same situation as when I was before coming to India.
02:33But now it seems that I still have work to do in this situation.
02:39I guess it's then just fine because...
02:42See how can soil and roads and brick and mortar give you fresh insight?
02:53What do you mean by India?
02:55India is just an ocean.
02:59When you come to an ocean you will miss the ocean.
03:03No?
03:05So what do you mean that you expected that when you will come to India you will return with your inner gates flung open?
03:15What exactly is India for you? What do you mean?
03:19You probably came to me.
03:23Right?
03:25And that nearness is not something just physical or geographical.
03:34If anything was to be thrown open that could have happened only if there was a willingness and a realization that it is not the country that counts but the consciousness.
03:58So that's the thing that happens with a lot of people from the West.
04:04They come to India thinking that the land itself will do something magical to them.
04:09The land will do nothing.
04:11In many senses the country you are in is a better place than India.
04:18In many material senses at least.
04:21You know that very well.
04:22Pollution, overpopulation, so many other things you are already better place there than in India.
04:31What makes India special then at least for some people?
04:36The right company.
04:38The right environment.
04:40The right process of self-inquiry.
04:43Now you have to then ask yourself how much of self-inquiry did really happen?
04:49How much vulnerability did you really espouse?
04:56And it's a choice always to open up, to come close and say I want to speak out, I want to confess, I want to talk about myself.
05:03Not about the experiences I am having in India.
05:06What is the point in coming to India?
05:09And you know waxing eloquent about a particular wedding ceremony one sees or a particular thing one sees on the road
05:20or a particular thing one experiences in the apartment.
05:24Is that what one comes to India for?
05:26No. One comes to India to probe himself, to know himself.
05:31Now ask yourself how much of that did you really choose to happen?
05:38It cannot happen on its own. It just cannot happen on its own.
05:41There is a process and the process is Upanishadic.
05:45The process is of deep discussion and deliberation.
05:49The process involves opening up.
05:51The process involves coming to the teacher talking nothing about this and that.
05:57Talking only about oneself.
06:00Who am I? What my life challenges are? What do I do the entire day?
06:04How my mind functions? What my fears, my insecurities are?
06:08If you talk of this then of course India can bless you with something very magical.
06:17But India's blessings cannot be foisted upon someone.
06:25One has to first of all be prepared for those blessings.
06:30One has to first of all be deeply in love with and desperate for those blessings.
06:38So the more you exhibit your desperation, the more madly you are in love with realisation,
06:46the more you will find India is working for you.
06:51Otherwise India is just an overcrowded place.
06:54Not very different from any other place in the world.
06:57But I mean I kind of thought about this on my own but it did require coming there, you know.
07:10I had to see that as I said that there was just too much confusion on my side.
07:20I sometimes felt that I didn't know what I was doing there.
07:24It was your virgin attempt. Try again.
07:30Yeah.
07:32Try again. You will have to make yourself land in another India.
07:38India is not one thing. India is a million different things and they are hierarchical.
07:46There can be the greatest India you meet and there can be a very mediocre India you land at.
07:56It depends on your choice. What do you want to take away from here?
08:02Body identification. Julius, body identification.
08:10When one is identified with the body which is our fundamental nemesis,
08:16then one is identified with everything that is physical.
08:21The body is our basic physicality, no?
08:26And when there is body identification, then there is identification with soil because the body is soil.
08:32So one thinks that by landing in a particular geography, something important will happen
08:36that is akin to thinking that the body is important.
08:41If the body is important, then land is important.
08:44If the body is who you are, then the land is the Guru and then you will miss the Guru.
08:51By the way, I was seeing it happen all the time.
09:00I know.
09:01I know.
09:03I was seeing it day by day how you were missing it.
09:07I know. Me too.
09:10I know. You are already all-knowing. You know so much.
09:15Yes, yes, yes. Too much.
09:23Yeah. But it had to go that way, I guess.
09:29Obviously, obviously. You see, it's necessary.
09:33It's necessary that one realizes the immensity of the possibility
09:40and one realizes how easy it is to miss it.
09:44How one can be very, very close and yet far from being intimate.
09:51Yeah, I mean, I felt bad for, you know, I just felt like I was wasting your time there all the time.
09:59It was kind of...
10:01My time is wasted when I do not get to solve real problems.
10:10If I am solving real problems, that's the best utilization of my time.
10:16So could you come up with something real? I would have loved it.
10:26But if I'm not coming up with anything real, does that mean that's my lifestyle?
10:32What else is it that matters to you, Julius?
10:35What else matters to anybody?
10:40Climate change?
10:41Climate change?
10:44What else is it that matters to anybody?
10:48Why do we want to talk about anything else under the sun?
10:52It's your life.
10:55That's the fundamental unit of your challenge.
10:59Everything arises from there.
11:02Even the global problems come from our own misled minds.
11:10So one has to talk of one's mind. That's all that is there to talk of.
11:18Think now of all the days you spent here.
11:23And think of what you spent them doing.
11:30And then you will be surprised big time.
11:36How could I miss it so completely?
11:44So near yet so far.
11:53You know the Upanishads put it this way.
11:56It's a beautiful quote.
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12:03Near and far. That's near, that's very far.
12:09Very very near yet very very far.
12:19I have people who are with me since years.
12:23And they are very very far.
12:26One day when they will be even physically far.
12:30That's when probably they will wonder, much like you.
12:33How did we miss it so completely?
12:36How did we waste all our years?
12:45Yeah.
12:47But it was actually funny talking of the distance now because
12:52when I got sick at the later part of the trip.
12:57I got most out of the session I was watching from afar.
13:02I don't know why but in the session hall it was really hard for me.
13:06Exactly. That's what.
13:10Nearness is such a deception.
13:14Nearness is such a deception.
13:17It makes you miss even that which you were receiving when afar.
13:26There in Europe you are probably receiving more than what you did
13:32sitting right in front of me.
13:34Definitely.
13:36Because you thought that you were near.
13:38That's what the senses make us feel.
13:45I am already near.
13:47If I am already near why do I need to be attentive?
13:50If I am already near then I am eligible to expect a miracle.
13:58And the miracle is not happening.
14:01So I am frustrated.
14:03But you are not near at all.
14:06But you are not near at all except in the physical sense.
14:11Right at this moment there is greater intimacy
14:16than there was over the period of that month.
14:22Because you see it is not the body that matters.
14:26It is mental closeness and availability that matters.
14:31That's why I asked you about what constitutes India for you.
14:36The airport, the city, the roads, the apartment.
14:41What do you mean by India?
14:43Did you come to have a taste of the soil?
14:47Did you want to have an experience of the newly built airport?
14:52That's why you landed here?
14:55That's what we forget.
14:56Just as we don't remember why we took birth in the first place.
15:02We also forget why we have come to a place at all.
15:06You look at the people around.
15:08Do you think they realize why they stand born?
15:12No, we don't know.
15:14We don't know the purpose of life.
15:16Just as we don't know the purpose of life we also do not know
15:18or we rather forget the purpose of our visit or journey.
15:23And we just get lost.
15:25And then we wonder why such disappointment?
15:29Why am I returning empty-handed?
15:32Just as we die empty-handed we also take off empty-handed.
15:39But do you think it's then alright if I just continue the current thing
15:47and try to just see what comes out of it?
15:52Or is that wrong?
15:56You will have to proceed on the pilgrimage once again.
16:06At the time when you feel ripe.
16:09Rather at the time when you feel desperate.
16:13And this time with far greater care.
16:17So that you don't miss it again.
16:22With more care and fewer expectations.
16:35And with your defenses down.
16:41It's important to be disappointed initially at least.
16:52You will probably not get the context.
16:55But there is a pop song that comes to my mind.
17:00It's in Hindi.
17:06It's a usual song written in context of the two genders
17:14and the common type of love.
17:16But the lines become meaningful even in other dimensions.
17:22Mohabbat bhi zaruri thi, bichadna bhi zaruri tha.
17:27Otherwise you will not realize that the mohabbat was fake.
17:31And that will now enable you to enter true mohabbat.
17:35Mohabbat means love.
17:37So love was necessary.
17:40So was estrangement.
17:42Parting of ways.
17:45If you do not get deceived in love
17:48how will you realize that your love was fake till now?
17:52So meeting disappointment is very very important.
17:56And that is not the end.
17:58That is now the beginning of real love.
18:01Enter it so that you can be duped by it.
18:06So that you end up disappointed and frustrated.
18:10And that ending is then a new beginning.
18:16It's such a relief actually.
18:19To realize that you have been deceived.
18:25And that's the reason I didn't interrupt the process.
18:34I was seeing the process of failure happen very clearly.
18:42But zaruri tha.
18:49It's a beautiful song.
18:53Sanjay will definitely remember the other lines.
18:56What else was zaruri tha?
19:20Hmm.
19:23This is a beautiful line. It says
19:29It is only when you come to your dream destination
19:34that you realize that there is still
19:39a lot of distance to cover.
19:46I have come to the destination
19:47and I realize I am still a passenger, a traveler.
19:55Otherwise you will think that you have arrived
19:58when you have not.
20:00Therefore it is important to chase something like ithaka.
20:05So that you may reach there
20:08even if only to be disappointed.
20:12And that disappointment will be a curtain raiser.
20:17Something new will open up.
20:28It's when you are lost
20:31that you realize it was very important to be lost.
20:35Otherwise you would have kept telling yourself,
20:39entertaining yourself in the notion
20:42that you are home.
20:45It's important
20:47that life
20:49by way of shock and defeat
20:53reveals to you
20:55that you are still
20:57very far from
20:59home.
21:02And that mind you
21:05is not inauspicious.
21:08That's wonderful
21:10because now at least you will be more careful.
21:14It's a relief.
21:16Really it's a relief.
21:18Because there is no shame in
21:21knowing what you really are.
21:23It's only in the
21:25this strange
21:27deception where there is this tension.
21:33There was this Kargil conflict
21:40and one Indian soldier
21:42was awarded
21:44one of the gallantry awards for something quite peculiar.
21:49Listen to it.
21:54They did not know
21:56the location
21:59of the enemy guns,
22:03the large guns I am talking of,
22:06the 165mm guns
22:08that
22:09shell artillery over long distances.
22:14So those guns are there.
22:17And how do we locate where those guns are?
22:22We locate them when
22:25they fire
22:27and their projectiles land.
22:30Then
22:32by tracing the trajectory of the projectile
22:35you come to know where the enemy's guns are positioned.
22:40But the enemy wants to hide the location of their guns.
22:44So what does the enemy do?
22:46The enemy tries not to fire for as long as possible
22:50because if they fire
22:52then you will come to know where their guns are.
22:54It is from that direction
22:56that the shells are coming
22:58and that's the trajectory they are taking.
23:00This is the velocity, this is the height, that is the angle.
23:03So you can very quickly calculate
23:06where the guns are situated.
23:07So they were not firing.
23:09So one
23:11Indian soldier
23:15with his team
23:17they decided to expose themselves to the guns.
23:20They said we will make the enemy fire.
23:23We will make the enemy fire and by that we will know where they are hiding their guns.
23:27And once we know where they are hiding their guns we can target their guns.
23:32We can either bomb their guns
23:34or we can target their guns using air power.
23:39Our planes can go there and
23:42destroy their guns.
23:44So they deliberately made themselves available to the enemy.
23:49They said we are here, now fire.
23:52The enemy had no option but to fire at them
23:55because they were constantly inching closer to their positions.
23:59So the enemy fired.
24:01The soldiers were killed.
24:02The soldiers were killed.
24:05But
24:07their colleagues came to know of the
24:11enemy guns position.
24:13And for this they were given guarantee awards.
24:16So it's sometimes very important
24:19that you allow the enemy to fire at you
24:22and you suffer damages.
24:24If that happens obviously you suffer
24:28but at least now you know where your enemy is.
24:30Otherwise the enemy remains hidden.
24:33That's why it's important to sometimes suffer at the hands of Maya.
24:38When you suffer then you know where she is hiding.
24:41When you suffer then you know where she is hiding.
24:44Otherwise her guns remain hidden.
24:46That's the reason I sometimes ask
24:51our friends here in Bhojtal and around
24:56to enter into Maya's very den, very lair.
25:05When you enter her den then you will know how dangerous she is.
25:09So I push them into Maya's den.
25:11You go there.
25:13You go, you go, you make out, you make merry,
25:16you go, you drink, you do all those things, go.
25:20If you do not do all those things
25:23then you will never discover her firepower.
25:26You have to come close to her
25:28to see how dangerous and how ugly she is.
25:33From a distance she will appear very beautiful
25:36and very alluring.
25:39You have to allow her to fire at you.
25:43I repeat, you will suffer damages
25:46but you will come to know where she is hiding.
25:49So it's alright you have suffered a certain damage
25:53but now you know where she hides within you.
25:55Next time be more careful.
26:04Pranam Acharya ji.
26:06During Bhagavad Gita session you have told that
26:10go beyond the material or beyond your body
26:16and in recent Bhagavad Gita session also you have told
26:19know from your mistakes what you are doing
26:27and today also you have said know who you are.
26:32So whether going beyond from the material
26:36or beyond from the body is same to that of knowing.
26:41Same thing.
26:43Knowing is beyondness.
26:45To know is to be beyond.
26:47Wonderful.
26:49That which you know
26:55is that which you are now free of.
26:59Know it and be liberated.
27:03Vedanta is extremely clear about it.
27:06Knowledge is liberation.
27:10One more thing,
27:12in recent Bhagavad Gita session you have told about Nirmam.
27:17Nirmam.
27:20And so you have told like
27:29regarding
27:32I don't know exactly Hindi words but you have said
27:41but regarding Nirmam you have said like
27:44I think that
27:50I always think
27:52and after that session I have observed myself like
27:58whenever I speak to someone I observe myself
28:02I always use I
28:04and this observation
28:06who is observing
28:08that who is saying this I
28:10is that
28:12the observer is also again saying
28:16don't know who is observing it.
28:19Then go beyond the observer.
28:25If you observe something
28:28and then you observe the observer as well.
28:33That's what observing but don't know again who is that.
28:37Then go beyond that as well.
28:39Beyondness that's the reason so much fun.
28:46If you can detect even the observer then the observer has become the observed.
28:54So become the observer of the observer.
29:01Everything that can be observed must be observed.
29:05The observer just by the dint of his name
29:11does not
29:14become
29:18exempted
29:21from the purview of observation.
29:27There is no VIP list here.
29:31Everybody will be frisked.
29:34Everybody will be enquired into.
29:37Everybody will be observed.