Video Information: 18.07.2022, BITS Pilani, Goa
Context:
~What does it mean to be absent?
~What is really the Present?
~Why can't we ever fully perceive the reality?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~What does it mean to be absent?
~What is really the Present?
~Why can't we ever fully perceive the reality?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00:00 What's happening here? Firstly I'll read it out to you and then explain. Once the
00:00:11 five senses disputed among themselves about their personal superiority. The
00:00:20 five senses quarreled as to who is superior among them. So once the five
00:00:28 senses disputed and each of them was saying I am superior. Those senses
00:00:39 approached the father Prajapati and said respected sir who is the best among us?
00:00:52 He replied he among you is the best on whose departure the body would appear
00:01:00 its worst as it were. So the five of you are there. Which of you is the most
00:01:10 superior? He said the one upon whose departure the body would become the
00:01:18 worst is the highest or the most superior. Getting it? So it's an experiment. The
00:01:29 judgment has not been passed. An experiment is to be conducted and the
00:01:35 result would decide the winner. Alright so the experiment begins. Speech departed.
00:01:44 Speech is the first sense to leave the body to conduct the experiment. Staying
00:01:50 an ear out it came back and asked how have you been able to live without me?
00:01:57 So what's been your condition once I'm gone? This is gone. How have you been
00:02:01 living? So the others replied just like the dumb. You were gone so we were living
00:02:10 just like a dumb person. Not speaking yet alive with the breath, seeing with the
00:02:21 eyes, hearing with the ear and thinking with the mind. So this much is your worth.
00:02:29 Even after you are gone the mind is functional and thinks, the eyes are
00:02:36 functional and see, ears are functional and hear and the breath is functional. So
00:02:44 the organism is living alive. So the speech got an appraisal of its worth and
00:02:54 re-entered the body. Now the speech knows the value it holds. Who is the next one
00:03:01 to go? The eye departed. Staying an ear out it came back and asked how have you
00:03:10 been able to live without me? So the others replied just like the blind.
00:03:17 Do not sing yet living with the breath, speaking with the organ of speech. The
00:03:26 whole thing could say the tongue. Speaking with the organ of speech, hearing
00:03:32 with the ear and thinking with the mind. Right, so that's the worth of the eyes.
00:03:40 Even if the eyes are not there, one still lives as the blind do. The next one. This
00:03:48 is the way of Upanishadic storytelling. The way of repetition. Now you will be
00:04:00 able to predict what's going to happen in the next one. The very fact that you
00:04:05 are now able to predict the next leg of the story tells that you are understanding
00:04:13 the story. If you do not understand something how can you predict it? So they
00:04:18 keep things repetitive, the seers, for the students or the readers sake. Once you
00:04:26 repeat something it goes within. That's the method, the tactic employed in a lot
00:04:35 of spiritual literature. The way of repetition. Not only are the verses
00:04:40 repetitive, you are actually asked to read the verses repetitively in the
00:04:48 sense that the same verse has to be read 20 times. The same verse has to be read
00:04:54 repetitively for 20 years. You don't get done with it. You can't say I've read it
00:05:03 once and I'm done. You are supposed to read it every day and then it no more
00:05:09 remains reading. It becomes something higher and if you are really reading it
00:05:19 properly then with every subsequent movement, with every next read, a new
00:05:29 layer of meaning is revealed. The words remain the same, the meaning enhances. Are
00:05:39 you getting it? So you cannot read the Upanishads or the Gita like a novel. You
00:05:47 cannot say it's just like a movie where we now know the story so the movie is
00:05:52 finished on us. You can never read the Gita completely because several concealed
00:06:02 meanings are still waiting to open up. Are you getting it? It's not usual
00:06:13 fictional literature. It is a method that works by repetition and if the very
00:06:21 method is repetition then how can you not repeat? The method will then not work
00:06:27 on you. Getting it? Now why is repetition the method? Yes, because repetition has
00:06:40 to act as an antidote to another kind of repetition. What is that other kind of
00:06:49 repetition we are referring to? The repeated continuous assault of the world
00:06:59 on the senses. Is that not repetitive? Is that not repetitive? So when poison is
00:07:11 being injected into you repeatedly, the Rishis say that the antidote too must be
00:07:22 regular and repeated. Just as you are being dirtied repeatedly every day with
00:07:34 dirt settling on your body, the bathing process too must be repetitive. Can you
00:07:42 say that you get dirty every day but would take bath only once a year? That
00:07:50 would be foolish. Right? So because life itself is a process of accumulation of
00:07:56 dirt, how does the dirt accumulate? Through the senses. Whatever you see in a
00:08:03 sense corrupts you. Whatever you hear in a sense corrupts you. So that is
00:08:10 something that is happening again and again and again. Therefore the observance
00:08:16 of this too must happen again and again.
00:08:24 That's the wisdom behind the method. Do you see this? So now the ears are
00:08:36 departing and you may very well predict what's going to happen. You can even
00:08:42 predict the exact words in which it is going to be said. So the ears departed,
00:08:47 staying, an ear out, the ear came back and asked, "How have you been able to
00:08:58 live without me?" The same words. The Rishis have no fondness for superficial
00:09:04 innovation. They will not needlessly use synonyms to pretend as if something
00:09:12 fresh is being said. In fact they want to ruthlessly expose that nothing fresh is
00:09:18 being said. Otherwise you have speakers who do not have too many things to say
00:09:26 but they'll go on and on at 2,000 places for 20 years speaking as if they are
00:09:36 delivering a fresh sermon every time. How? By playing with words, narrating the
00:09:45 same story in 20 different ways, using fresh idioms, clever metaphors, synonyms,
00:09:56 this and that. The Upanishadic way is just the opposite. The three verses are
00:10:06 exact replica of each other. Just that ear is being replaced by eye, is being
00:10:15 replaced by tongue. Deaf is being replaced by blind, is being replaced by
00:10:26 dumb. They want to make it very clear that these three things are the same
00:10:35 implying that the three senses are the same. There is no difference. It is a
00:10:43 certain unity, a commonality they want you to appreciate and therefore the
00:10:52 austere similarity in the three verses and you will find this similarity
00:10:59 continuing. It continues so that you get the message. Else we miss the message in
00:11:07 diversity. Diversity is what deludes us, does it not? You look at one thing it
00:11:16 appears so different from the other thing that you get attracted towards it
00:11:19 even if you have burnt your fingers with the first thing. You burn your fingers
00:11:26 with one thing and you woe never to touch it again. That one thing returns to
00:11:36 you in another shape and form and appears different from the first thing.
00:11:41 Now you fall for it and you again burn your fingers. So what does the thing do?
00:11:49 It changes its appearance, it dresses up at something else and returns and now
00:11:58 you again fall for it. So diversity in one sense is the cause of your suffering
00:12:06 because all that which appears as diverse is fundamentally one and not
00:12:12 only one it is false. How do you sum up the entire diversity in one word? What
00:12:23 would that one word be? Mind. So this is all mind and that's a mark of wisdom.
00:12:34 When you look at stuff and you do not accord it a thousand names, what is it?
00:12:41 Mind. That's also what you know science does to an extent in the objective world.
00:12:49 The common man would look at this and say oh this is black, this is mine, this
00:12:53 belongs to one brand, this is another thing, another thing, another thing, another
00:12:56 thing, another thing. Science reduces the diversity. First of all it will say that
00:13:07 the diamond and the coal are one. That's something only science can say. To the
00:13:13 commoner the diamond is diamond and coal is coal but science has reduced the
00:13:18 level of diversity. Now diamond and coal and graphite and something else are all
00:13:24 just carbon, just carbon. But still diversity remains because carbon is
00:13:34 different from nitrogen, is different from oxygen, is different from uranium
00:13:37 and uranium is so very different. Such a such a heavy atom it is and radioactive.
00:13:47 So you can still say oh diversity exists. Alright. The diamond and the coal are one
00:13:54 but still the diamond and the coal both are different from oxygen or from water.
00:14:03 Or from some other compound. Now science proceeds a step further and says no no
00:14:10 no wait wait. Even there there is no need for such diversity. They are all just
00:14:21 electrons, neutrons, protons. So there is no need to say carbon is fundamentally
00:14:27 different from oxygen. Both are just the same. What? Electrons, neutrons, protons.
00:14:35 But then you'll say oh the numbers there are different. Science progresses a bit
00:14:44 more and says what numbers are you counting? There are no objects there. You
00:14:48 can count numbers only if specific and different objects are present. There are
00:14:52 just waves, just waves. What are you counting? So that's something that
00:15:02 science does in the objective world. The Upanishads do the same thing in the
00:15:07 subjective world within. They cut the clutter. They reduce the diversity. It's
00:15:15 all the same. And that makes you very detached and equanimous. You understand
00:15:27 equanimity? What is that? You start looking things as just the same. Now
00:15:35 that's a spiritual virtue but that can also come through science. That's just a
00:15:42 spiritual virtue but can also come through science. If you're a spiritual
00:15:51 person, you look at one kind of food and another kind of food and you will say oh
00:15:56 food is just food. So fine. This one is probably just for 50 rupees. This one is
00:16:05 for 5,000 rupees. But food is just food. So your spirituality helps you accept the
00:16:11 both as one. You become equanimous. Sambhav. The scientific bent of mind would
00:16:22 look at these two and say what? Calories, minerals, alright. How many milligrams of
00:16:30 potassium here? How much sodium here? How many calories here? And he'll find
00:16:37 probably that these two are comparable. He may even find that in terms of the
00:16:42 elemental composition, the 50 rupees plate is better. So that enables him to
00:16:48 look at the whole situation very differently. The problem arises when you
00:16:54 are neither scientific nor spiritual. Then all that matters to you is appearance,
00:17:02 delusions, the branding, the story that goes with something, the fiction
00:17:10 associated with something. Now you cannot look at the reality of things because
00:17:15 all you can perceive is the story, the fiction or the brand, the imagination. Are
00:17:25 you getting it? It's a mark of inner development when you stop seeing
00:17:34 differences where they do not exist. And when you stop seeing useless differences
00:17:46 then you start differentiating the one real thing from the thousand useless
00:17:54 things. Are you getting it? All our life is spent in something very worthless. We
00:18:04 differentiate between A and B where A and B are both worthless. But since we have
00:18:11 to distinguish the two we start calling one of them as worthy. Otherwise how will
00:18:15 you distinguish? The fact is that you are playing the entire game between A and Z.
00:18:26 That's your limited universe within the mind. And to entertain yourself you are
00:18:34 trying to find value in one of the characters. The truth is that the entire
00:18:43 alphabet is worthless. But that's a very painful truth because that alphabet is
00:18:51 all that you have. That's your entire world. So you are left with no option but
00:18:58 to artificially declare M or Q or S or Z as important. How dare you admit that
00:19:07 everything is false and worthless. That's how we proceed. And when you do this when
00:19:17 you artificially accept that M or B or Z or D has value when that kind of
00:19:26 compulsion you totally discard then you come upon that which is beyond the
00:19:33 alphabet and really valuable. But for you to come to that first of all you have to
00:19:39 be free of the alphabet. Are you getting it? So distinguish you must but no point
00:19:52 fooling yourself with false distinctions.
00:19:58 And people act very self-righteously. They'll say no I'll stick to D because
00:20:07 D is far more important than M. And they'll say you know see what kind of
00:20:16 righteous man I am. I discovered that D is more important than M. So I acted as
00:20:28 per the rules of justice. I kept sticking to D and this fellow will appear very
00:20:39 moralistic. This fellow will become an authority in his own eyes. He'll say I'm
00:20:48 better than everybody else because I found D better than M and I remained
00:20:55 wedded to D all life. Whereas the truth is that D is equal to M. D and M are not
00:21:04 at all different. The difference you have created is fake not merely fake. It is
00:21:15 dishonest because you are fooling yourself almost deliberately. Do you see
00:21:24 this? Then there is the one who has the heart, the courage to say you know I
00:21:32 really thoroughly honestly examined right from A to Z. It's all the same.
00:21:42 To tell the truth there is no difference. All the differences are just superficial.
00:21:49 Yes on the surface there are differences. When you go inside they are all one. So
00:21:58 then someone will come and say oh don't say that because if you say that what
00:22:01 are you left with? If everything is fake where would you go? Where would you live?
00:22:07 Where would you work? Who would accompany you? Don't you want to have a house?
00:22:15 Don't you want to have a life? Don't you want to be stable? Don't you want to have
00:22:22 security and kids and and some some prestige? If you say everything is fake
00:22:31 how would you live? And you then need to have the gumption, the conviction to say
00:22:39 that I don't know. I don't know how I would live. But A to Z they are all the
00:22:47 same. And I leave myself to the unknown. I don't know what would happen of me but
00:22:56 it's alright. I subject myself to uncertainty and that uncertainty is
00:23:06 preferable to deliberate dishonesty. Then something magical opens up.
00:23:16 Are you getting it? Something magical just happens beyond the alphabet. But it
00:23:26 cannot happen if you sit within the alphabet and crave for guarantees or
00:23:34 reassurance or advanced demonstrations.
00:23:42 Even in the spiritual domain we act as customers. We ask for demos. We say
00:23:48 alright I am prepared to you know try freedom a little because you are
00:23:55 pressing me so much. So I'll give freedom a shot for your sake. The guru is
00:24:02 the salesman. So for his sake the customer, the listener is prepared to try
00:24:08 freedom for a while. A little bit you know can you give me a sample or can you
00:24:12 give me a demo? It won't work this way. You cannot be assured in advance. You
00:24:22 have to run the risk. You have to put yourself through uncertainty and
00:24:30 insecurity and that's when the beyond opens up. Does it necessarily open up? You
00:24:37 are again asking for certainty. I don't know and you have to be happy with not
00:24:48 knowing. Honesty that does not bother about the results. That's what is needed.
00:24:57 If you're too bothered about the results you just cannot be honest. Not possible.
00:25:03 Are you getting it?
00:25:11 So they are all the same. This, this, this, this, this. What does this mean? The entire
00:25:21 world is just the same because the entire world comes to you through this,
00:25:26 this, this, this, this. Equalizing the senses means equalizing every object of
00:25:40 perception that comes to you via the senses. When you say eyes are equal to
00:25:47 the ears, what does that mean? Everything that you can see is not fundamentally
00:25:52 different from everything that you can hear. It's not about the senses. It
00:25:57 becomes something about the objects of the senses. Are you getting it? And that's why there
00:26:06 is this repetition present here. This repetition is not incidental. It is a
00:26:12 deliberate method. So don't get bored. You are in a process. Are you getting it?
00:26:23 When you don't nod, I get afraid. I don't know whether you are immersed in
00:26:38 meditative trance or are you just fed up.
00:26:44 So the ear came back and he was told of his worth. Now the mind departed. The mind
00:27:07 departed, staying an ear out, it came back and asked, what did it ask? How have you
00:27:15 lived without me? And now the mind is being shown its place. So the others
00:27:22 replied, just like infants without developed minds, but yet living with the
00:27:32 breath because the breath is there. So the infants are there, they don't really
00:27:35 have minds, they don't think much and all that. Yet living with the breath, speaking
00:27:41 with the tongue, seeing with the eye and hearing with the ear. Hearing this, the
00:27:53 mind entered the body and humbly sat down. Oh I have been shown my place. I've
00:27:58 been shown my place. So isn't it intriguing what's going to happen next?
00:28:06 Okay, good. See it's interesting on its own. It's actually a thing of these times
00:28:19 that I have to artificially spice it up for you. I don't, I shouldn't need to. I
00:28:26 shouldn't need to. But because our lives are so drenched in spices these days, we
00:28:37 cannot savour the taste of pure juice. This is pure juice. But it starts
00:28:50 appearing tasteless because we have become accustomed to spice. So then there
00:29:00 is a need for me to explain, elaborate and make it a little more palatable for
00:29:07 you and then still wonder whether my efforts are sufficing. Alright.
00:29:21 Then as the prana was about to depart, it uprooted the other senses just as a
00:29:37 horse of metal would uproot the pegs to which it is tethered. Now prana too is
00:29:47 in the fray and prana says now I'm going to go as prana is about to depart.
00:29:52 All the other senses too are uprooted. Without prana, eyes, ears, mind, nothing
00:30:01 functions. They all then came to it and said, "O respected sir, please be our
00:30:10 lord. You are the best among us. Do not depart from the body." Then speech said
00:30:21 to prana, "Just as I am the richest, in the same manner are you also the richest." So
00:30:27 that's a climb down. Just a while back, that's just a few years back because
00:30:33 they all took a near age. What was speech declaring? Speech was saying, "I am
00:30:40 superior amongst all of us." Now speech is humbly admitting, "Just as I am the
00:30:48 richest, in the same manner you too are richest." So at least this much of humility.
00:30:52 I'm not superior, the two of us are equal. In this acknowledgement lies the
00:30:58 implicit admission that you are actually higher. But the speech being full of
00:31:03 itself, full of pride, cannot openly admit that. So all that it is saying is, "Oh, the
00:31:09 two of us are equal. Alright, alright. Bro, same to same." Then the eyes said to prana,
00:31:18 "Just as I am the stable basis, in the same manner are you also the stable basis.
00:31:25 Whatever I stand for, whatever is best about me, you two have that, we two are
00:31:30 peers." The claim of superiority is gone. Then the ear said to prana, "Just as I am
00:31:38 prosperity." That's how the ear believes that the ear stands for prosperity. In
00:31:44 what way only the ears know. Just as only the proud man knows what his pride is
00:31:52 all about, the others cannot see that. Have you not seen vanity of that kind?
00:31:57 That fellow is all puffed up and he believes himself to the most important
00:32:02 man in the universe and only he knows why. Others look at him and say, "What, piece of
00:32:09 trash?" But he says, "No, if I am not there, the sun won't rise." So the ears come and say,
00:32:19 "Just as I am prosperity, in the same manner you two are prosperity." And then
00:32:26 the mind came and said, "Just as I am the abode, I am the one who shelters everybody,
00:32:32 I am the abode, in the same manner are you also the abode." So verily, truly, people
00:32:40 do not call them as organs of speech, nor as eyes, nor as ears, nor as minds, but
00:32:46 they call them only as pranas, for the prana indeed is all these. Right? Now what
00:32:53 does prana stand for? Who won the race? Who is declared the winner unanimously?
00:33:01 Who? Prana. What is prana? What is that? What is that?
00:33:15 Consciousness. Consciousness. Consciousness is what powers thought.
00:33:28 Consciousness is what powers all the senses. To put it more precisely, the 'I'
00:33:39 feeling that arises from your physical body, the 'I' tendency, that's prana.
00:33:56 The 'I' tendency. All your thoughts are founded on the 'I' tendency. 'I' stands at
00:34:03 the center of all thoughts. Think of something in which 'I' is not involved. Try.
00:34:11 'I' is at the center of all thoughts. Even if you try to think about something
00:34:19 distant, you'll find you are thinking about it because in some way you are
00:34:25 related to it, else you can't think of it. Even it's a purely objective
00:34:31 thing, like the rings of Saturn, like the moons of Jupiter, like climate change,
00:34:41 like the snow in Alaska. Even in these things, the 'I' is at the center of
00:34:53 thought. Otherwise you just won't think. It's impossible for you to think without
00:34:59 being interested. What does interest mean? You have something at stake. Who has
00:35:06 something at stake? The 'I' has something at stake, else the thought cannot arise.
00:35:11 We talk of free thought or objective thought. The fact is free thought is not
00:35:15 possible. All thought is tethered to the 'I'. So how can it be free? Yeah, there can be
00:35:24 a long rope, we understand. But even if an animal is tethered by a long rope,
00:35:35 would you call it free? The rope is long. Does that make the animal free? No. So
00:35:42 thought is never free. Thought is founded on 'I' and that is 'Pran'. So that's the
00:35:51 reason the mind is subservient to 'Pran'. And that also tells you what is the
00:36:01 definition of life. When something comes to life, meaning when something has 'Pran',
00:36:09 it starts saying 'I'. It may not utter from the throat, but the 'I' tendency arises and
00:36:19 that's the definition of life. If you ever want to distinguish between something
00:36:26 that is animate and inanimate, this is the test. Does the thing have a
00:36:41 consciousness of itself? If the thing has a consciousness of itself, it is alive.
00:36:48 If the thing does not have consciousness of itself, it is not. That's what happens
00:36:59 when life develops in the womb. The embryo is taken to have come alive at a
00:37:15 particular point or in a particular phase. That is when it starts having an
00:37:28 'I', an identity, an appreciation or concept of itself, however vague. It does not know
00:37:41 itself, but it still can feel itself and therefore starts responding.
00:37:54 The body is special because even as the body is material, from this body arises
00:38:02 something that is not completely material. And what is that? The 'I'
00:38:09 consciousness. And there is nothing in the body that you can independently, in
00:38:19 isolation, look at and declare as the birthplace of the 'I' tendency. Does the
00:38:33 'I' tendency come from the fingers? Does it come from the neck? Does it come from
00:38:39 the heart? It does not even come from the brain really. Even if you are kind of
00:38:48 brain dead, yet your lungs will respond to ventilators. What is this 'I'? What is
00:38:59 this 'Pran'? That's the magic of life. The only way to know 'I' consciousness is to
00:39:12 give it fulfillment. As long as it remains unfulfilled, it remains unknowable.
00:39:20 To know it, fulfill it. The interesting thing is, if it is fulfilled, there remains
00:39:28 no urge to know it because the knower departs.
00:39:36 So we were saying, do you know the one who looks out through your eyes? He is
00:39:51 the master of the eyes. He is the 'I'. The eyes are doing his bidding. The eyes are
00:40:02 his servants. The eyes are not random. The eyes are not performing a mechanical
00:40:10 function. Had the eyes been random, why would you all have been looking only
00:40:17 this way? Look randomly any other way? Because the eyes can look elsewhere as
00:40:25 well. The eyes will have no problem. But there is somebody within who will have
00:40:29 problems if the eyes start looking towards the door. There are so many
00:40:37 other sounds floating around, are they not?
00:40:44 The creaking of the chair and there is some object outside and something is
00:40:50 happening and somebody just tapped his feet, something. Did you even hear? Because
00:40:58 the ears are not random. There is somebody within who is trying to hear
00:41:02 through the ears and when he knows that something important is happening, he
00:41:09 won't focus on the random things. Contrast that with this. What is it
00:41:19 recording? Everything. What are you recording? One thing. Because this does
00:41:29 not have? Prana. You have prana, so your ears become very different from this
00:41:37 receiver. Even though objectively this receives sound waves in much the same
00:41:45 way as this funnel receives sound waves. They both receive them in the same way
00:41:53 but they don't record them or admit them in the same way because this is
00:42:02 devoid of prana and this is not. You could also take the example of this
00:42:10 camera. Same thing. But that would not be a good example because the camera is not
00:42:15 recording everything. You have prohibited it from loitering around. Right? So it's
00:42:24 looking at just one thing. Are you getting it? It's very important to come
00:42:34 to your fundamental identity. That's what these verses are all about. This is
00:42:42 not some nice juicy entertaining take on the five senses and one of them appears
00:42:48 as winner and nice. Contest over. It is to educate you in something very
00:42:59 important about yourself. And that education unfortunately we do not get
00:43:05 through our system. The education social system etc. The physical system
00:43:13 obviously won't allow that education.
00:43:17 Not making much sense.
00:43:26 Do you understand the implications of what is being said? This is not important.
00:43:36 This is not important. This is not important. This is not important. Of much
00:43:42 more importance is the one driving all these. Especially because you are
00:43:50 thinkers, intellectuals, you must know that thought is not very important. You
00:43:54 have to look at the center of thought. The center of thought is the master of
00:43:59 thought. And thinkers love to call themselves as free thinkers. This is what
00:44:07 is telling you is that there is nothing called free thought. There is nothing
00:44:11 called original thought either. All thought is commanded by and is
00:44:16 subservient to the fundamental I tendency.
00:44:21 Have you done it? Stuff like new ideas, creative thoughts, innovation through
00:44:32 brainstorming. These are meaningless terms in light of spirituality. True
00:44:40 freedom is not freedom of thought or freedom of limbs or freedom of speech.
00:44:47 True freedom is freedom of consciousness itself. Consciousness is born in bondage.
00:44:57 Can you liberate it? The I is the master of speech. Now you want to have free
00:45:08 speech when the master himself is in bondage? Not getting it. Go back to the
00:45:17 Second World War. Britain ruled India and let's say Germany starts ruling Britain
00:45:24 and would you call India a free country? Would you call India a free country?
00:45:36 That's just as hilarious as clamoring for freedom of speech. Speech comes
00:45:45 from the I tendency and the I tendency itself is in bondage right from the
00:45:52 moment of birth. So how can you have free speech? Therefore in the name of free
00:45:56 speech all kind of nonsense is uttered. Is the speaker free? If the speaker is
00:46:05 not free how can speech be free? Who is the speaker? That I within. Is he free?
00:46:12 He is not free. Why? Because he comes from the body and therefore he carries
00:46:17 all the rubbish of the body since birth. When the speaker himself is not free
00:46:24 what's the point in asking for freedom of speech or freedom of thought? Not that
00:46:29 this should not be given. Obviously one should have freedom of thought, speech,
00:46:32 movement, trade, this that, freedom of worship, all the freedoms that you want
00:46:37 to have in the liberal sense. Obviously you must have them but having them is
00:46:42 quite pointless. Not that you must not have them. The point is that even if you
00:46:48 have them it does not mean much. We are like free slaves, free to practice our
00:46:57 slavery. How alluring does that sound? We all are free to practice our respective
00:47:04 and favorite slaveries. Her favorite slavery is of one kind, his is of another.
00:47:11 All kinds of slaveries. You choose your flavor and you can top it with extra
00:47:20 cheese. And then we say we are free people in a free land. What freedom? The
00:47:34 most fundamental freedom is the freedom of the I tendency from its fundamental
00:47:44 bondages. What are its fundamental bondages? What are you born with? What are
00:47:51 you born with? What does the child do as soon as it is born? Cries. Ignorance, body
00:48:01 identification, fear, anger, lust. That's what the I is captive to. If you are not
00:48:15 free of these, what's the point in speaking aloud? What is the point in
00:48:20 writing a thick book saying this is an expression of my original thoughts?
00:48:25 Inwardly you are fearful, lustful, vengeful. Outwardly even if you are left
00:48:34 free to express yourself, that expression would actually be polluting and poisonous
00:48:44 to everybody. We talk of hate speech for example and we want to abolish it and
00:48:55 condemn it which is all very good. It's just that hate speech is not just steeped
00:49:06 in explicit hatred necessarily. When there is ignorance within, then even
00:49:16 normal speech is just hate speech in disguise. You may not realize it because
00:49:22 there is no explicit hatred in that speech. So you cannot jail that person.
00:49:30 You cannot condemn him. You cannot delete that tweet. It will appear like something
00:49:37 very normal, very very normal. There is no hatred in this. The fact is there is
00:49:42 actually a lot of repugnance in that. You just don't realize it and that's not an
00:49:49 odd event. When you are not sorted within, then everything that you utter,
00:49:55 everything that you do is just an exercise in hatred, division,
00:50:03 lovelessness, suffering. You don't realize that. Inwardly if you are not
00:50:11 sorted, then even an "I love you" is an expression of deep hatred. Is that so?
00:50:22 The fellow is expressing deep hatred by saying "I love you". Alarm bells. What to do?
00:50:39 And if you are sorted within, even that which superficially looks like hatred is
00:50:48 actually love.
00:50:51 Therefore, prana is the superior one amongst all the senses. Sort that one out.
00:51:08 [Pause]
00:51:23 Is it so absorbing or so unacceptable?
00:51:28 Both.
00:51:33 [Pause]
00:51:40 Yes.
00:51:43 [Pause]
00:51:52 I have a basic question. As we are sitting here, you are talking to my high tendency or you are talking to my consciousness?
00:52:05 Because when I get meditated in your speech, I find that I am unavailable here.
00:52:17 I am not finding proper word for it. But I am kind of deeply involved in it. I don't find my...
00:52:31 Immersed.
00:52:32 I am immersed. So are you talking to my ego self or are you talking to the consciousness?
00:52:39 [Pause]
00:52:45 I am talking to the one who is in desperate need of these words.
00:52:57 Who do the clouds rain for? The stones, the deserts, the rooftops?
00:53:12 They rain for the one who is in need of water.
00:53:17 Who is in need of water?
00:53:23 That same one the Upanishads are alluding to.
00:53:32 And therefore the drops are received differently by all.
00:53:40 How do the stones receive the drops? With contempt.
00:53:44 Drops fall on the stones and just break into splinters. Don't they?
00:53:50 That's the reception the stones have for the drops.
00:53:56 The drops just come and shatter.
00:54:06 And then there is the parched earth. How does it receive the drops?
00:54:14 In love. In a most welcoming way.
00:54:28 There is something parched and dry within all of us.
00:54:36 It keeps waiting for the rains but it cannot cause the rains.
00:54:42 But in another sense if its wait is honest enough
00:54:54 it somehow not only invites but actually creates the clouds.
00:55:05 So then they say that when the student is ready the teacher just appears from somewhere.
00:55:14 The question is not who the teacher is speaking to or where the teacher is coming from.
00:55:21 The question is what is it within you that is so anxiously and so lovingly waiting for the drops.
00:55:33 If you can know that as your real identity then you will invite more and more clouds.
00:55:44 If you do not know that as your real identity then you will have to be dependent on the accidental shower.
00:55:55 Sometimes it will rain, sometimes it will not.
00:55:59 But you will never find yourself consistently drenched.
00:56:04 Are you getting it?
00:56:09 It depends on you whether you want this to remain a mere accident.
00:56:19 You were at some place and it started raining.
00:56:22 So you found relief for a while and then you coolly, calmly, happily walked away.
00:56:34 You could choose that option or you could be where the clouds are.
00:56:43 You could say quenching my thirst is more important than anything else.
00:56:49 So why do I walk away?
00:56:55 I have to be where the clouds are.
00:57:00 No other place, no other task is more important.
00:57:10 Of course I am not answering you. Of course the question was different.
00:57:14 But this is something that needed to be said.
00:57:18 Or have I answered you? I don't know.
00:57:24 Yes.
00:57:26 Acharyaji, you said about the I-consciousness, the Aham Gulati building.
00:57:34 The day it is born it builds so much attachments and kind of builds a framework for seeking that fulfillment.
00:57:46 And that kind of loosely I translated it to it starts building its baggage.
00:57:52 Its world. Its world.
00:57:55 The world.
00:57:56 And this baggage continues to grow and my question about that is,
00:58:02 does it, it also seems to be changing its form all the time.
00:58:08 Like lust is replaced by greed. Greed is replaced by something else.
00:58:15 And you sometimes also get a feeling that the baggage has been released and you have brought it back.
00:58:27 But that turns out to be also, because you are not free, so that also turns out to be eventually a misconception, a delusion.
00:58:37 And in no time the baggage is attained back there.
00:58:41 So, can there be certain, like visiting the scriptures, reading the texts, can there be certain reminders that one can build within ourselves of not letting the new baggage get created and also…
00:59:05 The entire scripture is a reminder. The scripture itself is a reminder.
00:59:11 See if the shape and form of the baggages won't change, how will you continue carrying the baggage?
00:59:23 Because the baggage is in itself something very weak, very unappealing, very liable to be dropped.
00:59:37 Its just a baggage. You are carrying it. It hurts.
00:59:41 So how does it then continue to remain on your back and shoulders your entire life?
00:59:47 By changing name and form and shape and thereby deceiving you.
00:59:52 Otherwise you would have gotten rid of it just after the first few experiences.
00:59:58 No?
01:00:00 Alright, there is a man who loves ice cream.
01:00:09 So he goes after vanilla.
01:00:15 After a week he gets fed up.
01:00:18 Goes after chocolate.
01:00:20 Then strawberry.
01:00:22 Then something else.
01:00:25 Then he gets fed up with ice cream itself.
01:00:29 So rasmalai.
01:00:31 Then all other kinds of sweets, 40 varieties.
01:00:36 Then he goes after cakes, then pastries, then candies.
01:00:41 Then he is reminded that he is gaining weight. So he starts going after fresh fruit juices.
01:00:51 You know what he is actually after?
01:00:55 Sugar.
01:00:58 But because sugar in just one form starts getting exposed,
01:01:07 therefore to deceive himself he starts consuming sugar in another form.
01:01:12 Had sugar been available only in the form of vanilla ice cream,
01:01:19 this man would have achieved liberation very quickly.
01:01:23 Because vanilla would have been exposed.
01:01:27 But vanilla very quickly becomes strawberry.
01:01:30 Strawberry becomes chocolate.
01:01:33 Chocolate becomes kaju barfi.
01:01:36 Then it becomes rasgulla.
01:01:40 And then it becomes some healthy option.
01:01:44 Sugarcane juice.
01:01:49 Even apple juice.
01:01:53 So you can even claim with some kind of righteousness, you know, I take only healthy drinks.
01:02:01 But the fact is all that you are after is sugar.
01:02:06 That's how we remain deceived all our life.
01:02:11 Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
01:02:14 No part of this recording may be reproduced
01:02:16 without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.
01:02:18 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:02:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]