Multiple Gurus - to surrender or not || Acharya Prashant, Vedanta Mahotsav in Rishikesh (2022)
Video Information: 23.01.2022, Vedanta Mahotsav, Rishikesh, India
Context:
What is aloneness?
What is loneliness?
How to be happy without depending on others?
How to understand the fear and how to get rid of it?
How to face challenges in life?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
What is aloneness?
What is loneliness?
How to be happy without depending on others?
How to understand the fear and how to get rid of it?
How to face challenges in life?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Namaste Acharyaji. I have been listening to you from quite some time now and it has benefited
00:13 me in the sense I feel a sense of freedom because I no more think it is important to
00:21 have a belief system or rather replace one belief system with another and keep on believing
00:28 in something. I have understood that it is okay to understand things, to analyze things
00:34 and that I will not lose my mental or physical balance by not clinging to a belief system.
00:42 So in that sense I have felt a sense of freedom. However, there is a question that is troubling
00:49 me from quite some time because before this I used to listen to some spiritual gurus or
00:56 some organizations and I thought that I had this freedom of listening to them as a spectator.
01:03 Okay, I have heard it, if this thing is good then I will do it except if I feel that this
01:09 is something that doesn't have any basis to, I would distance myself from it. But now since
01:19 I have started listening to you, now there is a question of associating myself with the
01:25 organization. So I have a question that I have written down because I didn't want to
01:29 go haywire, can I read it? Is it necessary to have one and only one living spiritual
01:37 guru that you are completely devoted to or surrender to or can the need be replaced by
01:44 a text? With the kind of spiritual environment in the world, complete surrender creates a
01:50 kind of fear, leaving yourself completely into the hands of the other is at times fearful,
01:57 now more so because it has taken the form of organizations and a lot of propaganda.
02:04 And if yes, a guru is necessary, you yourself say that a man is always surrounded by or
02:11 embraced by Maya. Is it for us to filter the information given by my guru? This is a paradox
02:17 a dilemma to me because complete surrender though can be wonderful and it will actually
02:23 hit your ego, help you get out of it. It can be fearful and not surrendering can be a game
02:28 of the ego for who am I to filter the knowledge given by my master.
02:34 Your name please? Siya.
02:52 That's a tricky thing. Let's see. The guide has to be your own urge to live in freedom
03:12 without bondages, to not live as a plaything of circumstances. That has to be the guru.
03:32 I'm quite skeptical of accepting a person, any person as your absolute guide. What I
03:51 said it's a tricky thing because equally I would be very keen to seek guidance from where
04:05 it is coming. In the old Bodhisattva we used to have a poster. It read, the teacher is
04:23 the, is she here? Kamlesh? The teacher is the voice of the truth, not the man behind
04:46 the voice. It says that the voice obviously does need a carnal medium. So there has to
05:03 be a person. But that person really is not the guru in the absolute sense. That person
05:16 is just a medium and therefore the person is valuable only as long as he or she continues
05:31 to act as a medium. Otherwise there is nothing important, significant or venerable or special
05:41 in any person. As long as what is coming from that person is useful to you, be with the
05:53 person, listen to him. The same thing applies to a book though with a difference, I'll come
05:57 to that. When you find that the person with all the personal characteristics has taken
06:07 precedence over what that person stands for, it's time to quit. And what becomes quite
06:21 a grave situation in most such guru, disciple cases is that often the guru does not even
06:30 stand for everything, for anything, even nominally. You ask what does your guru represent? The
06:42 fellow will have no idea because the guru is not even trying to or even pretending to
06:50 represent anything. Then what is it that the guru is offering? If the guru is not even
07:02 trying to represent the truth, then what exactly is there on the table? Why are people attracted
07:10 to him at all? The guru is offering his personality. And so many people are just attracted to the
07:20 personality, the glamour and the glitz, the organizational force behind the personality,
07:29 the pomp, the riches that prop up the personality because it takes a lot to hold up a personality,
07:42 to turn the personality into a celebrity. It requires a lot of effort, a lot of manpower,
07:47 a lot of resources, a lot of networking, money, everything. It's a great PR game to become
07:56 a celebrity guru. And often we do not even want to ask, fine I can see all the jazz but
08:11 what is it that you are bringing to me, please tell me or are you there only to intimidate
08:16 me with the weight of your glamour and the assertion that you are somebody. Ideally,
08:35 one should never bow down to any person, never, never, never. In fact, all my life, even I
08:46 have been quite skeptical of persons and absolute and unconditional surrender to any person
08:57 is something I would be very vigilant against. And whenever I have bowed down to a person,
09:07 it has been with great discretion, great observation, great patience and therefore with great love.
09:26 That love has been the product of discretion, that love has been the product of what that
09:32 person has brought to me as a representative. Otherwise, I square met the thought of prostrating
09:47 before a mere mortal. It just does not sit well with me to call someone the absolute
10:03 itself because I know that no person can be the absolute and if a person professes to
10:14 be the absolute or even half the absolute, then there is a scandal cooking somewhere.
10:25 Ideally, no need of persons. However, there is a practical problem as we have just said.
10:36 The absolute by itself cannot come and talk to you. The absolute has no voice, no throat,
10:45 no words of its own. Whenever the absolute will shine, it will be through a worldly medium.
10:56 So that worldly medium is indeed valuable only when it acts as the medium. This distinction
11:10 is foremost. Is that person acting as a medium or is that person imposing his own persona
11:19 upon me? This distinction is everything. Is he a representative of the king or is he trying
11:34 to usurp the king's throne for himself? These are two very different things. The ambassador
11:44 cannot be the president and often times the ambassador is not even a worthy ambassador.
11:52 He is just trying to pretend to be an ambassador whereas he internally is raising hopes of
12:06 being called the king one day. So first of all, be very cautious in taking somebody's
12:18 guidance. Secondly, even if you do take somebody's guidance, nothing is eternal, nothing is unconditional,
12:29 nothing is absolute. Only the absolute is unconditional, only the absolute is timeless.
12:38 Always remain vigilant, always. Maya is all powerful. The ones we call as gurus too are
12:51 not Maya proof. She can make anyone slip at any time. Therefore your surrender or devotion,
13:05 whatever it is, just cannot be unconditional. Do keep it conditional always. And what is
13:13 the condition? As long as you are the voice of the truth, I am with you. The day you start
13:21 barking in your own animal voice, nothing doing. I leave. I am not here to hear your
13:33 voice. As far as bodies go, all bodies are the same. Your body is the same as mine. I
13:42 am not here to take sermons from just another body like mine. However, if you can pay the
13:56 price of distancing yourself from yourself, then I will listen to you and only as long.
14:10 Because my objective is not to reach a person. My objective is to reach my fulfillment. My
14:16 objective is my own freedom. One man, one woman, one text just cannot be my objective
14:26 and coming to texts. Texts are all great and texts are way safer than men. In the sense
14:38 that hardly any text has any malicious intention. Whereas people, men, the living gurus, they
14:49 definitely can have malicious intentions. Plus texts are far more objective. A guru
15:00 can lure you and tempt you with all his pomp and show. That is not there in the text. The
15:10 text is more objective. So texts are preferable in that sense. But again there is a limitation.
15:23 Texts do save you from the harmful effects of the fake gurus. But texts also prevent
15:37 you from reaping the full benefits that a true teacher may offer you. So texts do limit
15:53 your downside, but they also cap the upside. Are you getting it? With a text you cannot
16:05 go horribly wrong. Equally with a text you are prevented from enjoying the full spectrum
16:17 of benefits that a truly loving man can bring to you. Because the person, if he is genuine,
16:31 it's a big if, always remember, it's a big if. Don't be in a hurry to just think that
16:39 anything being lobbed at you is a great nugget of wisdom. Not necessarily. In fact rather
16:51 rarely. If there is indeed a person with genuine intentions to help you, then that person is
17:07 able to exercise personal affection through his personal self. This personal self is something
17:19 that a book does not have. Simple things. A person can read your face. But no book can
17:30 read your face, though you can read the book. So with the book it becomes rather one way.
17:38 When you stand in front of a person, the person can read your face, the book cannot read your
17:43 face. The person can embrace you, the book won't, can't. The person can admonish you,
17:54 punish you, the book can't. The person can turn you away, the book is at your disposal
18:07 always. You do something, totally despicable, the person can ask you to get out, leave.
18:20 But you can keep doing all horrible things and still carry the book. The book is helpless
18:26 in your hands. That's the limitation the book carries. So all these things are there,
18:36 you have to weigh in on all of them. The book definitely is safer, I'm saying. The book
18:45 is not going to loot you. And if you are a female disciple, the book is not going to
18:52 tempt and rape you. And such things have happened with persons, personal masters that is. The
19:06 book is not going to ask you to go and riot in the streets of the city. And the book does
19:22 not have mood swings. The book cannot say one thing today and another thing tomorrow.
19:33 With the person, there is no such guarantee. So with the book there is a great deal of
19:40 safety. And we said with the book there is also a big limitation. One must start with
19:54 books, good to begin with there. However if one comes to a point, having been with books
20:03 for long, having gained much wisdom from the books for long, then if one comes to a point
20:10 where he or she starts finding the books insufficient, probably then that is the time to seek personal
20:22 guidance. That is my approach. That's why I advocate books so much. You see what would
20:30 happen if you begin with books? The books themselves will tell you the right person
20:36 to go to. Because books are safe to begin with and when you begin, you are very gullible.
20:47 You can be tempted, looted, robbed, misguided, anything. You do not know a thing. And teachers
20:57 usually carry very imposing personas. You can just get sucked in. So start off with
21:10 the books and we have time tested established books. Be with them for long. Get as much
21:18 as you can. And I am saying then the book itself will tell you the right person or person
21:27 or sources to go to. And then the chances of going wrong are minimized because the books
21:35 have already given you an armor, an armor of wisdom. You have known so much through
21:43 the books that now if a fake peddler comes to you, disguising as a guru, you will be
21:54 quick to call him out. You will say this much my books have told me that such a person is
22:01 not worth listening to. But that does not happen. We are very aversive to books. We
22:08 straight away rush to people. Straight away. And then what happens is what has been happening.
22:19 And then we say, oh, the world is full of cheats and the world is not full of dacoits.
22:31 You invited trouble. When you do not know who to go to, why did you go to anybody just
22:41 because the fellow happened to be popular? Just because there was a lot of glitz and
22:51 the fellow was well networked? Or the fellow came from a long tradition or had the backing
23:00 of a huge and deeply funded organization? So you thought, well, everybody is going there.
23:06 Let me also queue up. And then when you are disappointed, you blame the world. Why blame
23:20 the world? What's the problem in reading books first? At least have the fundamentals ready.
23:30 For those fundamentals, you do not need any specialist teacher. Not needed. Even here
23:38 in the Mahotsav, I try to ensure that you first read the books in the morning so that
23:46 you are prepared to an extent. First be with the books all by yourself. For every little
23:53 thing, why do you need a personal teacher? Are you not capable? Are you not mature enough?
24:00 What's your age? Will you rush to some person for every small thing? Read the books. Chances
24:09 are you may not even need a so-called living, breathing teacher. And if even after reading
24:21 the book, you have doubts, those doubts at least will have some level. At least you won't
24:28 come up with childish queries and waste the teacher's time. Your problems would be more
24:36 genuine if you come after reading the books. That way you'll be helping yourself as well
24:44 as the teacher, assuming the teacher is genuine. If the teacher is not genuine, he will anyway
24:49 not send you to the books. Because books will be a great problem for the false teacher.
24:55 If you read the books, you won't go to him. So he'll keep saying, "No, no, don't read
24:59 the books. I am sufficient. Read my books. Don't read the books. Read my books." Do you
25:12 get this? It's not a zero or one thing. It's a nuanced thing and you have to make your
25:22 way through all this. The last thing to do is, rather two things to do. One, do not just
25:38 unconditionally accept any person. Do not do that. Second, do not try to avoid books.
25:52 The approach I am suggesting is, be with the books and then with the teacher. Or be with
26:00 the books and the teacher concurrently. These two will either be sequential or concurrent.
26:10 But you cannot have just one of them. If you have just the person, chances are you will
26:15 be deceived. If you have just the books, chances are that your progress will be safe but limited.
26:28 In case you have to choose between either a book or a person, go for the book. Definitely
26:37 go for the book. If you are not sure about the person, remain with the book. At least
26:43 you'll be safe. And even if you have to go to a person, ensure that you are not keeping
26:53 your books aside. Are you getting it? Anything more?
27:07 Yes, I had another follow up question on the same thing. What I had been doing in the beginning
27:16 is if I liked a video of yours or whatever I thought was, I wanted to share with someone,
27:23 I would directly share the video or I would directly take a screenshot of some of the
27:28 quotes and send them through. Slowly what I started realizing is, I would get into fights
27:34 with people as in they would start questioning that you are listening to another guru now
27:40 and now you have started sharing things about him and you will find everything that this
27:44 person says is right. So they would say such things. But now what I have started doing
27:51 is I have the app and whenever the wisdom feed is uploaded, I usually take a screenshot
27:56 and I crop your name out of it and I post it. Once I have started doing that, people
28:03 readily accept what is being said and they say, very good, where did you get this from?
28:08 Where do you get all this from? So I feel that there is this kind of a problem also
28:15 wherein people agree to what is being said but just because someone is saying it, they
28:21 tend to refuse it. But I have a feeling of guilt because I feel that because of social
28:27 acceptance or because people have started questioning me, is that the reason I have
28:32 started cropping out the name and is it okay? Should I feel guilty about it? It is a moral
28:39 thing. This again, like everything in life is nuanced. If you are cropping out my name
28:51 because you are afraid to own the name, then that is one thing. I am so afraid I cannot
29:03 associate myself with that name. It is dangerous. That is one thing. On the other hand, if you
29:13 are cropping out my name for a purely missionary reason, then that is a totally different thing
29:22 and this thing is acceptable now, very acceptable, no issues. But mostly, people are just afraid
29:32 so they crop out the name or they just pick up the stuff in their own name, whatever.
29:39 Something interesting just happened a few days back. There is this popular Twitter handle
29:48 that publishes literature in Hindi. They pick up pieces from the prominent authors and poets
29:58 in Hindi and they tweet. So they picked up something from AP in Hindi. They tweeted it
30:12 without quoting the name. So they did that but somehow many people who knew AP got to
30:24 know and there was a mini outrage. So a lot of people went to that post and asked them
30:30 to acknowledge the author. Otherwise it is just plagiarism. So that Twitter handle apologized
30:40 and the next day tweeted another excerpt from AP, duly carrying the author's name. The first
30:56 one without AP's name had several thousand likes and retweets. You got it. The next one
31:09 carrying his name had barely a few hundred. But that's okay, fine. Fine in one sense,
31:20 not at all fine in another sense. So you have to be discreet. I am not saying that the name
31:30 is very important. I am also saying, ask yourself why the name must be avoided. And sometimes
31:41 there is a genuine reason to leave out the name. In such cases, do leave out the name
31:49 without any feeling of guilt. In other cases, you might be leaving out the name just because
31:57 you don't have the guts to be with the name. Then it is not okay. So be clear about what
32:07 your intention is. There can be a little bit of tactic in this. If you have to send an
32:18 AP thing to a group of people who are known to be averse to his name, then obviously it's
32:28 a good idea to leave out the name. If there is a particular segment that is allergic to
32:35 the name itself, then send the content without the name. Even I would do that. Anything else?
32:58 Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
33:01 I just like to extend the question that was asked by the lady in the online thing about
33:07 gurus. So ekam sat vipra bahuvadanti. So one truth is expressed by sages in different names.
33:18 So I mean there are different schools of thought. You also said in one of the videos that a
33:23 theorem can be proved in multiple ways. So as there are different schools of thought
33:30 of self-realization and as you come from Vedanta, other gurus and other teachers come from other
33:38 schools of thought. So there has been this conflict which is seen even at the times of
33:45 Osho and even right now as well. So why does this happen and as a seeker if I am somebody
33:56 inclined towards hybridization, like I want to mix and match things, is that a trick of
34:03 the ego or is that something which is possible to move forward or does that make things more
34:13 difficult?
34:14 Vedanta is not a school of thought.
34:18 It's not? Sorry, it's a loose use of language.
34:21 That's all? That's all? How can a clear inquiry into who you are be a school of thought? It's
34:34 not a school of thought or an ideology or a way of thinking. You are looking at yourself
34:39 and asking who am I? That's Vedanta, full stop. How is it a school of thought?
34:46 Yes it's a wrong use of words from my…
34:48 No it's not merely a wrong use of words. It's a complete negation of the hybridization
34:53 you are talking of. Equally it permits all kinds of ways including hybrid ways but you
35:02 cannot hybridize the question who am I with a thousand miscellaneous questions. The realization
35:11 that this is the most central question has to be paramount. This cannot be mixed with
35:17 other things.
35:20 Now once you ask who am I? After that if you get the answer I am most certainly a body
35:27 therefore what I need is physical exercises. Then you can proceed with something that tells
35:34 you to do something in a physical way or whatever or there are many other things.
35:39 Vedanta looks at thought. It does not get expressed in thought. Vedanta is the mother
35:52 of thought. The other things that you are talking of they are products of thought. There
36:00 has to be a difference between the mother of thought and several products of thought.
36:08 There are people who may tell you, you do this, this will happen, you do this, that
36:13 will happen. Vedanta says who are you and stops. After that it's your ball. Play it
36:23 the way you like.
36:28 If I may elaborate on, is that okay? So let's say if we take into consideration Yoga Sutras
36:36 it proceeds with Yamadhi.
36:39 Why should I go to the Yoga Sutras? What need do I have? Let's begin from there.
36:44 Because both Vedanta and…
36:46 Wait, wait, wait. You are sitting there, I am sitting here. Right? We two are two people.
36:51 Why do I need to go to the Yoga Sutras or to Vedanta? Let's begin with the real thing.
36:58 Why do I need to do anything?
37:03 If I can answer that, so both of them have…
37:07 You are talking of them. I am asking about myself. Why do I need to go to any book?
37:13 For freedom.
37:14 Right. Why do you need freedom first of all?
37:18 Because we are in bondage.
37:19 Right. So there has to be a clear realization, I am in bondage. I am in bondage. Right? Now
37:25 who is in bondage?
37:28 The ego, the 'I' tendency is in bondage.
37:31 The 'I' tendency is in bondage. And what is the bondage of the 'I' tendency?
37:36 It's attached to a lot of things.
37:38 It's knowledge of itself. What it takes itself to be is its own bondage. What it takes itself
37:47 to be is its own bondage. Right? Its perception, its thoughts of itself are its bondage. Now
37:54 tell me, which book should I go to? A book that does not talk of my self-perception,
38:06 my self-image at all? Why should I go to it? I am not trying to downplay any book. I am
38:16 just asking you, how do you really pick a book for yourself?
38:22 May I respond to that, Acharya? So, both these approaches have Samadhi as their end goal,
38:34 both Vedanta and the Yoga Sutras. And in the beginning of Yoga Sutras itself, they say
38:42 the end goal is the stilling the modifications of the mind and so that you can go to the
38:47 witness. So they are saying the same thing. Again, this is not in my experience or I am
38:53 not at that state, I am just on the path and I am trying to reconcile these things. So
38:59 I am not really at this point of time finding too much of a conflict per se. And both of
39:06 them are trying to address that core issue of bondage and freedom but their application
39:12 of words and their approaches seem to be slightly different is what I am perceiving right now.
39:21 So again the question comes back to, is it possible for a seeker to kind of mix these
39:30 two and go pursue ahead?
39:32 You can not only mix these two, you can mix the twenty of them. Provided you do not forget
39:41 that you are at the center of everything. In fact the way you started, truth is one,
39:46 the knowers express it in several ways, that does not mean anything. You have to ask yourself
39:54 what is your truth? What is your truth? The absolute is of no use to you if you do not
40:00 know your position. Where do you stand? And the knowers have no need to express it in
40:06 several ways. They express it in several ways to several people because the several people
40:12 stand at several distinct positions. The impression that we carry that the truth can be expressed
40:18 in this way, that way, that way is totally flawed. The truth cannot be expressed in any
40:23 way. However, diseases can be cured in multiple ways because there are multiple diseases.
40:34 You stand at a particular point, so one thing will have to be said to you. Somebody else
40:39 stands at a separate point, something else will need to be said to that person. In fact
40:43 even to you, something might need to be said today and something totally different might
40:47 need to be said tomorrow. It is not that the truth is getting variable or fluctuating.
40:55 Your own position fluctuates, therefore the truth has to be brought to you in a certain
41:00 way. Now when it comes to approaches, Vedanta is extremely liberal because the approaches
41:09 do not matter at all. What matters is the one real thing. If you can get to that one
41:17 real thing using a hybrid of hundred ways, great. But never must you forget the real
41:26 question, what is happening to me in the process? What is happening to me? The things that are
41:32 being said, if they are even a little corrupted, will they take me there? And if I am following
41:40 a particular book, one half of which is saying things that are purely imaginary, for example
41:47 you will start flying in the air. You will become light as cotton. What will happen?
41:59 Do go to all sources possible but always ask yourself, what is happening to me in the process?
42:08 Because you are at the center of all your effort, the book is not. The book is for your
42:13 sake, you are not for the book's sake. So in some of the videos you have said, if you
42:23 are doing some practices and if they are working for you, by all means go ahead and do it.
42:30 So I have experimented with some of those practices and they seem to be working. Hopefully
42:36 I am not biased in that conclusion. When they will work, then you will not say hopefully
42:42 I am not biased. Their work, the proof of their success is that you will know and you
42:52 will know for sure. If right now you have to attach such qualifications, hopefully,
42:57 maybe I do not know, probably I am not biased, then they are not working.
43:02 But Acharyaji, now when we say something is working or something is not working, let's
43:09 say if I have some random flow of thoughts two years back and let's say that flow of
43:16 thoughts, that irrelevant fluctuations have subsided a little and I am able to understand
43:23 certain things clearly from your words, from other practices maybe, now that is a sign
43:29 that they are working at this point of time. So would that be a fair conclusion to make?
43:35 I do not know. You see, it is very possible to very smoothly and speedily go down a road
43:45 only to discover that there is a cul-de-sac, a dead end. Just because you have been speedily
43:54 and smoothly going down a road and feel to have covered some distance, it does not necessarily
44:02 bode well for you. You will go down the wrong road for a long time only to find that the
44:16 other side, the way to return is equally long. So I do not know. You have to be extremely
44:24 vigilant. Maya strikes in a thousand ways. Just be vigilant. Keep being vigilant. What
44:32 is going on?
44:33 Q. And the other question I have is, let's say if you are looking at the society and
44:42 there are so many causes that one is concerned with and one is attuned to that which needs
44:50 to be addressed. Like for example, lack of green cover in our cities, veganism, the issue
45:00 of honking and the noise pollution and I can just go on listing these issues which I find
45:06 all around me. So when one is convinced that one has to take up one of these things and
45:14 work towards them irrespective of the challenges one might face, but I am also equally overwhelmed
45:23 by which one to pick because they all somehow seem to be important. So in such a stage,
45:32 how can…
45:33 From what you are saying, be it respect to the books you need to pick from or the causes
45:39 you need to pick from, I sense that there is a great hesitancy in according hierarchy.
45:57 Many things might be good, but one has to realize which one is more valuable than the
46:02 other. Just as any line that does not begin from the question, who is this line for, I
46:14 am talking of philosophy, has to be inferior to something that begins with the question
46:21 who am I. Similarly, all causes might carry some value, but they are not equal. You have
46:29 to identify the mother cause. There are so many schools of thought as you said. All carry
46:40 weightage, all are worth considering, but nothing beats the mother question for whom
46:49 is everything, for whom are all these schools and any school that does not begin from this
46:56 question is an inferior school, even if it carries some value, even if it offers some
47:02 benefit.
47:04 Similarly, this thing saying this cause is great, this cause is great, this cause is
47:10 great shows a reluctance to accord priority and this usually comes out of an aversion
47:22 to risk. If I do accept that this is higher than this, then I will have to go with this
47:31 because I do not really want to completely go with anything. I want to avoid the absolute.
47:38 Therefore what I will say is this is there, this is there, this is there, this is there
47:42 and all look kind of equal to me. So which one do I go for? How is it possible that you
47:49 are unable to identify where all these social problems are fundamentally coming from? That
47:59 is the cause worth espousing. Go for that.
48:04 So if I have to relate everything to the mother question as you said, which is me and my bondage
48:13 and my freedom, it's actually very clear to me that I can easily spend the rest of
48:18 my life pursuing that question and my life would end very easily because probably I have
48:25 such a long journey to cover. So it's not, it's not, I am making lot of assumptions
48:34 here. So basically we have to ask that question every time we do but when we see all these
48:46 causes and when we take up, let's say, suppose when we take up one cause, how can we overlook
48:53 the other things and how can we not be affected by the other things we see because they all
49:00 are important.
49:02 You have brain cancer and you have a resultant headache. All causes are equally important.
49:15 Which one do you want to address? And you also have problems with eyesight because of
49:24 the cancer. The cancer is affecting special parts in your brain. You also are losing weight
49:32 because of the cancer. There are so many problems. Which one would you want to address? You want
49:37 to go to an eye specialist? Your skin is also not doing well. You want to go to a dermatologist?
49:45 To you everything is equal. Everything is equal. Let's go to the skin doctor. Please.
49:55 I am having some pimples. The mother question is the mother of all problems. That's what
50:05 deserves to be addressed. Other things, well, they can be managed through analgesics. They
50:11 have to be managed. They are not problems to be solved. They are not things that need
50:21 to be dissolved. They will go away on their own. The mother problem is what needs to be
50:31 dissolved.
50:32 I could, you know, say, you know, it's raining so much. It's raining so much. The solution
50:48 is let's all wear raincoats. Tomorrow let's all wear heavy woolens. Why is that not a
50:57 solution? Why is that not a solution? All right, let's go beyond that. Let's change
51:04 the session venue tomorrow. It's raining so much. Why is that not a solution? And it's
51:09 raining so much. It's creating muddy pools outside. Let's call up the municipality to
51:18 fill up the pools. Why is that not a solution? It's raining so much in the future. Let's
51:28 consult the weather forecast before we decide on the dates. Why is that not a solution?
51:38 All that is a solution. It depends on how far do I want to go. Vedanta is for those
51:45 who want to go the whole hog, the complete distance. If I want to go the complete distance,
51:52 I will say this is climate crisis. Yes, to manage the situation immediately, temporarily,
52:04 I will probably use bitumen tapes to ensure there are no leaks. I'll also probably advise
52:11 you to wear woolens tomorrow. But I'll know very well that all this is just problem management
52:21 of a very temporary kind. This is no solution. If I am honest, then I want to go right to
52:31 the root of the solution. Is that not so? I want to address the root. And if I just
52:39 want to somehow address my responsibility in a superficial way, then I'll do some little
52:47 thing and feel happy that the situation has been brought in control. It's okay. We anyway
52:57 don't have to be on this planet for long, just as we don't have to be in this hall forever.
53:03 So let's just do something that enables us to spend the next two days nicely. And then
53:07 we will depart just as we will depart one day from this planet. So why do we need to
53:12 take too much load? Just do some little thing and declare that's the end of your responsibility.
53:20 That approach too you can take. All that depends on your inner honesty and your willingness
53:25 to shoulder responsibility. There can be no one answer. The answer depends on you. That's
53:33 the end.