India is land of liberation? || Acharya Prashant, on Upanishads (2022)
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00:00 I'm in the same situation as when I was before coming to India, but now it seems that I still
00:11 have work to do in this situation.
00:13 I guess it's then just fine because...
00:18 See how can soil and roads and brick and mortar give you fresh insight?
00:28 What do you mean by India?
00:31 India is just an ocean.
00:35 When you come to an ocean, you will miss the ocean.
00:40 So what do you mean that you expected that when you will come to India, you will return
00:45 with your inner gates flung open?
00:51 What exactly is India for you?
00:52 What do you mean?
00:55 You probably came to me, right?
01:01 And that nearness is not something just physical or geographical.
01:10 If anything was to be thrown open, that could have happened only if there was a willingness
01:25 and a realization that it is not the country that counts, but the consciousness.
01:35 So that's the thing that happens with a lot of people from the West.
01:39 They come to India thinking that the land itself will do something magical to them.
01:44 The land will do nothing.
01:46 In many senses, the country you are in is a better place than India.
01:54 In many material senses at least.
01:56 You know that very well.
01:58 Pollution, overpopulation, so many other things, you are already better placed there than in
02:04 India.
02:08 What makes India special then at least for some people?
02:11 The right company, the right environment, the right process of self-inquiry.
02:18 You have to then ask yourself how much of self-inquiry did really happen?
02:24 How much vulnerability did you really espouse?
02:31 And it's a choice always to open up, to come close and say, I want to speak out, I want
02:35 to confess, I want to talk about myself, not about the experiences I'm having in India.
02:41 What is the point in coming to India?
02:45 And you know, waxing eloquent about a particular wedding ceremony one sees or a particular
02:53 thing one sees on the road or a particular thing one experiences in the apartment.
02:58 Is that what one comes to India for?
03:02 One comes to India to probe himself, to know himself.
03:07 Ask yourself how much of that did you really choose to happen?
03:13 It cannot happen on its own, it just cannot happen on its own.
03:17 There is a process and the process is Upanishadic.
03:19 The process is of deep discussion and deliberation.
03:23 The process involves opening up.
03:26 The process involves coming to the teacher, talking nothing about this and that.
03:33 Talking only about oneself, who am I, what my life challenges are, what do I do the entire
03:38 day, how my mind functions, what my fears, my insecurities are, what do I want.
03:44 If you talk of this, then of course India can bless you with something very magical.
03:52 But India's blessings cannot be foisted upon someone.
04:00 One has to first of all be prepared for those blessings.
04:05 One has to first of all be deeply in love for, with and desperate for those blessings.
04:13 [Music]
04:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]