Shiva and the Truth || Acharya Prashant, on Avadhuta Gita (2016)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work? Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...   Want to work with Acharya Prashant? Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  Video Information: The Myth Demolition Tour, 7.5.16, Dharamshala, Himanchal Pradesh, India  Excerpt:   शिवं न जानामि कथं वदामिशिवं न जानामि कथं भजामि । अहं शिवश्चेत्परमार्थतत्त्वं समस्वरूपं गगनोपमं च ।।  I do not know Shiva, the Truth; how do I talk of the Truth? I do not know Shiva, the Truth; how do I sing of the Truth? I am, the benevolent, most liberating, and sky-like Truth.  Avadhuta Gita  Chapter 1, Verse 27 .  Context: ~ How do I talk of the Truth? ~ How do I sing of the Truth? ~ What is relation between knowing and knowledge? ~ Is Truth a matter of knowledge? ~ What is Total Freedom?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~

Transcript

00:00 [Bell rings]

00:02 Udhvud Gita,

00:06 First Chapter, 27th Verse.

00:12 śivaṁ na jānāmi kathāṁ vadaṁ

00:25 śivaṁ na jānāmi kathāṁ bhajāmi

00:29 Bhajana

00:31 I do not know

00:40 Shiva, the truth.

00:42 How do I

00:46 talk of the truth?

00:48 I do not know Shiva, the truth.

00:53 How do I

00:55 sing of the truth?

00:57 Further, the verse proceeds to say

01:02 I am

01:08 the benevolent

01:24 most liberating

01:27 and sky-like truth

01:33 implying therefore that why do I need to talk or sing of the truth?

01:42 śivaṁ na jānāmi kathāṁ vadaṁ

01:53 I do not know the truth.

02:07 How do I talk or sing of it?

02:09 kathāṁ vadaṁ kathāṁ bhajāmi

02:12 What we call as knowing

02:22 is just accumulated knowledge,

02:24 a thing of the memory.

02:28 When do you say that you know something or somebody?

02:31 Only when

02:33 you

02:35 can use memory

02:37 to identify that thing or person.

02:40 If something is not at all in your memory,

02:43 then you will not say that you

02:45 know that thing or will you?

02:47 If you have no previous experience of something,

02:51 if something is not a part of time,

02:53 not a part of the past,

02:55 you will not claim that you know that thing.

02:58 So what we call as knowing

03:01 is actually just memorization,

03:04 actually just a collection of more information and knowledge.

03:08 Dattatreya is saying

03:14 the truth is not a matter of knowledge.

03:17 Only knowledge can be expressed in words.

03:27 So you cannot talk of the truth.

03:30 Now is that an incapacity?

03:39 Is that a limitation?

03:43 A bondage?

03:45 Or is that

03:47 your highest expression,

03:50 your greatest liberation,

03:52 your total freedom?

03:54 That you cannot know the truth,

03:59 that you cannot talk or sing of the truth

04:01 is your greatest freedom

04:03 because it means

04:05 that you yourself are the truth.

04:13 You can only be in the truth.

04:19 You can only be as the truth.

04:23 You can only be the truth.

04:26 But talking or singing of truth

04:32 or knowing or conceptualizing the truth

04:35 all as mental activity

04:38 is futile.

04:41 In the world

04:45 you say that you know

04:49 when you have an image,

04:51 when you have a name and a form

04:55 of something, somebody.

04:57 In essence, in spirituality

05:03 you say that you have really really known

05:09 only when you forget all about forms,

05:13 names, knowing, talking, singing.

05:17 When you have forgotten all about knowing

05:20 then you know.

05:22 When you fail to express through words

05:29 then you have really expressed.

05:36 When you know that no song can contain him

05:40 then every song that you sing

05:42 is his song.

05:45 The song of truth, the song of Shiva,

05:48 the song of Brahm.

05:50 You take this.

05:54 To the mind, it sounds like bad news.

05:59 Oh, I cannot know the truth.

06:01 I cannot talk of the truth.

06:03 Hmm?

06:05 To the mind, it is almost like humiliation.

06:11 I am being told that I am

06:14 not even capable of talking of the truth,

06:18 what to say of reaching the truth.

06:21 But to you,

06:28 it is very good news

06:32 because

06:34 it is being

06:37 repeated and asserted

06:40 that you are the truth.

06:43 Hmm? You are the truth.

06:47 Know truth not as a dualistic experience.

06:53 Know truth as your very being.

06:55 You are the truth.

06:57 Know truth not as some kind of an information.

07:02 But as your deepest silence.

07:06 Hmm?

07:11 Know truth not as some thought.

07:14 But as the center

07:18 around which all thoughts move

07:20 but which itself is unclouded by thoughts.

07:24 Getting it?

07:31 These are two things that go together

07:36 and parallel

07:40 and appear to be opposites.

07:42 One,

07:44 you cannot know truth.

07:48 Second,

07:51 you already know everything about truth.

07:55 You already know the truth itself

07:59 because

08:01 you are the truth.

08:03 And these two go together.

08:05 Because whatever you call as knowing

08:12 is not knowing at all.

08:14 In the name of knowing, you just collect data.

08:18 It is mind.

08:22 The mind can only accumulate information.

08:25 The mind cannot really know or understand.

08:29 So you didn't say that it is pure knowing?

08:32 It is not a feeling.

08:34 It is not like emotions or emotions?

08:37 No, not even that.

08:39 It is a pure relaxation

08:42 in which thoughts, feelings, intuitions

08:45 all have no meanings.

08:47 It is more like a cessation.

08:54 A good cessation.

08:56 A gap.

08:58 A breaking away from the whole rigmarole of

09:03 thinking, feeling, acting.

09:06 For you nothingness is something.

09:15 So even if I say truth is nothing,

09:18 you will translate it to mean the truth is something.

09:21 Whenever you say nothing, don't you have an image of nothing?

09:24 So for you, truth is nothing

09:29 and that means truth is something.

09:31 That is dangerous.

09:33 The experience of daily living

09:51 or the experience of truth?

09:54 The self?

10:02 Will you feel this way

10:04 if all your memory is wiped out?

10:08 Will you still remember the can

10:13 and you know this, that, sky, whatever image you have.

10:16 Will you feel this way in your deep sleep?

10:21 You won't, right?

10:23 So all of this is felt only in

10:26 the conceptualizing state of mind,

10:29 only in the waking state of mind.

10:31 And what is it that the mind

10:34 experiences in its waking state?

10:37 Thoughts and ideas.

10:39 So this is just a thought, an idea.

10:41 It is not the self, not the truth, not Shiva.

10:47 It will be your own concept.

10:50 Whatever you will say about the truth will be false.

10:54 Whatever you will say in the truth will be true.

10:58 There is a thing called a God experience or a truth experience.

11:10 It is a little different.

11:15 When you are in God,

11:17 then all experiences are godly.

11:20 There is no specific God experience.

11:22 Surrendered to God, all your experiences are godly.

11:26 Not surrendered to God,

11:29 whatever you do, feel, act or experience

11:36 is ungodly.

11:41 Do not give value to any one particular experience.

11:45 If your mind is in the right place,

11:48 at the right center,

11:50 then all experiences will carry the flavor of the self.

11:56 All experiences will be godly.

11:59 Shopping.

12:10 You would be operating from divinity.

12:12 Walking, taking a bath,

12:17 playing with a pet,

12:22 sipping tea.

12:24 All godly.

12:27 All godly.

12:29 Either God is in all your experiences

12:35 or he is not in any particular experience.

12:39 When you are in God, then everything is godly.

12:44 Mind you, everything, not one or two specific things.

12:47 Everything.

12:48 Thank you.

12:50 [Mindfulness]

12:53 [Mindfulness]

12:55 [Mindfulness]

13:02 [Mindfulness]

13:07 [Mindfulness]

13:16 [Mindfulness]

13:18 For example, we, on mobile,

13:28 use blinks,

13:30 and we see it, we feel like disturbed.

13:35 It is not necessary.

13:38 First of all, it is not necessary that you are disturbed.

13:41 Second, it is not necessary that when you are disturbed,

13:45 then you become the disturbance.

13:48 You get this.

13:53 Firstly, it is not necessary that

13:55 the mobile phone or whatever creates ripples in the mind.

13:59 That is not necessary.

14:00 Secondly, even if it does create ripples in the mind,

14:03 it is not necessary that you become

14:07 one with the ripples.

14:12 Ripples are only there on the surface of the sea.

14:15 Deeply, the sea is quite calm.

14:17 You can stay deep.

14:19 So let the ripples be there superficially.

14:22 Yes.

14:26 [Mindfulness]

14:28 Yes.

14:53 But that awareness is not a thing of experience.

14:56 Also remember that you need not drop ideas and concepts.

15:00 Ideas, concepts, in practical daily living,

15:05 they have a certain utility.

15:08 So you need not just wipe them off from your memory.

15:12 Let them stay.

15:13 Poor things, let them be.

15:15 Just don't take them seriously.

15:18 Just don't think that one can contain the truth in his ideas.

15:22 Or her ideas.

15:23 Let them be.

15:25 Awareness is not an idea.

15:30 Awareness powers all ideas.

15:33 But no idea is big enough to know awareness.

15:37 In fact, idea could have known awareness

15:40 had awareness been an object,

15:42 something limited,

15:43 something that existed.

15:45 Awareness is something that is non-existent.

15:49 It is an absence of disturbance.

15:53 It is a very relaxed silence.

15:58 It is like the waves of disturbance have now just subsided.

16:06 That is awareness.

16:07 Yes.

16:10 You are operating in consciousness.

16:13 You are trying to know through thought.

16:18 And trying to know through thought was such an effort.

16:21 And now you have just known.

16:26 After you have known,

16:27 do you still need to continue thinking?

16:30 That is awareness.

16:33 Yes, only awareness is really continuing.

16:46 It knows no full stops.

16:48 Thoughts has beginning and ends.

16:50 Awareness has no beginning, no end.

16:52 Yes, even in deep sleep you are aware.

16:56 Even when you think you are unaware,

16:57 you are still aware.

16:59 It is not even separation.

17:06 It is not even non-separation.

17:09 Because whenever you say non-separation or separation,

17:13 you will be able to give a definition to it.

17:16 And the very definition of something is its boundary.

17:19 When you say non-separation is this,

17:24 then you are saying non-separation is not that.

17:28 So, you have created a boundary.

17:30 And awareness does not know boundaries.

17:33 In awareness, boundaries are dissolved.

17:36 That is why it is not a thing of knowing.

17:40 When did I die?

17:48 When did I die?

17:49 When did I die?

17:50 When did I die?

17:51 It was not yours.

17:53 Is it something personal?

17:57 Does the person exist in awareness?

18:00 Had it been yours,

18:04 had it been yours,

18:06 it would have died along with you.

18:10 Does time exist in awareness?

18:13 Does time?

18:16 So, what do you mean by after death?

18:20 After implies time.

18:22 That I am gone, now time is still continuing.

18:25 Awareness and time are not in the same dimension.

18:29 Awareness is the same as the self,

18:33 the truth, the atma.

18:35 Awareness also sees time.

18:37 Time.

18:39 So, that is why we say we all are one.

18:56 One after the other.

18:58 A few days back, you said something about

19:04 someone having the experience of

19:08 feeling that his awareness was also going through the world,

19:13 through the insects, something like this.

19:17 And you said that this is just illusion.

19:21 So, if the awareness is not possible,

19:23 why is it not possible that

19:27 once we are really in this awareness,

19:32 we are not getting further into the world?

19:35 If we are sharing the same awareness?

19:37 You see, he just said that in awareness,

19:40 there are no boundaries.

19:42 The moment you say each other,

19:44 what do you mean?

19:46 Boundaries, boundaries.

19:47 Boundaries and boundaries and more boundaries.

19:49 Each other, me, him, and that is all boundaries.

19:53 In awareness, others don't exist.

19:58 In awareness, others don't exist at all.

20:01 The very absence of otherness is awareness.

20:06 If you are still seeing others,

20:10 you are hardly aware yet.

20:13 Even you are not there,

20:20 because if you are there, then others are bound to be there.

20:27 In awareness, others are not there,

20:30 but even you are not there,

20:33 because you are nothing but

20:36 something defined by a boundary.

20:40 Physically, you are defined by the boundary that the skin is.

20:44 Mentally, you are defined by the boundary that the ego is.

20:48 In awareness, neither of these boundaries have any meaning.

20:53 In fact, there are no meanings at all in awareness.

21:02 Awareness is pure relaxation.

21:06 Experiencing nothing,

21:10 identifying with nothing,

21:16 existing as nothing.

21:18 Does it mean that one does not exist in awareness?

21:25 Well, one neither exists nor does one not exist.

21:29 Because both existence and non-existence are just concepts.

21:36 And concepts don't exist in awareness.

21:41 Awareness is just a great and highly eloquent silence.

21:54 A silence that speaks, sings,

21:57 makes you dance.

22:01 That is awareness.

22:04 You are already there.

22:09 Just don't prevent yourself from dancing.

22:13 All is set.

22:16 Just be one with the dance.

22:22 Step in, join the dance. That's all.

22:28 All is ready. Nothing is lacking.

22:34 Sir, how does it connect the word joy with this state, awareness?

22:40 Yes, awareness is joy.

22:42 Just as we are talking of awareness as an absence of all disturbance.

22:48 Similarly, joy is the absence of both happiness and sadness.

22:53 So, in making script, do we have disturbance now?

22:58 Look at the question. The question says,

23:03 Can I have a taste of that joy?

23:06 And what is this I?

23:08 This I is the one that says I want happiness, I want to avoid sadness.

23:13 And what is joy?

23:17 What is joy?

23:19 Something beyond both happiness and sadness.

23:21 So, are these two compatible?

23:23 I and joy.

23:25 I is the one who, which goes after happiness.

23:31 Joy is the one that has nothing to do with happiness.

23:34 Now, will I and joy go together?

23:36 So, when there is joy, there is no I.

23:40 And as long as there is this I, there can be no joy.

23:46 So, for mind, that joy cannot be experienced at all?

23:49 It is not experienced by the mind in the way it experiences everything else.

23:57 Joy is a cessation of experience.

24:02 The mind is not.

24:05 The wonderful thing is, in not being, the mind finds a peace beyond experience.

24:14 You see, when you are sleeping deeply, are you there?

24:18 But don't you wake up and say, I am relaxed.

24:21 That is joy.

24:23 A pointer, just a pointer, not exactly joy.

24:28 You see this?

24:30 In not being, the mind finds a peace and that peace is not really an experience.

24:37 After waking up, you can say, oh, it was nice.

24:41 But do you say the thing is nice while you are in sleep?

24:47 So, not quite an experience, yet something quite wonderful.

24:55 No part of this recording may be reproduced

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