Can a sinner do self-enquiry? || Acharya Prashant, on Ramana Maharishi (2018)

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: Shabdyog session, 24.06.2018, Ranikhet, Uttarakhand, India   Context:  ~ Who is a sinner? ~ Can a sinner do self-enquiry? ~ How to practice continuous self-enquiry? ~ Which conditions are required for self-enquiry to take place? ~ What is the only freedom a human has?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:07 The next question is from Sasa from Slovenia.

00:13 He is saying, "Dear Acharyaji, you always mention how qualifications like

00:20 dispassion and abandonment of action are necessary for inquiry to take place.

00:29 While Ramana Maharshi says even a great sinner can do the inquiry.

00:36 How can these be reconciled? Please clarify.

00:41 You speak about renunciation but Ramana Maharshi says all events in our lives

00:47 are predetermined and the only freedom we have is to turn inwards.

00:54 I do not know whether I say what you have said I say.

01:02 So I would limit myself to speaking on what Ramana Maharshi says.

01:15 You have said Ramana Maharshi says even a great sinner can do the inquiry.

01:23 Let's go into this. Let's try to appreciate.

01:27 If one is a sinner, why would one want to do the inquiry?

01:38 Is not the absence of inquiry itself the sin?

01:47 Absence of inquiry is itself the sin.

01:55 So effectively how you are interpreting this statement is that

02:03 even the one not wanting to inquire, even the one extremely determined to not to inquire can inquire.

02:23 Now how useful is this interpretation of yours?

02:30 This is not what Ramana Maharshi is saying.

02:41 Even a great sinner can do the inquiry means that it is possible for you

02:55 to drop the idea that you cannot break free of your situations.

03:13 Are you a sinner when you are asleep?

03:28 When does identification with sin arise in you?

03:34 When does anything arise in you?

03:41 It arises in your waking state of consciousness.

03:56 Which means sin and other such identities are thoughts, ideas that you hold about yourself.

04:17 The idea that you are a sinner arises and then you get carried away by the idea

04:29 because the idea that you are a sinner is accompanied by another idea that says

04:38 that now you are confined, that now you are helpless.

04:55 Together these two say I am a sinner and I am destined to remain a sinner.

05:06 Without the second idea the first idea has no weight, it cannot survive.

05:13 It will have no life in the future.

05:19 The first idea says I am a sinner and the second idea says I am destined to remain a sinner.

05:27 I can't break free.

05:30 So the second idea prolongs the first idea. Without the second idea the first idea will just drop.

05:38 Without the second idea you will say I am a sinner and the moment an hour passes you will say I was a sinner.

05:49 I am a sinner will quickly become I was a sinner.

05:53 But due to the support provided by the second idea the first idea becomes prolonged.

06:02 So you say I am a sinner.

06:08 And if you are a sinner then how can inquiry happen?

06:12 These two can't go hand in hand because lack of inquiry itself is the sin.

06:22 The moment you are inquiring where is the sin?

06:28 And as long as you are a sinner inquiry cannot begin because sinners are not supposed to inquire.

06:36 Sinners are supposed to just sin.

06:41 Now sinners are supposed to sin and here you are saying that sinners are inquiry.

06:45 So are you saying that inquiry is sin?

06:48 Of course you are not.

06:51 A sinner by definition is one who sins.

06:55 A sinner is not one who inquires.

07:01 Sarman Maharshi is telling you that all that you think about yourself is nonsense.

07:09 Drop it.

07:18 You are neither a sinner nor a virtuous one.

07:26 You are not helpless, you are not so weak.

07:30 You can break free any moment.

07:34 The truth in you is waiting to break out.

07:41 Remaining as you are you won't be able to inquire.

07:46 Inquiry is a dimensional shift.

07:53 The center from where sins happen is not the same center from where inquiry happens.

07:58 So how can you remain a sinner and yet inquire?

08:10 Getting it?

08:13 Inquiry requires courage.

08:25 To look at your present condition honestly

08:32 requires that you drop the idea that you are weak and powerless.

08:43 Otherwise inquiry won't even begin.

08:46 Even before the beginning of inquiry you will say I am not capable enough, I am not qualified enough

08:54 because I am just a sinner.

09:02 Sarman Maharshi is vesting you with the ultimate authority.

09:12 Don't misinterpret him. Don't think that he is saying that you can continue to be a sinner and yet inquire.

09:18 He is saying you have it in your power to drop being a sinner any moment.

09:25 I will repeat the difference in interpretations.

09:32 The statement says even a sinner can inquire.

09:38 You are probably thinking that remaining a sinner, a sinner can inquire.

09:45 No, that is impossible. Remaining a sinner, a sinner cannot inquire.

09:49 But Sarman Maharshi is surely saying that even a sinner can inquire.

09:54 So what does he mean?

09:57 What he actually means is that your sinning can be dropped any moment

10:03 and therefore inquiry can begin any moment.

10:08 You are powerful. Don't use the statement to prolong your false sense of victimization or weakness.

10:24 Are you getting it?

10:45 Next you are saying that you speak about renunciation but Sarman Maharshi says that all events are predetermined

10:55 and the only freedom we have is to turn inwards.

10:58 Turn inwards and renunciation will happen.

11:03 Fine, don't renounce. Just turn inwards.

11:09 Turning inwards is itself the renunciation of the outward.

11:17 There is no difference between renunciation and turning inwards.

11:23 These are not two different things.

11:25 What are you attached to?

11:27 That which appears outside.

11:32 So what does it take to turn inwards?

11:39 A renunciation of that which appears outside.

11:42 These two are the same thing.

11:44 If you remain besotted to the world that appears outside, how will you turn inside?

11:56 And what does it mean to turn inside?

12:01 To look at the looker.

12:04 The looker is what you call as the inside.

12:08 You just look at the look.

12:14 That which is available to be looked at through the eyes, that's what you look at.

12:20 You never look at the looking process itself.

12:23 You don't look at the eyes and you don't even wonder what lies behind the eyes.

12:31 You won't wonder because you are just too mesmerized, occupied with the stuff that the eyes are looking at.

12:46 Are you getting it?

12:49 If one is enamored with lovely, fascinating or dreadful objects in front of the eyes,

13:03 then will one have the space and the freedom to turn inwards and look at the eyes?

13:13 A tiger is roaring in front of you and you are shivering.

13:20 Would you be able to then ask who is looking at the tiger?

13:25 You will not be able to look at the eyes because the eyes are too busy looking at the tiger.

13:34 So looking inwards itself means renunciation.

13:39 It means now you are not taking the tiger too seriously.

13:44 And that's what renunciation is, not to take stuff too seriously.

13:50 Not to take it seriously enough even to drop it.

14:00 A little insect was sitting on my arm the other night.

14:07 What is renunciation?

14:14 To not to even brush it away. That's renunciation.

14:23 You would say but it is present on your body. How have you renounced it?

14:28 That exactly is renunciation.

14:36 One is not bothered about it and one therefore has renounced it.

14:43 So apparently the thing is attached to my body but really there is no relation between me and the insect.

14:58 Renunciation does not mean the horrid things that you probably imagine Sasa.

15:04 Renunciation does not mean that you will throw all your stuff down from the top of a hill.

15:17 Renunciation does not mean that you have to give away your clothes, your slippers and your bed.

15:35 Renunciation simply means stuff is stuff and self is self and the two are not to be conflated.

15:52 Stuff is stuff and self is self. That's renunciation.

16:05 Renunciation does not mean that you have to give away your favorite vanilla ice cream to your neighbor.

16:13 Don't be so terrified. You can keep your ice cream.

16:23 [Music]

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