What is it to say, "I am Brahm"? || Acharya Prashant on Ribhu Gita (2018)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00 Dear Acharya Ji, Pranam.

00:07 Verse 52 says, "Having realized that the world picture on the screen self is evanescent and

00:20 essentially non-existent, one should ever remain still and blissful in the firm conviction

00:30 of ever being the sole Brahm-Self only.

00:36 This conviction should be maintained even while functioning as an individual in the

00:41 world of name and form.

00:44 This matured state of abidance in the Self is called Sahaj Nishtha, the natural state."

01:00 He asks, "Please enlighten on how to attain Sahaj Nishtha when my day-to-day work involves

01:15 extensive use of mind.

01:18 When I do physical things, it's easy to feel the body and external world, and I am able

01:29 to feel the sensations of the body.

01:34 I randomly lose myself, and I am able to come back, but when I am in office, being an IT

01:45 professional, I am forced to use mind throughout.

01:50 Is there any way I can practice I am Brahm-Self as I use my mind?"

02:00 Thank you.

02:04 Paulson, Sri Lanka.

02:15 Paulson has asked that the Gita is telling him to firmly abide in the conviction, "I

02:32 am Brahm-Self."

02:36 And he says he has to live in the world of name and forms.

02:49 In living there, the mind becomes active, and the identification with the body, the

03:01 thoughts, etc. is strong.

03:13 So how does one abide in the conviction, "I am Brahm-Self," while working as a worldly

03:23 man, in his case, as an IT professional?

03:32 When you say you are an IT professional, or a Sri Lankan, or a father, or anything, or

03:46 anybody else, then you mean something objective, Paulson.

03:54 Then you mean something tangible.

04:02 Then you mean something that is definable.

04:09 Finally do not read, "I am Brahm," in the same way as you read, "I am an IT professional,"

04:23 or "I am Paulson."

04:26 "I am Brahm" is a statement fundamentally different, even though the words, the language

04:38 may look similar.

04:40 I am Brahm, I am Paulson.

04:42 No.

04:43 When you say, "I am Brahm," Brahm is that which is outside sensory perception, outside

04:54 the domain of thought, limitless, formless, just not something that you can conceive of.

05:14 Everything that you can conceive of is just not Brahm.

05:19 Now tell me, what do you mean when you say you are Brahm?

05:27 If you are to really say you are Brahm, it cannot be an affirmative statement.

05:33 It cannot be a positive statement.

05:38 It has to be a statement in denial, in negation.

05:47 Brahm means not that which you can think of.

05:55 So when you say, "I am Brahm," what is it that you are really saying?

06:00 You have to then say, "I am not anything that I can think of."

06:07 And whatever you can label yourself to be, it would always be a thought out something.

06:17 So saying, "I am Brahm," is not about giving yourself an extra identity.

06:25 Saying "I am Brahm" is saying, "I am not Paulson, I am not a male, I am not alive, I am not

06:34 dead, I am not X, I am not Y.

06:38 Whatever I can call myself, I really am not that."

06:44 That is what is meant by saying, "I am Brahm Self."

06:49 Are you getting it?

06:53 Now look at your question.

06:55 You are saying in the middle of your day-to-day involvements, how do you abide in the conviction,

07:02 "I am the Brahm Self"?

07:05 The answer is simple.

07:12 Let the mind be involved in whatever it is doing.

07:16 Let the hands be involved.

07:18 Let the body be involved.

07:24 Let the involvements be there for the involved one.

07:34 You do not get involved, and that is possible.

07:40 How is that possible?

07:41 That is possible when you do not consider any of your involvements big enough to leave

07:51 a dent, a mark, a scar upon you.

07:58 You do not just think.

08:00 See how you think.

08:02 You think with yourself at the center.

08:07 Whatever you think of something, you think of that thing with respect to yourself.

08:14 And that is why whatever you think of either inflates you or demeans you.

08:20 Does it not?

08:22 Are you ever separable from your thought?

08:27 Do you ever just think about the tree or the river or the truck or the house?

08:33 No, you just do not think about the house.

08:36 You think about the house with respect to yourself.

08:44 Now somebody who should never get involved is unnecessarily getting involved.

08:51 Thinking is not a problem.

08:54 But you say that the big house will make me big.

09:01 Now the big house has been unnecessarily connected to I.

09:06 Why did you do that?

09:09 Let the house be big.

09:11 Let the house be bigger.

09:14 Let the house be the biggest in the town.

09:16 Go ahead, do that.

09:19 If that be needed, do that.

09:22 But why do you unnecessarily relate yourself to the size of the house?

09:28 Or let the house be small or let the house be raised to the ground.

09:34 The house is demolished.

09:36 Have you been demolished?

09:37 But that's how you feel, right?

09:39 If the house is gone, then I too am gone.

09:45 That's where you are doing something totally needless.

09:49 You are connecting two things that are not connectable.

09:56 You are trying to do the impossible.

10:00 You are trying to mix water with oil.

10:04 You will fail or with great effort, even if you appear like succeeding, your success will

10:12 be a very pricey success, very costly and full of suffering.

10:20 Are you getting it?

10:25 As an IT professional, write the code, but let not the code have a bearing upon you.

10:38 Let the mind calculate and you have the intellect.

10:42 Let it analyze, conceptualize, add, subtract, draw something from the memory, project something

10:50 into the future.

10:51 Let all those things happen.

10:54 You don't get involved.

10:56 Who is involved?

10:57 The intellect is involved.

10:58 Who is involved?

10:59 The memory is involved.

11:00 Who is involved?

11:01 The eyes are involved and the hands are involved.

11:05 But let there be something, somebody who is never involved.

11:10 He is forever untouched, relaxed, sleeping.

11:15 And even as he sleeps, he is watching.

11:44 You are not the intellect.

11:45 That is what is meant by saying, I am Brahman.

11:49 So let the intellect do whatever it is doing.

11:52 You don't interfere.

11:55 And when you don't interfere, it is a very strange thing.

11:58 The intellect remains healthy.

12:02 You know what is meant by clear vision?

12:05 When the vision is clear of you.

12:07 When you don't interfere with the vision, then the vision is clear.

12:12 You know what is meant by free thought?

12:14 When your thoughts are free of you.

12:17 When you don't interfere in your thoughts, then your thoughts have a great freedom and

12:21 you think rightly.

12:23 Why are most people not able to think rightly?

12:26 Because they interfere in their own thoughts.

12:28 They load their thoughts with the 'I'.

12:33 Even if they are thinking of Israel and Palestine, the 'I' is still present.

12:39 What do you have to do in that matter?

12:44 You can't think objectively of anything.

12:48 Your own bias, your own prejudice and your own insecurity always pokes its nose.

12:53 And then the thought gets muddled.

12:56 That is called prejudiced thought.

12:58 That is called muddled thought, unclear thought, crooked thought.

13:07 Thought that is loaded with 'I'.

13:13 When thought is loaded with 'I', then thought is loaded with something that has an infinite

13:19 weight.

13:20 The 'I' is so heavy, you know.

13:23 The 'I' has infinite weight.

13:27 Thought cannot bear that.

13:28 So thought gets exhausted.

13:30 And that is why you say, "I thought so much, I am tired."

13:33 You are not tired because of thinking.

13:36 You are tired because your thought was loaded with 'I'.

13:40 And you are thinking, "How can I do better?

13:43 How can I be taller, higher, bigger?

13:49 How do I enhance my welfare?"

13:51 Whenever you will think with 'I' at the center, thought has an unnecessary burden.

14:09 Like a man who has an unbearable load on his head.

14:14 Then thought walks in a very staggered way.

14:20 Then the tongue speaks as if it is stammering.

14:23 Have you seen that?

14:27 If you load someone too much, can he walk straight?

14:30 How does he walk?

14:32 Criss-cross, zig-zag.

14:36 And that too only for a while.

14:38 After that he simply collapses.

14:41 That's how our mind functions.

14:42 Can't walk straight and after a while, depression and psychotic disorders and what not.

14:56 Thought is not a problem.

14:58 Thought loaded with welfare of the self is a problem.

15:04 Of your own welfare, remain reasonlessly assured.

15:09 And then think freely.

15:11 Think about the world.

15:12 Think about everything that is a worthy subject of thought.

15:16 But don't think about your own welfare.

15:19 Your welfare is beyond thought.

15:22 Your welfare is always guaranteed.

15:25 Nothing can ever touch you or harm you.

15:28 Who are you to worry about yourself?

15:33 Who are you to take your own welfare in your hands?

15:39 Your welfare is being taken care of by somebody else.

15:43 Just have faith.

15:45 And now think about all the rubbish that you want to.

15:50 Even if you now think about rubbish, your thought would be pure.

15:53 What is pure thought?

15:54 Thought that is pure of unnecessary identification.

16:09 Paulson can get hurt.

16:12 You cannot get hurt.

16:15 So let Paulson worry about his problems.

16:17 Why do you worry?

16:23 Paulson was born.

16:24 Paulson will die.

16:31 You can be joyful even in the moment of physical death.

16:35 Why do you worry?

16:38 Now is death really a scare?

16:42 If even in the moment of death you are blissful, tell me please.

16:48 Does death scare you or the pain associated with death?

16:54 If in the moment of death you are still mischievous and are winking and are playing pranks, is

17:07 death anymore a problem?

17:10 Tell me.

17:15 You have heard of those laughing monks, have you not?

17:29 What did they do?

17:33 They used to roam from village to village and their method or their being was to crack

17:41 jokes at everything.

17:43 They would never teach anything to anybody.

17:46 They would just go and play some naughty trick or crack a joke or poke someone and run away.

17:59 That was their way.

18:03 So one of them, he caught some disease and he died.

18:13 He knew that he is diseased and he would be retiring soon.

18:31 On the day of his death, the other two were sad and that was quite rare for those monks

18:42 to be sad.

18:45 People from several villages, they gathered and they said, "See, death is so powerful."

18:53 These people who were smiling and laughing and playing the fool all their life, they

19:01 were more jokers than monks.

19:04 Even they are sad today.

19:09 So this one who had died, he still had a naughty smile on his face and nobody knew why the

19:18 hell is he still smiling.

19:24 So he was put on the pyre and the fire was lighted and crackers started bursting and

19:34 rockets started flying.

19:39 This was what the bugger had done.

19:41 Just before dying, he had stuffed a lot of crackers in his undergarments.

19:51 Just a few minutes before dying, he decided to play his last prank.

19:58 He got a lot of crackers and put them inside his clothes.

20:02 He said, "Why should my death be bland?

20:14 Let there be light and sound and explosions of laughter."

20:26 And everybody started smiling and chuckling and finally all burst out in laughter.

20:36 Now is death a problem?

20:37 Is such a death a problem for such a man who is mischievous even two minutes before his

20:45 death?

20:46 Think of him.

20:47 He knows that the breath is going out of his body and still his mind is busy thinking,

20:57 what is going to be my next prank?

21:03 And he must have obtained crackers from somewhere and he must have taken care to keep it all

21:08 a secret.

21:11 And he must have somehow summoned the strength to insert crackers inside his clothes.

21:19 And he is a dying man.

21:34 What is the problem then?

21:36 No problem.

21:37 [Music]

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