Discovering India: A Westerner's Unconventional Journey || Acharya Prashant

Acharya Prashant

Full Video: When India disappoints a Western seeker || Acharya Prashant, on Upanishads (2022) Link:      • When India disappoints a Western seek...    ➖➖➖➖➖➖  ‍♂️ 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:   Context: ~ Why does knowledge have to precede action? ~ When one can know life? ~ What did one come to India for?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00 Pranam. Now I have a question on yarn. As you said earlier that knowledge has to precede action.

00:12 Yeah.

00:13 And this knowledge, you mean that this knowledge is the knowledge of the factual state of oneself as the ego, unfulfilled ego?

00:28 The knowledge before action has to be of the actor itself.

00:34 Ah. But it's a constantly moving thing, right? It can't be...

00:40 Otherwise, otherwise you cannot have knowledge.

00:42 Ah.

00:43 This is very dynamic knowledge that you can attain only in the flux of life. It's like measuring the speed of water flow.

00:57 If you want to measure the speed of flow, you have to measure it during the flow, in the flow.

01:09 No? You cannot stop the water or freeze the water and then try to measure the speed.

01:19 Similarly, life is a constant movement. So life can be known only in the movement.

01:28 Hmm. I guess that has been confusing me a little because when I came back to Finland,

01:43 I was actually... At first it felt a little depressing because I had the notion that coming to India would like...

01:51 that something would happen, you know.

01:54 Something will?

01:55 Happen.

01:56 Ah.

01:57 Like my motivation or something would get a spike up. But then I realized that I had a notion that

02:07 that kind of a motivation could come from somewhere outside of me. It just took me back to the same fundamental that

02:14 nothing outside of me can inspire me to, like, really work.

02:20 This is going a little off track, but I still want to say this.

02:24 But now it's just funny because I'm in the same situation as when I was before coming to India.

02:32 But now it seems that I still have work to do in this situation. I guess it's been just fine because...

02:42 See, how can soil and roads and brick and mortar give you fresh insight? What do you mean by India?

02:55 India is just a notion. When you come to a notion, you will miss the ocean. No?

03:05 So what do you mean that you expected that when you will come to India, you will return with your inner gates flung open?

03:15 What exactly is India for you? What do you mean?

03:19 You probably came to me, right? And that nearness is not something just physical or geographical.

03:34 If anything was to be thrown open, that could have happened only if there was a willingness and a realization

03:51 that it is not the country that counts, but the consciousness.

03:58 So that's the thing that happens with a lot of people from the West.

04:04 They come to India thinking that the land itself will do something magical to them.

04:09 The land will do nothing. In many senses, the country you are in is a better place than India.

04:18 In many material senses at least. No? You know that very well.

04:23 Pollution, overpopulation, so many other things, you are already better placed there than in India.

04:32 What makes India special then at least for some people?

04:36 The right company, the right environment, the right process of self-inquiry.

04:43 Now you have to then ask yourself how much of self-inquiry did really happen?

04:49 How much vulnerability did you really espouse?

04:55 And it's a choice always to open up, to come close and say I want to speak out, I want to confess, I want to talk about myself.

05:02 Not about the experiences I am having in India.

05:05 What is the point in coming to India and waxing eloquent about a particular wedding ceremony one sees

05:17 or a particular thing one sees on the road or a particular thing one experiences in the apartment.

05:23 Is that what one comes to India for? No.

05:27 One comes to India to probe himself, to know himself.

05:31 Ask yourself how much of that did you really choose to happen?

05:37 It cannot happen on its own. It just cannot happen on its own.

05:41 There is a process and the process is Upanishadic. The process is of deep discussion and deliberation.

05:48 The process involves opening up.

05:51 The process involves coming to the teacher, talking nothing about this and that.

05:58 Talking only about oneself. Who am I? What my life challenges are?

06:02 What do I do the entire day? How my mind functions?

06:05 What my fears, my insecurities are? What do I want?

06:09 If you talk of this, then of course India can bless you with something very magical.

06:16 But India's blessings cannot be foisted upon someone.

06:24 One has to first of all be prepared for those blessings.

06:30 One has to first of all be deeply in love with and desperate for those blessings.

06:37 So the more you exhibit your desperation, the more madly you are in love with realization,

06:46 the more you will find India is working for you.

06:50 Otherwise India is just an overcrowded place.

06:54 Not very different from any other place in the world.

06:58 But I mean, I kind of thought about this on my own, but it did require coming there.

07:08 I had to see that.

07:13 As I said, there was just too much confusion on my side.

07:20 I sometimes felt that I didn't know what I was doing there.

07:24 It was your virgin attempt. Try again.

07:30 Try again. You'll have to make yourself land in another India.

07:38 India is not one thing. India is a million different things.

07:44 And they are hierarchical. There can be the greatest India you meet.

07:51 And there can be a very mediocre India you land at.

07:57 It depends on your choice. What do you want to take away from here?

08:07 Body identification. Julius, body identification.

08:11 When one is identified with the body, which is our fundamental nemesis,

08:16 then one is identified with everything that is physical.

08:21 The body is our basic physicality.

08:26 And when there is body identification, then there is identification with soil,

08:30 because the body is soil.

08:32 So one thinks that by landing in a particular geography,

08:35 something important will happen that is akin to thinking that the body is important.

08:40 If the body is important, then land is important.

08:44 If the body is who you are, then the land is the Guru.

08:48 And then you will miss the Guru.

08:53 By the way, I was seeing it happen all the time.

09:00 I know.

09:02 I was seeing it day by day how you were missing it.

09:06 I know. Me too.

09:09 I know. You are already all-knowing. You know so much.

09:14 Yes, yes, yes. Too much.

09:19 Yeah. But it had to go that way, I guess.

09:28 Obviously, obviously. You see, it's necessary.

09:32 It's necessary that one realizes the immensity of the possibility

09:39 and one realizes how easy it is to miss it.

09:43 How one can be very, very close and yet far from being intimate.

09:51 Yeah, I mean, I felt bad for, you know, I just felt like I was wasting your time there all the time.

09:58 It was kind of...

10:00 My time is wasted when I do not get to solve real problems.

10:09 If I am solving real problems, that's the best utilization of my time.

10:15 So could you come up with something real?

10:19 I would have loved it.

10:25 But if I'm not coming up with anything real, does that mean that my lifestyle is not...

10:31 What else is it that matters to you, Julius?

10:34 What else matters to anybody?

10:39 Climate change?

10:41 Huh?

10:43 What else is it that matters to anybody?

10:46 Why do we want to talk about anything else under the sun?

10:51 It's your life that's the fundamental unit of your challenge.

10:58 Everything arises from there.

11:00 Even the global problems come from our own misled minds, no?

11:09 So one has to talk of one's mind. That's all that is there to talk of.

11:17 Think now of all the days you spent here and think of what you spent them doing.

11:29 And then you'll be surprised big time.

11:36 How could I miss it so completely?

11:44 So near yet so far.

11:47 (Tad dure tadvantike)

11:52 You know the Upanishads put it this way. It's a beautiful quote.

11:57 (Tad dure tadvantike)

12:02 Near and far. That's near, that's very far.

12:08 Very very near yet very very far.

12:18 I have people who are with me since years and they are very very far.

12:25 One day when they'll be even physically far, that's when probably they'll wonder, much like you,

12:31 how did we miss it so completely? How did we waste all our years?

12:44 Yeah. But it was actually funny talking of the distance now because

12:51 when I got sick at the later part of the trip,

12:56 I got most out of the session I was watching from afar.

13:00 I don't know why but in the session hall it was really hard for me to...

13:04 Exactly, that's what.

13:09 Nearness is such a deception.

13:17 It makes you miss even that which you were receiving when afar.

13:26 There in Europe you are probably receiving more than what you did sitting right in front of me.

13:32 Yeah, definitely.

13:35 Because you thought that you were near.

13:41 That's what the senses make us feel.

13:46 I'm already near. If I'm already near, why do I need to be attentive?

13:51 If I'm already near, then I'm eligible to expect a miracle.

13:59 And the miracle is not happening. So I'm frustrated.

14:04 But you are not near at all except in the physical sense.

14:09 Right at this moment there is greater intimacy than there was over the period of that month.

14:20 Because you see it is not the body that matters, it is mental closeness and availability that matters.

14:29 That's why I asked you about what constitutes India for you.

14:34 The airport, the city, the roads, the apartment.

14:39 What do you mean by India? Did you come to have a taste of the soil?

14:45 Did you want to have an experience of the newly built airport?

14:50 That's why you landed here?

14:53 That's what we forget. Just as we don't remember why we took birth in the first place,

15:00 we also forget why we have come to a place at all.

15:05 You look at the people around. Do you think they realize why they stand born?

15:11 No, we don't know. We don't know the purpose of life.

15:15 We also do not know or we rather forget the purpose of our visit or journey.

15:21 And we just get lost. And then we wonder why such disappointment?

15:28 Why am I returning empty handed? Just as we die empty handed, we also take off empty handed.

15:35 [Music]

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