Sir, Is there any shortcut to Self-Knowledge? || Acharya Prashant (2024)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00 Prashanth, thanks for the lecture today.

00:06 My question is around, you mentioned there is one to be worshipped and the process of

00:12 self-improvement is a very iterative process.

00:15 So again, having a my current version, examining, evaluating my current version, because then

00:22 that isn't perfect, clearly.

00:24 And so this seems like a very inefficient process.

00:28 There's more than this, it seems like an illuminator model is an illuminated person or version

00:36 of me that is examining myself, my worst version.

00:40 And then I get a little bit better.

00:43 And then that feedback keeps happening.

00:46 But I like shortcuts.

00:48 I think maybe there's a shortcut to get to a more efficient process here.

00:53 Because this I can take 40 years of my life and then keep getting incrementally better.

00:58 And I can read Mahatma Gandhi, I can read other people who have made important contributions

01:05 that can maybe give me a little bit of acceleration.

01:09 But I don't, I think I'm just not satisfied with this process.

01:13 So you see, I want this, this is me, layer after layer of the self.

01:27 This is me.

01:30 And I want this well-pressed, neatly ironed, without any creases, wrinkles, flat surfaced.

01:44 So I said there is just one way, keep looking at yourself and improve.

01:51 And you said that's very long drawn and iterative and therefore...

01:57 And also not trustworthy, because I think it's me looking at it.

02:04 The question then is what else can be trusted?

02:09 Because whatever other factors that you say are trustworthy, you are still the one trusting

02:16 them.

02:18 And now it's a roundabout thing.

02:19 You are trusting someone because you think you are untrustworthy.

02:25 But the one now being delegated the responsibility has earned your own trust.

02:34 So how then trustworthy is that person?

02:38 So you have no option but to use your own trust.

02:41 So that's something we can...

02:44 Now this is the whole mass of myself.

02:50 I said look at yourself and improve.

02:55 And you said it takes too long.

02:57 Yes, it can take too long.

02:59 How does it take too long?

03:00 We will try to see.

03:02 So I look at this and I say, "Oh, why is this thing bulging up from here?

03:10 Let me do something about it.

03:12 So probably there is something wrong with this piece here.

03:15 It's bulging.

03:16 So I'll push this piece this side.

03:20 I push this piece.

03:22 So I have observed myself.

03:25 I did find something wrong and I came up with a solution, a response.

03:33 And the response was, "Oh, shift it this way.

03:37 Pass the crease", you could say.

03:42 Something was wrong here.

03:43 So I made some superficial arrangement by looking at myself.

03:53 And this will take very, very long because now this part is showing a bulge.

04:00 So next time I look at myself, I'll say, "Oh, there is something wrong here.

04:03 I need to do something about this.

04:05 So I'll do this."

04:11 Another way of looking at myself is, and both of these ways involve the same thing, looking

04:17 at yourself.

04:19 The question is, how do you look at yourself?

04:23 Now there is this another way of looking at yourself.

04:25 I look at myself and I say, "There is something wrong here.

04:28 Can I get to the root of it?

04:31 Oh, there is something even more wrong here.

04:37 The bulge is far more apparent now.

04:41 Can I be merciless enough, ruthless enough to peel off even this layer and expose the

04:48 real culprit within?"

04:51 And then I come to this.

05:00 I could either look at myself this way and say, "As long as this is here, things would

05:07 never be flattened."

05:09 So what do I do then?

05:10 Come on.

05:11 Now everything is fine.

05:14 See, smooth.

05:17 Where did this immediate transformation or dissolution come from?

05:26 It came from looking at myself.

05:28 Equally, I could look at myself and keep deceiving myself for 40 years.

05:37 So the fault does not lie with the process.

05:40 The fault lies in the intention.

05:44 When you find something wrong within, do you want to give it a superficial treatment or

05:49 do you want to peel the layers and get at the root of it?

05:54 And at the root you find this, this is called the ego tendency.

05:59 So when you find something within, get to the root of it.

06:04 Otherwise you will keep making some kind of tertiary adjustment and not that it is just

06:12 very long-winded.

06:15 It can be infinitely unproductive.

06:19 You can keep making superficial shifts without really reaching anywhere.

06:30 You can ask a follow-up question.

06:33 So I think in theory, this makes a lot of sense that we identify the root problems.

06:42 In practice, what this would mean is I expose myself to good thinkers who have thought more

06:52 about the world, about themselves.

06:55 And also I think get involved in causes that are bigger than me, be able to teach and express

07:00 myself a little bit better.

07:03 But how does that interplay?

07:07 You don't have to get into all those things.

07:09 No, you don't have to get into new things to know yourself.

07:14 You don't have to.

07:16 What is happening within, there has to be an honest resolution to know.

07:32 You are already doing much.

07:35 You don't need to do something additional.

07:39 You have 24 hours as many as anybody else has.

07:47 Nobody has even a minute more in his day.

07:53 And all those minutes are occupied with activity.

07:59 All the activities arising from this center will be carrying the imprints of this.

08:09 Watching them is sufficient.

08:10 You don't need to undertake something new.

08:18 If there is a problem somewhere, the problem, I am talking of the internal domain, would

08:23 never be localized.

08:27 If there is a problem, it would be present in everything that you do because it is there

08:35 in every bit that you are.

08:41 If it's there in every bit that you are, it will be there in everything that you do.

08:46 So it should be possible to watch it continuously.

08:50 It should be possible to watch the play of this in everything and every time.

09:01 You don't need to get into newer activities.

09:04 Even in the existing activities, you should be seeing the imprints of this.

09:11 And when you see that, it should make you uneasy.

09:15 Rather, it should reveal that you are uneasy.

09:23 So this is totally true and this does happen, but it's a slow-winded process.

09:28 I think that's what is...

09:30 It cannot be slow.

09:31 In fact, it is the fastest one.

09:33 It's the...

09:34 Ramana Maharshi used to call this as the straight line method.

09:43 See and be free.

09:46 The problem is not that it takes time.

09:48 The problem is in the intensity of the desire.

09:55 You must want to be continuously free.

10:02 You must be able to see that it is happening.

10:04 It is still happening.

10:05 It is still happening.

10:06 It is still happening and I'm not liking it.

10:10 It is still happening and it is happening because there is this thing behind it and

10:16 then there is this thing behind it.

10:21 One has to have the stamina to be always at war.

10:28 And that stamina comes from love.

10:31 That stamina comes from a certain insistence.

10:38 I like it, I don't want to give up.

10:42 I like it so much, I just cannot give up.

10:46 Love.

10:49 So this appetite for being at war with oneself must be there.

11:00 One must continuously be engaged within.

11:05 Engaged in the sense of being present, being watchful.

11:09 I know what's going on and it's again that same dirty story unfolding.

11:13 I can see that and it won't happen because I can see that.

11:19 Yes, super helpful.

11:23 Thank you.

11:26 Pranam Acharya ji.

11:30 So my question is Krishna is asking Arjun to not mourn for their own relatives and we

11:46 have seen that it's easy to organize the pain of someone we are associated with.

11:53 But when we also take cognition of the pain in others, for example, the animals or the

11:59 species going extinct, that cognition is also happening in my own mind.

12:06 So my question is, is it attachment or is it moving towards a paramarth?

12:11 How to know?

12:13 Because both of them are originating in my own mind.

12:16 Your first attachment is to your body.

12:24 Your first attachment is to your body.

12:29 You don't mind if I take away your shirt, but you mind if I take away your arm.

12:40 If I say I'll give you a trillion rupees, just die.

12:48 You'll say, what will I do with those trillion rupees if I am not there anymore?

12:57 So even if you are to have a trillion rupees or dollars, you want the body more.

13:07 I quote you any number and say give me the body.

13:12 Will you give me the body?

13:16 The simple logic would be, what will I do with that amount if the body is no more there?

13:23 So the body is the first attachment.

13:29 And because the body is the first attachment, therefore those who are related to the body

13:37 are very close attachments.

13:43 That's why the very inexorable attachment of mother to the baby and the baby to the

13:55 mother, body and body.

14:02 The baby does not know that it was in the womb for long, but it knows that without the

14:07 mother's body, it will not get its feed.

14:11 So the baby is tremendously attached to the mother.

14:18 And the mother, she knows the baby was there in the womb for so many months.

14:26 The mother too is tremendously attached to the baby.

14:28 It's fundamentally body identification.

14:36 Therefore when you are associated with those who are your blood relatives, body relatives,

14:44 that's attachment.

14:47 But if you can work for those you do not have any bodily relationship with, that's less

14:53 likely to result in attachment.

15:04 Not that you cannot be selflessly compassionate towards your mother.

15:07 That is possible.

15:10 Not that the mother cannot be selflessly compassionate towards the kid.

15:17 The mother can have great loving detachment towards the kid and it's a beautiful thing.

15:24 It's possible, but it's rare.

15:29 It's easier to be detached towards those who are physically distant.

15:37 It's more difficult to be detached towards your own baby.

15:42 And that's why there is so much toxicity in relationships.

15:46 Because the relationship has started at the physical level and physicality itself is the

15:53 mother bondage.

16:01 Yeah. Thank you, sir. Welcome.

16:10 [Music]

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