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Video Information: 14.09.2022, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
Context:
~ What dissatisfies Acharya Prashant?
~ What is the real meaning of Witnessing?
~ What is the philosophy of pop-spirituality?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
~~~~~
Video Information: 14.09.2022, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
Context:
~ What dissatisfies Acharya Prashant?
~ What is the real meaning of Witnessing?
~ What is the philosophy of pop-spirituality?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Pranam Acharya ji. I have been in a part of the last Delhi camp, IIT Delhi camp. During
00:14those three days I have seen that you have spoke to the participants continuously for
00:19six hours and then later in the evenings with hostel students for another two to three hours
00:27till 2 a.m. in the morning and we also get to hear it from the volunteers that you have a
00:36very rigorous work schedule. So I wanted to put forth this question which I came across on Twitter
00:44directed to you and I quote, what kind of dissatisfaction do you have in you that makes
00:53you teach Vedanta and offer yourselves in the service of other people to ease their suffering?
01:00A witness will not intervene or will he? This is not a question, it is a taunt. What kind of
01:12dissatisfaction do you have in you that makes you teach Vedanta and offer yourselves in the
01:17service of other people to ease their suffering? A witness will not intervene or will he? This is
01:24more of a baab. What kind of dissatisfaction you have that you do these things? A witness
01:34will not do anything. Obviously the witness is not doing anything. Whatsoever is done is done
01:40by this form in Prakriti. Who told you that the hand can be the witness? My hand moves. When you
01:51say I am doing so much, who is doing so much? The Self, the Atma is a non-doer. It does not do
01:59anything. When you say I am doing something, who is doing something? The lips move, the tongue moves,
02:08the throat is working, the brain is working. These are moving and in the middle of all this
02:15bodily movement, surely there is something immovable and it is by the virtue of that
02:24immovable thing. Whatever I am saying is coming. The fellow is saying, why do you work so hard?
02:33A witness is not supposed to work. It's a smart taunt. The only problem is that wherever you
02:45learn this from, it's not the place or you have not learnt it rightly. You said a witness does
02:52not do anything. The body is not the witness. The body is working. Eyes are seeing and the
03:02body will get tired and fall off one day. The witness remains. The witness ever was. The witness is beyond time.
03:15What to say? These are just botched up spiritual concepts that float in the mediocre kind of spiritual market.
03:27I think I have spoken on this witness concept no less than a hundred times. When people are afraid
03:36of the right action, they seek refuge in such concepts. They say, but you know, we are supposed
03:44to be the witness of everything. Why work? Just witness. Why can't you witness yourself not working
03:54and know how you are using the concept of witness to evade the right action?
04:03Further, if witness is really a witness, how are you talking so much about the witness?
04:10A witness is supposed to be hidden by definition. A witness is someone who sees but cannot be seen.
04:23If the witness can be seen, then somebody is witnessing the witness as well.
04:28So, the witness is not a true witness. There is a witness behind the witness.
04:34But then people don't exercise the kind of basic intellectual rigor that is needed to
04:42go into these concepts. They just shabbily, hurriedly pick something up from some pop book
04:54and start tossing it around. Witness.
05:01The only witness is the Self itself, Atma. And that's why nothing can be said about
05:09the witness, the Atma.
05:11The witness is the centre with no existence of itself in time and space.
05:18Around the witness is the entire universe. And the universe is constantly in motion.
05:31The point of the witness is the entire universe.
05:35The point is that your motion must be centred on the witness.
05:45Not that you must become motionless.
05:51Our friend here seems to imply that if you are the witness, then you should not move at all. No.
05:57The knowers told us of the witness so that our lives are centred on the witness.
06:06The witness is at the centre, immovable and everything else is moving in the right way,
06:12in the right force, in the right direction around the witness.
06:17The witness is like the eye of the cyclone.
06:22There has to be tremendous activity around the witness.
06:28In your entire being, the witness is the point that always remains untouched, unblemished,
06:36unmoved and because there is something within you that remains untouched,
06:42and because there is something within you that remains untouched,
06:47it enables you to accept all kinds of daring challenges. That is the witness.
06:56In fact, if you do not have that point of absolute stability and certainty within you,
07:03you cannot move freely.
07:06Because you know that there is something within that will never be touched or corrupted or destroyed.
07:13So you can plunge into situations that threaten to corrupt and destroy you.
07:22You can plunge into any kind of worldly fire knowing fully well
07:25There is something within that will not be destroyed even if that sharir is.
07:31That is the witness. Witness does not mean you will avoid the worldly fire.
07:36Witness means you will plunge into the worldly fire because
07:43it will never be lost. And if the body goes, let the body go, the body is anyway supposed to go.
07:50The real thing will never ever die. So why should I be afraid? That's the witness.
08:02The witness is somewhat like the, very, very broadly put, the axis of the ceiling fan.
08:13Does it move? Because it does not move, therefore the fan can move with all its speed.
08:21What happens when the axis itself starts moving?
08:26You run out of the room. Because now anything, any mad thing is possible. That's the witness.
08:34The centre around which all the worldly motion, all the activity of life can take place.
08:42That centre should never move. The point is to ask yourself, do you have something in you
08:48that the world can never ever touch? Or is everything within you vulnerable to touch
08:55and exploitation and influence?
08:58You must have something within you that the world can never touch, let alone master. That's the witness.
09:08Something within that will never participate in anything in life or in the world.
09:12Never a participant. I am not involved. Even if the mind is involved and the body is involved,
09:18something within should never be involved. Something just happens.
09:22Even if the mind is involved and the body is involved, something within should never be involved.
09:28Something just sits, just sits untouched. It's not interested even in watching.
09:33To say that the witness watches is also an infringement on the nature of the witness.
09:40The witness is not interested even in watching. The witness just is.
09:52Are you getting it? So, these are like
09:58adolescent quips. Why are you working? The witness never works.
10:08Teenage, pre-college kind of stuff. I have had enough of it
10:14several years back, till several years back. No, I get it even today as well.
10:22You have done the worst kind of injustice to yourself when you have corrupted even the holiest.
10:34You have all kinds of random things in your kitchen and you get sick because you consume them.
10:44And then somebody gives you a bottle of medicine
10:47and even in that bottle you fill up your regular stuff. Now, is there any hope left?
10:55The one thing that could have redeemed you, even that you have lost to yourself.
11:04It is tragic when there is an intoxicant in the bottle and you gulp it down. Obviously, it is bad.
11:11Obviously, it is bad. The thing is poisonous. But it is absolutely a thing of sorrow
11:24when in the bottle of medicine you fill in an intoxicant and take it in.
11:35Even to the words, the holiest words, we start according to mediocre, lowly, worldly meanings.
11:47We have corrupted great medicines like Atma, like Turiya, like Sakshi.
11:56Each of these words stands corrupted in the worldly market of mediocre spirituality.
12:04Prem, Satya, Anand. Every third person and every single Guru is touting these words with pure impunity.
12:27Nobody comes and seeks accountability.
12:34And because these things are not mathematical, therefore you cannot instantly prove someone wrong.
12:40The fellow can speak for two hours, let's say, on Anand and he is talking pure crap.
12:49But it is not possible for most people to prove that he is talking crap.
12:55So he continues without any punishment.
13:04Atma, Brahm, Ishwar.
13:17Great renowned person, I was reading him recently and it was such a shock.
13:21He was equating Atma with Ishwar.
13:30How can you do this?
13:34And the results have been massive.
13:42It's not that these are small mistakes that go unnoticed or unpunished in existence.
13:48For all the misery that mankind is experiencing today, it is this misrepresentation that is responsible.
13:57It will sound strange to you. But yes, this is the fundamental reason because spirituality
14:01is the last resort, the ultimate medicine.
14:04We have corrupted the ultimate medicine as well. Now tell me, what will save us?
14:13The worst offenders are these spiritual writers and pop gurus.
14:31Observation is not the same as witnessing.
14:38You sit here and you watch me speaking.
14:46In ordinary language, it is permissible to say that you witnessed me speak.
14:54And you will say that. You will say, there was this Mahotsav organized at IISc
14:59and we witnessed Acharya Prashant speaking. That is permissible in ordinary parlance.
15:06In pure spirituality, in technical Vedanta, you cannot use the word witness this way.
15:14Yes, you observed me. You didn't witness me.
15:20You observed me. You observed me because
15:23the observer and the observed object both were present. It was an act in duality.
15:29The two were there. Did you disappear internally while watching me? That hardly happened.
15:34So, you didn't witness. To witness is to not to be. When you are not, then you are the witness.
15:43But you constantly are. So, how can you witness?
15:48Observation and witnessing are not the same thing.
15:50But Gurus tell you, oh, you must be a witness to everything that is happening in your life.
15:55What nonsense? And it's not just a matter of word play. It has severe implications
16:05because it is a technical thing. Just as in physics, force and power are not the same thing.
16:10But sometimes we use these words interchangeably in ordinary language, don't we?
16:15Sometimes you say, he hit me with great force. Or you say, he pushed me with great power.
16:21But a student in physics, basic Newtonian physics will tell you,
16:24force and power are not the same thing at all.
16:27Similarly, the observer and the witness are dimensions apart.
16:32How are you using these two words interchangeably?
16:34How are you using these two words interchangeably?
16:57That's what. That's a more practical usage. The observer is there and the observed is there and
17:01that's the way the worldly duality functions. Witness is a very sacred word. It has to be used
17:08with caution. Remember that the language of Vedanta proceeds via negativa. So, witness does not mean
17:28actively witnessing. It is not a word that affirms an action. To witness only means
17:35a negation of participation. Do you get the difference? So, when you say somebody is a
17:41witness, that does not mean that he is actively witnessing. Rather in the tradition of Vedanta,
17:46it means that he is not participating. That's all. To witness is not to do the action of witnessing.
17:56It is to not to do the action of participating. That is witnessing. That's all. You must have
18:02something within you that is so contended in itself, so joyful, so peaceful, so absolutely
18:09complete that it does not seek to participate in anything. Great party going on, oh I am alright,
18:15I won't participate. A great sorrow has fallen, oh I am still okay, I won't participate.
18:22That's the witness within you. That's called as Atma. Atma alone, true self alone is the witness
18:31and that's the endeavour of the entire spiritual process to reach internally where
18:38Aham meets the Atma. The ego meets the true self and then so many things happen on the
18:45periphery. Internally, you remain blissful, okay, alright, healthy. Even in the moment of your death,
18:55okay. That's the purpose of the spiritual process and the purpose of life.