Seen rubbish on your head, will you keep it there? || Acharya Prashant, on Maitreya Upanishad (2019)
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~~~~~
Video Information:
ShabdYog Satsang, Month of Awakening
1st July 2019
Advait Bodhsthal, Greater Noida
Context:
“A wise man should embrace renunciation only when
there has risen in his mind dispassion for all worldly things; otherwise he is fallen.”
Maitreya Upanishad (Chapter 2, Verse 20)
~ What is dispassion?
~ Is it something that can be achieved through meditation?
~ How can one become dispassionate?
~ What exactly does it mean to be fallen if one embraces renunciation without dispassion?
~ Dispassion and renunciation are separate happenings?
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:
ShabdYog Satsang, Month of Awakening
1st July 2019
Advait Bodhsthal, Greater Noida
Context:
“A wise man should embrace renunciation only when
there has risen in his mind dispassion for all worldly things; otherwise he is fallen.”
Maitreya Upanishad (Chapter 2, Verse 20)
~ What is dispassion?
~ Is it something that can be achieved through meditation?
~ How can one become dispassionate?
~ What exactly does it mean to be fallen if one embraces renunciation without dispassion?
~ Dispassion and renunciation are separate happenings?
Music Credits: Milind Date
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Ilmari has quoted from the Maitreya Upanishad, chapter 2, verse 20.
00:16A wise man should embrace renunciation only when there has risen in his mind dispassion
00:23for all worldly things, otherwise he is fallen.
00:28Ilmari says, Acharya ji, I am afraid I do not know this total dispassion.
00:37My dispassion is partial and situation dependent.
00:43This stubborn attraction towards the world makes me feel I am not worthy of being a student.
00:50At the same time, the meaninglessness of everything makes me run back to you.
00:56It is as you have said, can't go away, can't directly come close.
01:04What exactly does it mean to be fallen if one embraces renunciation without dispassion
01:09for all worldly beings?
01:13It is simple, Ilmari.
01:24Dispassion and renunciation are not really two separate happenings.
01:43They are quite one.
01:47When the self is no more keen to cling to
02:16the various objects of its world,
02:38those objects then fall off.
02:46Or you could say that then the self falls off from those objects.
03:03The quality of no more being attracted, attached and clingy is called dispassion.
03:19Dispassion expresses that quality in a negative sense.
03:27Dispassion says not attached, not finding valuable.
03:44And renunciation states the same thing in an affirmative sense.
03:54Renunciation says dropped, given up.
03:59When you use the word renunciation, it feels as if you have done something to those objects
04:09or with those objects.
04:11You say I have renounced such and such thing as if an action has been done with respect
04:17to that thing.
04:20But the fact is that renunciation is actually a non-action.
04:28Renunciation is actually an exercise in negation, not doing.
04:33The essence of renunciation is dispassion.
04:37Dropping is not needed.
04:39Just being not attached is sufficient.
04:45Non-attachment is dispassion.
04:49Attachment by itself leads to the dropping off.
04:57In fact, the object not clinging to the self is anyway the natural and default state.
05:08The nature of objects and the nature of self are vastly different.
05:12They don't exist on the same plane.
05:16So they cannot naturally go together.
05:19They cannot naturally hold hands or gel with each other.
05:23It is a very unnatural happening when the self gets smitten with objects.
05:35It is a very unnatural love affair.
05:46It is like two immiscible liquids trying to become one.
05:56They cannot go together.
05:59There is no fundamental commonness.
06:08So not much is needed to separate them.
06:13Their separation is obvious and fundamental and conclusive.
06:21We don't need to do anything to forcibly pull them apart.
06:34They are apart.
06:37In fact, a lot is done just to keep them together.
06:41What is needed then to let them come apart?
06:44Don't just forcibly keep them together.
06:48The force that keeps them together is called passion.
06:52Dispassion is to stop exerting that force.
06:57Dispassion is to stop spending your energies in keeping these two strange bedfellows on
07:07the same bed.
07:15That is why actually dispassion is a much more useful word than renunciation.
07:24In general renunciation has been both scary and misleading and also a forerunner to a
07:36lot of unintended hypocrisy.
07:43Because renunciation, the word, is stated in affirmative, so one feels as if one is
07:51required to do something to renounce, as if one is required to be an active renouncer.
08:03And when one feels that way, one goes ahead and renounces, renounces actively, all activities
08:08on the outside, right?
08:11So on the periphery you act and you declare that you are renouncing something, whereas
08:17internally there is still a lot of passion and clinginess.
08:24The result, as I said, a lot of hypocrisy, mostly unintended.
08:29One does not even know that renunciation has not really happened because renunciation
08:35is a thing of the inside.
08:39One feels one is on the right track and then when one encounters a situation in which in
08:48spite of all the external efforts to renounce, there is still a lot of internal stickiness,
08:57then one feels disappointed, as probably you are feeling.
09:04One says I gave this up, I gave that up, I am not eating this food, I am not visiting
09:09that place, I am not indulging in this kind of work, in that kind of relationship, not
09:18having this food, not wearing those kinds of clothes, that's what it means to renounce,
09:24right?
09:25I have given up my money, transferred my bank account, all that could be given up has been
09:31given up, I am strictly abiding by all the commandments of renunciation and yet inside
09:44there is passion flourishing.
09:53It is because the action is being done without much insight.
09:58Forget renunciation, look towards dispassion, forget dispassion, look towards your passion
10:08that is sufficient.
10:13Dispassion you anyway do not have, how will you look at it?
10:19How can you look at something that is not at all there in your hands?
10:30What are your hands full of?
10:33Passion, gory passion, all consuming passion, inflamed passion, look at that, that you have
10:42in abundance anyway, easy, just look at what you have, that's all.
10:54What you have is so rotten that if you can just look at it honestly, you will feel like
11:08vomiting and that is dispassion.
11:17What we have is cringeworthy, we manage to have it and hold it and keep it close to our
11:32heart only because we do not turn to look at it, look at it and it would become impossible
11:43for you to bear it.
12:03What's more, what you have is with you not without a reason.
12:10What you have is with you because it is being invited by something like itself.
12:40Rubbish attracts rubbish.
12:45If you can look at the rubbish that you are holding, it would not take you long to also
12:59see the rubbish of the one who loves to hold rubbish.
13:11After all, rubbish didn't jump up on its own to occupy your hands, you picked it up,
13:24you handpicked it, you selected it.
13:32Now what do you call as rubbish bigger, that which you have picked it up or the one who
13:40has picked it up?
13:50If there is someone who is hellbent on picking up just rubbish, is the fellow not worse
13:58than rubbish?
14:02Is the fellow not worse than what he picks up?
14:15So when you look at passion, it frees you not only from what you are holding in your
14:20hands but also from the one who is holding.
14:36When you squirm at the content of the mind, how will you tolerate remaining identified
14:54with the fundamental tendency of the mind?
15:03Because it is the fundamental tendency of the mind that attracts all garbage towards
15:10it.
15:11If you dislike garbage, how will you remain identified with the fundamental tendency?
15:29If a room is full of filth and you dislike filth, can you still like the occupant of
15:40that room?
15:45For who is it who has collected filth in that room?
15:50The occupant of the room to dislike filth, to dislike the occupant as well.
15:59Filth is the content of the mind.
16:02The occupant of the mind is the I-tendency, oneself and that is renunciation.
16:09Not merely to drop this and that but to become skeptical of oneself.
16:38What is the point in giving up one thing or two when the intention to stick to things
17:04blazes on as always?
17:12What is the point in denying yourself this thing or that thing when the intention to
17:22meet with things remains as aflame as ever?
17:46So my message to you is forget renunciation, forget even dispassion.
17:59Just be concerned with your passions.
18:05Don't renounce, don't denounce, just watch.
18:14One is intelligent, right?
18:17One can watch.
18:20One can see the whole game and chemistry of these emotions.
18:28One can see through his intentions, can't he?
18:52One can decode the games one is playing with himself.
18:58At least one can see where one is coming from and what his ways lead to.
19:20That will suffice.
19:29After all we live in the world, we are managing to survive here.
19:37So we have a certain knowledge and comprehension of the ways of the world, otherwise we wouldn't
19:47have survived.
19:49We know how this machinery functions.
19:57Let no one say that he does not know anything about the world.
20:00If you do not know anything about the world, you will not manage to function in the world,
20:06but you are functioning.
20:09You deal with other people, you read their minds, you anticipate, you plan.
20:17How does all that happen?
20:19All that happens because you know how the mind works.
20:28Use your knowledge, use your comprehension.
20:35Look at yourself.
20:42All of us are very clever when we are trying not to be fooled by others.
20:53Let us be half as clever and not be fooled by ourselves.
21:06The same sharpness that one applies
21:24When looking at and decoding and parsing the motives and actions of others, can't that
21:37sharpness be applied to oneself?
21:50Do that and you have nothing to lose.
22:02If you come to see that what you have and what you are living by is awesome and valuable,
22:13then you have riches in your hands.
22:18And if you see that what you have and what you are living by is foolish and worthless,
22:29then you will at least have a free hand.
22:42Dropping is either silent, unplanned, unmotivated or it is a sham.
23:02Dropping or renouncing cannot be an elaborate ceremony.
23:06It just happens, as they say, like a pale leaf falling from a tree, without noise, without
23:26any pomp or show or declaration.
23:33In fact, often it happens that the one who has gone beyond something and renounced, does
23:44not even know that renunciation has taken place.
23:51Others would come and say that these days you seem to have given up on this and that
23:58and he would be a little taken aback, a bit startled and he would say, oh, is that so?
24:07Have I dropped it?
24:08And they'll say, yes, seems like you no longer indulge in those things.
24:17And then he will come to consciously know that probably something is off his life now,
24:26that probably he has gone beyond something now.
24:36And when you go beyond something so smoothly, so naturally, so organically, it is then that
24:56the renunciation holds value.
25:08Normally what we call as passion and what we call as dispassion are in the same dimension.
25:18When you are passionate about something, the thing is on your mind and when you are trying
25:26to practice dispassion, probably the thing is even more on your mind.
25:32What kind of dispassion is this?
25:40In fact, even a consuming mind, a passionate mind, thinks little of worldly objects.
26:11Compared to the mind determined to renounce.
26:19Once you have taken a vow to renounce, then that which you want to renounce occupies your
26:29mind with a great grip.
26:42It's almost like forcibly, deliberately trying to forget something or somebody.
26:56The thing or person will now occupy your mind like whatever.
27:20You can come up with a suitable analogy.
27:37That's why dispassion, the word contains a hint.
27:47It just says dispassion.
27:56You do not require a new or separate word to indicate the new happening.
28:03It just says the old happening has to cease, dispassion.
28:08The old happening is called passion.
28:12The new happening is not called anything new because the new happening is in fact not
28:19new at all.
28:20It is just a cessation of the old happening.
28:23So dispassion.
28:30The old happening has its force, momentum, passion.
28:37Let that momentum drain out.
28:42And it won't drain out on its own because the happening has no momentum on its own.
28:50You are the one pushing the happening with greed, with intention.
29:03Intention is a wonderful thing.
29:05Man must have intention.
29:08Man is born in bondage and the intention to be free must be there.
29:13Man must never be intentionless or purposeless.
29:18But the intention that makes you cling to objects with passion, is that intention leading
29:24to freedom?
29:30Is that intention serving your deepest goal?
29:39If it is not, then stop providing energies to your passions.
29:53Energy is precious.
29:55to use that energy elsewhere.
30:05You require a lot of fire.
30:09You require all the force of your desire in another direction, for another purpose.
30:20Don't squander it here.
30:25You're fond of chasing.
30:30You actually require to do a lot of chasing.
30:33But first be clear about what it is that needs to be chased.
30:40You're fond of clinging.
30:41You actually require to cling a lot.
30:45But do figure out who is the one and what is that that you need to cling to.
30:53Once you know who and what is worth clinging to, then it will no more remain possible for
30:58you to cling to rubbish.
31:00Intention, goal, purpose, desire, clinging, attachment, attraction, none of these are
31:10bad, provided they are towards the right object, right end.
31:18Please be attached.
31:19Please be greatly attached.
31:21Please be desirous.
31:24Please feel the attraction, the pull towards liberation, towards truth.
31:39It is not for nothing that your mind is vested with all these qualities.
31:44These are precious qualities.
31:49If you do not feel attracted, how will you ever love?
31:55If you do not chase, how will you ever reach?
32:04But chasing is a great evil when you chase the wrong things, the wrong people.
32:17And attraction and attachment become the bane of life when you are attracted and attached
32:23to the wrong entities.
32:30Be attracted towards truth.
32:34Be attached to those and that which embodies the truth.
32:43Nothing wrong with attachment at all.
32:57So Elmeri, investigate your passions.
33:00See where they are taking you.